New to me GS1000G

[JTGS850GL]

I can't tell you how much it means to me to get others inspired to get out and ride their GS's. I bought this GS1000G for the purpose of upgrading from my 850 but it's grown to become more then that. I just want to see an old bike gain a new life.

[JTGS850GL]

First primer/sealer is down on all panels:






A lot of orange peel right now. I don't use any reducer at this stage so this is a VERY thick primer/sealer that doesn't flow out too well. Still need to spray with the primer/surfacer that's going to be wet sanded so no worries at this point.

I have a new gun coming for the basecoat/clear coat that should put it down much better. It's also a much thinner spray.

Waiting now for the 90 minute flash time before applying the surfacer.

[JTGS850GL]

Primer/Surfacer sprayed. Now I have to wait 24 hours until I can start sanding so I decided to mock it up. It's been a while since it looked like a real bike.:






Received new to me rectangular rear turn signals today from an ebayer that cut the price by 1/2. So ended up paying $14 shipped for the two.

[azr]

Looking real good. I've got to try that painting thing one day.

[JTGS850GL]

All body panels and tank are now wet sanded with 400 grit paper. Paint is ordered. Here's what I decided on:


It's fire red pearl and I picked it up on ebay but it's from tcpglobal.com which is a major distributor for House of Kolor. Price was less if ordered off of ebay so I did.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/191122978222?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

Plan to shoot paint on the best weather days after it arrives. Still need to build the paint booth but the my new HVLP gun did arrive.

[JTGS850GL]

Paint arrived today along with some longer SS studs for the exhaust. Only problem is the weather isn't going to cooperate. My only days off (Wed, Thurs) will be too cold and too high humidity to shoot the paint. At least another week of waiting. On the plus side, it gives me another week to think through the design of the spray booth and how I'm going to set the pieces to spray them. I'm looking for a rather large rotating "Lazy Suzan" to be able to rotate the parts as I spray them. This would allow me to spray the parts without having to walk around them. This way I can minimize the space requirement of the booth and optimize my lighting. I'm thinking I can use a chair swivel to build it on. Something like this:

[JTGS850GL]

Cross my fingers... Tomorrow and Thursday may be paint days.

[tkent02]

Just the pretty red or are you doing a bunch of stripes and things?

[JTGS850GL]

Now that you ask, I also ordered some pinstripe enamel in the color "23K Gold". I'm also going to be using a pinstriping stencil by Finesse that looks like this:

You put down the stencil like normal vinyl pin striping tape. It even makes sharp turns. You then peel the top clear backing off and it exposes the areas in black to the surface underneath. You then simply paint over the stencil with pinstriping enamel using either a standard pin striping brush or an air brush. After that you just peel the remaining tape off and you have perfectly symmetrical lines with sharp edges. At least that's what the item description says.

My plan is to do the striping after the clear is down. I could do it under the clear but I felt that may cause more problems then it's worth and gives me a margin of error that I can correct easily in case the stencil bleeds or I get sloppy. This also allows me to do all my color sanding and buffing first. Then I can take my time on laying the pinstripes down without worrying about the recoat window on the clear. I also avoid any issues with the clear lifting the lines. That would be a real bummer. The enamel I ordered is the KSE E-Z Flow Striping & Lettering Enamel and I also added the KSE701-HP EZ-Flow Striping and Lettering Hardener for it. It makes the stripes flow better, be more durable (gas resistant) and creates a higher gloss.

[JTGS850GL]

Ok, tomorrow is paint day. Today was spent getting the paint boot setup. Here's how the day went:

Frame assembled and first sheet of vinyl covering 3 walls. I used 1" PVC for the fame. Some pieces are welded and others are just pressed in. I can disassemble the entire frame and reassemble without damage:




All walls in place and seams are duct taped. Air filters installed up high:


And fan drawing air out from below"


I created a "Lazy Susan" spray table so I could optimize lighting and reduce having to drag the hose around.:




I organized the pieces to be painted and constructed stands for each piece:


Here's how they will be placed to paint:

[JTGS850GL]

I added some extra lighting as well:




The extra 500W of lighting sure does brighten things up.:




Everything put in it's place and ready for tomorrow:




I do have a respirator and I'll be mixing the paint outside the spray booth on a separate work table.

Any suggestions on ANYTHING would be greatly appreciated!!

[tkent02]

Can't tell for sure but that looks like a really well built booth. Lighting, filters and everything. Now I might have to do something like that instead of shooting them outside in my hand. Can't wait to see the finished paint job.

[azr]

WOW, very impressive DIY booth Can I send you my body work?? I have a feeling yours is going to turn out pretty impressively.

[eil]

My goodness, that is quite a setup! They say preparation is the key to success when it comes to painting, these ought to come out spectacular.

[JTGS850GL]

OK, not perfect, but here's how they came out. The color is a little off in the pictures. It looks too orange in the pics but in reality it's a dark pearl red. Lighting changes the color from maroon in darker lighting to bright red in bright light. There's virtually no orange peel but I do have a few spots where a gnat landed. Next time I'll spray some insecticide before starting. Man I can't tell you enough about how much easier the painting was using that Lazy Susan turn table. Made it SOOOO much easier and allowed me to see the item at every angle:







Here how lighting can change the look:




I'm fairly happy for the most part. Going to wait a week before I try wet sanding. Then it's time to start the pinstriping. Time to relax and have a beer!!

PS: That el cheapo Harbor Freight gun did a good job and was pretty easy to setup. Not bad for a 35 dollar gun set: