The Honda Owners Club

Ok, overall my boy is looking pretty good but the paint has some chips, scratches, a dent and two colors of red. I am putting it in a storage shed this weekend and was thinking of repainting it. How should I prep it? My thoughts are to take off all the plastics, repair the dents/cracks and sand away. Should I sand off the decals/stripes or do a light sanding before painting? I am going to get a complete set of decals so everything will be placed over the old
SBones once I complete the paint job.

I want to do all the work myself including the painting. I may add that my experience with painting never went beyond fence and a 6" brush, I like a challenge. So how should I tackle this one?

Tks for your input

SB

browns4s wrote:I want to do all the work myself including the painting. I may add that my experience with painting never went beyond fence and a 6" brush, I like a challenge. So how should I tackle this one?

A couple of coats of matt emulsion should do the job

Joking apart, I think paintwork is a black art, something that takes time, skill and experience to do well. If you don't remove the decals, and your prep isn't perfect, you'll end up seeing the old decals and any other inperfections through the new paint.

I wouldn't even consider taking the job on myself

The reason I wasn't sure if I needed to fully remove the decals is because I will be placing the new ones directly over them. This would help in accurate placement(?) and since they should be identical in size it would be not as noticeable. I have a few months before the season starts again and although armed with the proper equipment I would like to paint it myself but I might be able to find someone to do the paint instead.

i tried painting some rusted parts of my fuel tank on my old bike (fortunatly it was an old bike) after i had sanded the affected parts down - it was a nightmare, i just couldnt get it right. the paint wasnt a perfect match, it was still see throught after 5 coats of paint. i ended up just leaving it when i sold her.
my advice - get someone with lots of experience in automotive painting and be prepared to pay a good bit of money, but it will be worth it. they should also be able to apply the decals before the laquer thereby protecting them and stopping them from coming away.

just so you know some of the effort involved here is what i do with my helmets , Fiberglass of course ,
after all stripping i rub down with 180 grit paper , as helmets usually have lots of stickers under the lacquer this helps get rid of some of the sticker lines/ ridges ,
Then i give it three coats of high build primer and leave to dry
I then spray the helmet with a can of normal black aerosol spray , after a few minutes i then rub the helmet down again with 400 grit , as i have painted it black , the black paint sits in any rigdes or small imperfections so i can see to smooth it more ,
when smooth i give it two wet coats of high build primer again
When this is dry i rub the whole helmet down wet with 800 wet n dry
i then paint it the desired colour and laquer it, this is because when i am applying decals and "touching" the basecoat i do not risk marking or contaminating it .
i then rub it down again with 1500 grit paper to key it and so there is no shine ,
this enables the decals to be applied wet so they can be moved into position ,
when this is all done and i am happy with the result i will then lightly scuff over the decals with grey scotchbrite so the laquer sticks to them .And then finally apply two good coats of laquer .

basically you have to be thorough to make a good job , things to bear in mind is that if you dont undercoat properly , if there is only the slightest part of a lightly sanded bare decal showing it will pickle the paint up ,, i have found out the hard way , also paint/laquer will not stick to anything that is shiny ,this is why i allways lightly scuff the decals , so many times have i seen highly polished streetfighters and rebuilds only to see the lacquer bubbling over the decals

To get a good long lasting finish on motorcycle plastics - quite different from GRP - you must have the correct paint regime - sealer, undercoat, base colour, varnish. You must also have the correct working temperature in a dust free environment.

If the conditions are right it can be done with custom made spray cans. If the conditions are not right, you may well get a satisfactory finish that will probably last 7/8 months before you get cracks and crazing.

Appreciate the additional advice on this project. Once I started
taking stuff off I saw first hand what a cheap paint job is. When I ran
my finger down the side you can tell where the color change happens.
The bottom color (blue) is about 1/2" off between the left/right side,
not sure if all this is normal but definitely want to avoid making the
same mistakes if possible.

So far I have started work on the bottom faring, removed the decals,
filled the dents and re-enforced the holes for the mirrors since both
were damaged. I have been sanding with 220 but may go down and lightly sand with the 180 before doing the primer.

Since winter is trying to set in, I am not pressed for time so the
sanding and such should be done around the middle of next month or so.

I have measured the painted areas, cut out some crude templates and I
figured once I get all the prep work done I'll put everything back on
the bike, mask out the areas, tape on the decals, compare with my
photos, and see how it looks.

just one note , and thats filler will not stick very well to plastic , even plastic fillers they will all stick to scuffed paint ,
You can get around this is if you have bare plastic then scuff it over with 40 or 80 grit paper , spray it with a plastic adhesion promoter , then undercoat it , the filler will then stick to the undercoat

jamie cb750 wrote:just one note , and thats filler will not stick very well to plastic , even plastic fillers they will all stick to scuffed paint ,
You can get around this is if you have bare plastic then scuff it over with 40 or 80 grit paper , spray it with a plastic adhesion promoter , then undercoat it , the filler will then stick to the undercoat

Jamie,

I'm no bodywork expert, but the 1000R was a bit special, and I don't think it's an ABS fairing. I thought it was a Glass/Kevlar mix.

Prepared to be corrected though

Would that make a difference?

yes it would , filler sticks well to fiberglass ,

On mine, the front faring (top and bottom) is fiberglass and the seat section is ABS. With the exception of the cross braces under the seat the rest is in pretty good condition. I still need to get a cowl, not too functional but looks great.

Jamie,

2 Strokes wrote "but the 1000R was a bit special" - just like the riders really!!!!!!!!!

Viffer

if its that special it will fix itself

Hi Jamie,

It's not quite that special - but almost, ha! ha!

Regards,
Viffer

Well it's been a while but the painting has begun, sort of. I had spent weeks (off and on) sanding, patching, priming, sanding and I had to say it looked smooth and pretty good. I found that removing the decals was pretty easy buy using a wet rag, hot iron, and a razor blade. I put the fairings back on the bike and taped away till all lines were good. Well when I returned to Alabama to visit my family, bought the paint and went to a friends house to get started. Seemed to go on good when tragedy hit. The reducer reacted with the primer I used and the paint wrinkled. For the next four days I stripped and sanded and got it all smooth again. I went back to the paint shop and bought a high build primer and my friend sprayed it again, I actually got to spray on the second coat. Pretty fun and it came out well. The next day I came back and wet sanded everything and that afternoon he painted all the parts white. This was the first time he had sprayed a base coat and was itching to put the clear on to see how it would work. Well he'll have to wait on that part. The next day I loaded up the Prius and sucked paint fumes for the 800 mile drive home. This weekend I will be putting the parts back on the bike and put the stripes back on for the next step of painting the red/blue. I just won't tell you how I plan to do it but I'll post some pic's when I get them downloaded.