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Anyone ever tried re-painting your fairings?


progrmr

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I'm thinking I might like to go all gloss black on my 250. I'm not really sure how much it would cost to have it done, but I'm wondering if a small set of fairings could be done with some elbow grease and some inexpensive tools..?? anyone ever tried it? Airbrush, some primer, paint, and sand paper?

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if your not looking to do make it as sexy as mine then rattle can it cost you like 50 bucks tops

  1. get some 400 grit and 1000 grit paper
  2. sand all the fairings down (make sure to go in circles and use a block to make it all flat)
  3. Go over it with 1000 grit to make it smooth
  4. Paint
  5. Dry
  6. Done and done

This is easiest so you dont have to mess with clear coat, etc. etc. Just make sure the fairings are flat since your painting it black every belmish shows up like a sore thumb.

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ok i spray painted my fairings over winter (not sure if im still considered new?) but everyone has complimented me on the job i did so...

big chief is right on everything except for a few things...

from a beginner to a beginner (i also was in contact with a pro auto painter to let me know about prep and that sort of thing)

start out with an aggressive grit such as 400, this is going to be the grunt of your work. its going to be pretty roughed up and look bad.

then go over it again with 600 (not 1000) paper same thing. its going to take a lot of work.

the reason you should use 600 (as explained by the auto painter) is that 600 is about the right amount of roughness for the spray paint to adhere to the body, if you go too much higher it will be TOO smooth and there wont be anything to adhere to.

don't worry about it being smooth, the coatings of spray paint will help with that.

now another important step is washing it. make sure you wash all that sanding off. rinse with water, then wash it just like your washing your bike and let dry.

when you paint it, start out with a light coating at first, and then every 5-10 minutes spray another coat. keep going until satisfied.

and your done! unless your worried about wet sanding then thats another story and i didn't worry about that. this won't be a show stopping job, but like i said it still can look good if done right.

also some advice: i just sprayed the pieces in my yard. hung the pieces on some dead but sturdy branches. the humidity will affect the quality as well as the wind. the best conditions are something like this coming week, 70's and dry air. also make sure the wind is down you don't want bugs and stuff flying into your wet paint (believe me its a bitch to get out). also don't worry if you screw up, you can always sand and spray again. if i somehow go a piece of something in my wet paint, i let it dry took a little bit of 600 grit and sanded it away (if you move it while wet it will look bad, either way you have to sand again). then wiped it down with a wet rag and resprayed.

i like the duplicolor spray paint because its nozzle has the wide spray just like a pro paint gun. also i used about 4-5 bottles of the main color. you can get away with less since its nice out, i sprayed in the dead of winter so the cold had something to do with how many coats i used.

good luck! and here is some pics of the job i did and i know some people on here can vouch for me that it looks good:

DSC03507.jpg

DSC03500.jpg

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i did zero prep with the bedliner. and yes its thick. the thing i like about it is that i can drop a wrench or spill gas and it does nothing to the "paint"

but i dont think it comes off. i wouldnt put it on anything that you may want to take it off of later.

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Just had a new member join up here. He recently painted a bike and it turned out well. Hopefully he'll give some insight.

I had mine sprayed professionally over the winter. It turned out very well.

Hey thanks Dustin

I painted my fiance's Ninja 250 black metallic over the winter with Duplicolor rattle cans...it turned out amazing and a lot better than expected.

Here is what I did:

-I like Dupli-color because of it fan spray pattern and it dries fast

-remove any decals and sand with 220. then clean with soap and water or alcohol.

-patch any holes or rash then sand the areas with filler with 220.

-Spray with 2-3 light coats adhesion promoter if you have areas of bare plastic. you should be fine without this if you didnt sand thru all the paint as the new paint should stick well if the factory paint is still in decent shape. I sprayed everything but the tank with adhesion promoter just to be safe.

-Wash parts with soap and water then dry

-Spray adhesion promoter and let it tack up for about 20 minutes then spray 3 light coats of primer alowing 5-10 minutes between coats. Use black primer for darker base coats and Grey primer for lighter colors. dont worry about runs in the primer as they can be sanded out easy.

-Lighty sand primer coat with 400-600 grit.

-Wash parts with soap and water and dry

-after Primer is dry, Spray 3-5 light coats of primer sealer to help enhance the shine of the base coat you lay down.

-lightly sand again with 600 grit paper.

-now you are ready for your base coat. before spraying, make sure all your parts have been washed with soap and water and are dried turoughly. Spray 3-5 light coats of your color coat in even strokes, overlapping each pass about 50% to get full coverage. Don't spray a pass too slow or you will get runs but too fast will not get good coverage. I would reccomend waiting 5-10 minutes between each coat. After the parts are dry, you can respray an area if you think it needs more.

-If using Duplicolor, just the base coat has an ok shine to it but I sprayed everything with clearcoat in the same manner as with the base coat. If using clear coat, do not sand the base coat, just wash with soap and water and dry parts then spray clear.

-After the clear coat is dry, wait about a good week to let the paint fully cure then wet sand with 1000 grit and then with 1500 grit to smooth out any orange peel.

-after wet sanding, those of you with out a buffer, I used turtle wax liquid rubbing compound and applied it by hand just like waxing a car and followed it up with turtle wax liquid polishing compound to bring back the shine to the paint after wet sanding.

-this polishing process takes a lot of time, patience, and elbow grease

-after the two stages of compound, I applied scratch and swirl remover and followed that up with spray polish.

-After all said and done my project rurned out pretty darn good with high gloss similar to a professional paint job and minimal orange peel. some of the peices actually look like they were professionally sprayed...

- For the ninja 250 I used 4 cans primer, 4 cans primer sealer, 5 cans base coat, 5 cans clear, and a ton of sanding and polishing...total investment $70 and about 2 months of what little free time I have. I will admit that I sprayed more coats than meeded for the base and clear coats but I wanted to make sure I had good smooth even coverege.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, I know this was a long post.

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thinking about doing the bedliner thing to my quad.. it leaves a rough coating right? dunno if i want that.. want to be able to put some decals on it too. any suggestions for durable yet somewhat smooth?

its not mirror smooth but its not super rough either. i think you could put a sticker on.

if you go to a bike night or something, come take a look at my tank :)

here is a pic. its not the best but it gives you an idea

241_19_05_07_5_13_34_2.JPG

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r6allstar, have youthought about using that stuff like plasti-dip or plasti-coat? the stuff you dip tools or spmething in to put a coat of plastic on it? I assume its durable enough for a quad but dont know how you would go about applying it

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