Painting my 450t

[SilentRaven]

So Ive been planning on re painting my bike for the last year or so and just started doing it this week. One of the things that kept me from doing it was the fact that I had a broken side cover and wanted to find a replacement. and i got a good deal off one from ebay just recently. and i am using my broken piece as a test piece before i do any thing real to the good pieces.

So far i have sanded everything down with an 800 followed by a 1500, which seems to work pretty well and im happy with the smoothness of everything. i did a test primer layer and found some area that need more attention with sanding, then re-primed.

I put down my first layer of paint on the test piece, and it it only so/so. my question here is do i keep resanding the paint layer to remove little bumps and such (orange peel?) and how do i know that its ready for clear? and i will be filling in the holes once i pick up some bondo, i wont be putting the emblems back on.

[Rust_to_Redemption]

Looks like you didn't get all of the pinstripe off during your initial sanding for one; makes me question how even the sanding was done. Are you sanding after your primer coat? How many coats of primer did you do? How many coats of final, and are you sanding in between coats or doing multiple wet coats?

[SilentRaven]

you are correct that i didnt get all the pin striping off, but that is just on the test piece, where i didnt remove the stripes first. on the actually pieces im going to use i removed the stripes before sanding. so i did sand after the primer and then re primed it. and the results were much more to my liking.

so far i have only done one coat on my test piece, but like i said it not 'perfect'. so im wondering how to get a good final paint layer. do i paint and then sand and repeat, or multiple paints then sand? im not looking for show quality but i dont want it looking like junk either. wich is why im using the test piece to get it all figured out first.

[Rust_to_Redemption]

you are correct that i didnt get all the pin striping off, but that is just on the test piece, where i didnt remove the stripes first. on the actually pieces im going to use i removed the stripes before sanding. so i did sand after the primer and then re primed it. and the results were much more to my liking.

so far i have only done one coat on my test piece, but like i said it not 'perfect'. so im wondering how to get a good final paint layer. do i paint and then sand and repeat, or multiple paints then sand? im not looking for show quality but i dont want it looking like junk either. wich is why im using the test piece to get it all figured out first.

I will usually do multiple coats where I let it get to "tacky dry" before I apply the next coat, and then let it fully cure after doing 3-5 coats. After its fully cured I wet sand with 1500 grit sandpaper to smooth any defects in the paint. You need multiple coats of paint before sanding so you don't break through one thin coat, exposing your primer. Then clean and spray clear. Then wetsand again. Buff with random orbit polisher and buffing compound. Apply carnauba wax and you're done.