A Little Tinkerin', A Little Drinkerin'

[POE_333]

orange peel is an easy fix man. if you are using abase coat clear, then shoot an extra coat or 2 of thinned out clear, 1500 grit and some soapy water will liposuction that orange peel into the legs of a 12 year old boy.. LMFAO! sorry.. i had to be gross...

[Leigh]

There's no clear coat on this.
Straight enamel.
I'll give it another rub down tomorrow when I've stopped growling at it and see what I can come up with.
I might need a better cut'n'polish.

The mate I referred to is a top notch painter and offered to do the bodywork for me but then took off on a 3 month ride all over Australia. Typical eh?

thanks for the tip anyway

[POE_333]

ok here is the deal man, you can look on youtube for demos. there is almost nothing to it. clean soap and water, 1500 or higher grit, keep the serface clean and wet, sand lightly in ONE direction only! keep it clean. keep it wet, light light pressure... yuo can watch the orange peel dissolve. dont forget that you need to use a foam rubber type sanding block. then, once the orange peel is smoother, use the cutter then. then a good buff waxing.. it will be just fine. how many coats have you laid on it of the paint? how long has it been sitting? for wet sanding, you want at least 24 hours in a nice warm place.. or up to 3 or 4 days if its kinda chilly or if you didnt put enough hardener in the paint or if the coats are real thick.

[pete]

Leigh you crack me up... fat chick's legs with hyperthermia? Hahah

Anyways... the way my time is these days I'll be happy to ride to the shops and back once it's done!

Bit of a bugger with how your day went, mine was about as successful yesterday too... managed to strip a crankcase thread for the shifting drum selector arm... yay...

And yes, very typical of your mate to go riding for three months like that... who does he think he is? Some dude with a bike he can actually ride or something?

Don't worry, I'm sure the next wrenching session will be far more productive!

[Leigh]

Thanks POE, that's great.

I've given it 5 coats with a few days in between each coat.
The last one has been on for 3 days.
I've used 1200 and 2000 grit. on the top coat.

What cutter do you recommend?



Pete, Thommo is one of these farrider clowns that jumps on for 1,000k's a day for 20 days.
He went from Rockhampton through the middle to the Rock then out West to the coast and is now making his way back around the top.

[pete]

Aaaah I see! If only I had that much spare time... and a bike in one piece

[POE_333]

meguiars! if you can find it. I'm assuming you are not US stateside.. so, I dunno if you can get it, but if you can, that's what I'd recommend. also, have you been either scuffing or laying down straight thinner/reducer between these coats? you can develop a paint sheeting issue if not. it depends highly on the paint and the painter and the atmosphere. but generally speaking, you should get at least a scuff between coats ( particularly at more then 12 hours coat time) just a thought. idf anyone else has found better remedies, please chime in. but that's what I've always done. And I've never had a problem with my paint.

[POE_333]

by the way, did you handle your orange peel? if not, keep working at it. remember! soapy water! with 5 healthy coats, there is no reason you should burn through them if you WET sand LIGHTLY... just a lil adage...

[Leigh]

I gave it the day off today.
I opened up the shed to pull the back end apart and that was as far as I got.

The mate who was supposed to be off riding around Australia somewhere turned up on my doorstep.
Perfect timing.
He had a look over the paintwork and agreed that it was nothing much.
He basically gave me the same advice.
Meguiars Number 2 Cutter and sand softly with soapy water.

I haven't laid anything between the coats, I just gave them a rub back with 800 grade.

I'll pick up some of the Meguiars stuff tomorrow and give it a go over the next couple of days, time permitting.

As a matter of interest, Thommo has covered a bit over 21,000k's (12,600 miles) in 4.5 weeks on a DR650

[POE_333]

well good to hear. when you get mad.. walk away! its the best thing you can do for a paint job! LMAO!!! I'm actually undertaking a similar project of my own. painting outside in windy conditions kinda sux, but I don't have access to a booth. Oh well..

If you wanna check it out, this is the link. I have some decent pictures of my progress in my albums too. Fun stuff!

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=166934

[Leigh]

Thanks POE, I'll have a look through there later today.

As for walking away, yes, always good.
A mate cracked it at a car he was working on some years ago and threw his spanner at the engine.
It came straight back and broke his nose for him.

Always walk away...

[Leigh]

Well, I just rang Megacycle Exhausts.
They are about the only local bike exhaust joint for me.

$500 for plain unpainted headers and possibly a month to get them done.

How can that be possible?
A month?
Do they have to wait for the steel to grow?

In the meantime, I have checked out the Kwaka pipes more closely.
I have a theory. The mid pipe is hitting on the underside of the frame.
This has possibly caused the flanges not to seat squarely at the ports.

Necessity being a mother, I used a tree in the front yard and the bullbar on the Nissan to bend the pipes away a bit.

I've just bolted the pipes back up and they do seem to be sitting a little better. Maybe.

I'll go back out in a few and fire it up again.
If it works, I'm in front.
If not, then it's back to hunting for a genuine GSX set of headers.

[pete]

Bugger! A month? Maybe they do have a steel tree? Maybe they roll the pipes by hand? Who knows, that's bizarre.

When I looked at the Motad quite a few years ago, it was going to be about 3 weeks... and that was importing from the UK!

[Leigh]

Success!
I've had a win.

The reshaped pipes have seated beautifully.
Not a puff from around the ports.

Unfortunately the muffler sits oddly.
The centre stand hits it when it's up and it's really close to the rear axle nut.

This will the dilemma for this week.

[pete]

Nicely done!

Can it be as simple as sticking on a rubber stopper underneath the muffler or a frame rail to stop the stand hitting it? Or is it such a weird angle it needs to move?

I have discovered that the stock exhaust mount on mine also acts as a stopper for my centre stand, so at the moment with no exhausts it just whacks straight up onto the frame when retracted, so I need to do something about that.