81 GS550T Full Rebuild...In Ohio

[cowboyup3371]

Yea, he's going to be around to help out and as best I could tell before I left it this morning the bondo was covered well. But I'll recheck it tonight when I go back over to sand.

Pete, I don't remember but I've seen enough other threads from people who've messed up so that does scare me. I was doing okay on the tank and side covers but the wheels were killing me. I hate trying to paint spokes.

The new paint should be interesting as the color I chose has some metallic in it as well. I left the code sheet at the garage but it's one found on the Dodge Viper as well as a couple of other Chrysler vehicles. The guy at the paint store is really excited to see the bike when I'm done and already warned me I would need to wear my sunglasses when looking at it...

[tkent02]

Blue or red?

What color for the wheels?

[cowboyup3371]

Wheels, tank, and side covers will be the same color - basically pearl blue; I still didn't get the codes when I stopped at the house tonight to wet sand the tank and side covers.

I found there are some spots that need to be redone so I'll mix up some more primer tomorrow night, spray it, and go from there. Fortunately, I have time before Friday night when we intend to lay down the color.

[pete]

Glad to hear you taking the time to get the prep and primer right first Scott.

The other issue I had was not realising they gave me fast curing activator/catalyst/whatever you call it component of the two pack primer and it actually started curing in the gun as I was spraying as it was quite warm... I had to sand the primer back quite a bit and redo it as well...

Yeah, it's a learning experience

[nvr2old]

With a metallic or a pearl, I would suggest spraying the clear at the same time as the base coat. Reason being, you won't be able to sand the base coat the next day without disturbing the pearl or the metallic. Do it all at one time, even if it's just to lay down a couple of coats of clear to protect the base coat. Then you can sand it smooth before applying the final clear coats.

[cowboyup3371]

Nvr2old, does that mean I should have a second gun to spray the clear since the paint would dry before I could finish cleaning the first gun?

[pete]

Shouldn't need to Scott, from memory I waited overnight to do my clear and that was within the re-coat time of the paint I used which I think was 24 hours.

Basically it depends on the paint, but they will give you a re-coat time.

I figured if I did my last base coat in the afternoon, then the first clear first thing the next morning it'd be fine. Seems like it worked out too...

[cowboyup3371]

The paint is a PPG DBC/DBI PCL/KCL Blue Streak Pearl B/C code number 931299 found on the Avenger, Dart, and Caravan (sorry I was mistaken as the other one I'd considered was found on the Viper). I'm really looking forward to what it will look like once we're done.

Here's a picture of a Dart with it.

[cowboyup3371]

Discovered last night after putting the coils and gear indicator wiring back on that I can't find the starter button for my right handle switch. Ordered a new one plus a couple of other things I needed from Boulevard this morning so I'm back to waiting for a couple of weeks.

[pete]

Bugger Scott... but I like that blue!

[83_450E]

The paint is a PPG DBC/DBI PCL/KCL Blue Streak Pearl B/C code number 931299

Make sure you buy enough paint for everything this one. PPG's Deltron DBC has very picky blue and purple toners. They're very potent and when mixing for a certain paint code they are almost always incorrect. It's critical to use one batch for everything because the next may not be the same color.
I just switched my clear to PPG's Omni 4.2 voc production clear. If I recall a gallon with hardener was close to $100 and I recomment it over Deltron 2000. The only problem I've found with it, is over 85/90*F it flashes and hazes badly.

[cowboyup3371]

Painted Last Night

As it's a bit after 1am and I got home about 45 minutes ago, I would say I painted tonight but I guess in reality it's morning so I'll say last night. But yes, the main bike bits are finally painted so all I have left now are to clean up the paint on the rotors and any other small items I find that I missed as I move on.

I learned that I moved too fast when spraying the primer but too slow when I did the tank. Fortunately however, my friend was able to fix my mistakes after we sanded out the runs with 600 grit and brought it back to life. We laid down three coats of clear on the tank but doubled that on each run so in reality, as far as my counting goes, there's 6 coats on there already. We'll let things sit until next weekend and I'll try to finish what I can over the next few days.

Here's the tank after my screw up:



And the side covers after the first go around. I did one side cover pretty good but the other had a run on it so we sanded it down and fixed it. I don't have any final shots of them yet and will take some later.





Here's the tank after he fixed it up:



And after putting the clear on with the flash from my phone shining to show some of the paint. We both really like the way it turned out. Note all the clear haze in the air...should have worn my mask more but I hate it so I didn't.



And finally, one of the wheels. The other wheel's picture turned out darker than even this one and wouldn't show up very well so I'll get better ones later:



I can't wait to put them on the bike and get pictures in the sun...just a couple of more weeks.

[SVSooke]

Very nice Scott,ain't "gun" painting fun?I am WAY better with a rattle can than the gun.

[pete]

Love that colour Scott, and I can't wait to see it in the sun either!

It's hard to get the gun work right when you're inexperienced like us, but keep what Larry and others say in the back of your head and you'll do ok

I actually can't wait to get my shed done so I can do some more... I should get a better job easier this time 'round...

[cowboyup3371]

After a fun weekend at work restoring service from having a fire on the server floor, my equipment is okay but the server guys lost a few hard drives and power supplies from the fire supression system killing the power, I haven't had much time nor was awake enough yesterday to work on the bike. However, I received my new turn signals and brake light from Superbrightleds.com today.

First, a 1156 45 SMD LED Bulb for the turn signals:



and an 1157 Dual Intensity 25 LED Motorcycle Bulb with 19 red LEDs for the brake light and 6 white LEDs around the edge for the license plate. Steve and I tested it with his power source and it's brighter than he expected.



I'll try to get back to working tomorrow.