I want to get my harley repainted
- Thread starter lewis
- Start date
J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Have you checked your local dealer o factory painted tins?
Mad Dog Jim
Banned
I just did my own. Have never painted anything but a bedroom wall before. You can learn a lot on youtube beleive it or not. I went with a bright yellow enamle and several coats of clear. You're going to laugh but it's Plasticoat rattlecan. And worked out great! Just takes a little TLC and being super clean. When I was done it had a pretty good orange peel, but I took it down with 600, then 1500, then buffed it out and it looks BETTER than a factory job. I have about $200 invested and about 6 weekends. I am super happy with it AND I did it myself.
Mad Dog Jim
Banned
Mad Dog Jim
Banned
Good job..to bad we don't live close to each other, I could add some pinstriping to it and really dress it up :s.
Mad Dog Jim
Banned
Would be cool to hear from a REAL bike painter... maybe some cheap lessons?
I know that I knew nothing when I started but shopped around and the cheapest paint job I could find was a guy in his garage for $500 minimum... The auto body shop wanted $1600 for a solid color. The Speed shop that does custom bikes wanted $1800...
Basic steps I took:
1. Strip ALL of the grease, wax, and other muck off before you do anything to it. You don't want to rub that (EDIT) into the paint or the new paint wont stick. I used a spray on de-greaser from the auto parts store.
2. From this point on NEVER touch it without powder free nitrile gloves on. Be careful of cross contamination. If you pick up a tool, change gloves before touching your project...
3. Sand down through the stock clear coat. This is where I learned that HD facotory paint had a ton of invinsible clear coat. Amazing how hard it is to get to the base coat. So, scaratches would be cake to sand down and/or buff out.
4. Use a good quality non-shrinking buildable primer. If possible get one close to the color you are going to paint. dark gray under dark colors, white under bright colors. (easier to cover)
5. If you use enamel, which end up being much tougher than laquer, follow the directions on drying time or it WILL wrinkle. Apply many light coats rather than one heavy coat. Once you are certain that your color coat is thick enough to cover, and bone dry, sand down all the orange peel with 600 grit, then 1500 grit.
6. Repeat step 5 but with clear. But add the final step of buffing it out. You can get that factory deep shiny finish with polishing compound, but I just used a dry polishing mit to get an "old school" look. It's got a real rich classic finish rather than the deep glassy look.
7. Finally before any bare hands touch it, use a few coats of a real high quality paste wax buffed out between coats.
Keep in mind that enamel can take mounths to cure fully, so I suggest storing the tins indoors for a while to make sure you don't get any dings or scratches
Please read this...
I know that I knew nothing when I started but shopped around and the cheapest paint job I could find was a guy in his garage for $500 minimum... The auto body shop wanted $1600 for a solid color. The Speed shop that does custom bikes wanted $1800...
Basic steps I took:
1. Strip ALL of the grease, wax, and other muck off before you do anything to it. You don't want to rub that (EDIT) into the paint or the new paint wont stick. I used a spray on de-greaser from the auto parts store.
2. From this point on NEVER touch it without powder free nitrile gloves on. Be careful of cross contamination. If you pick up a tool, change gloves before touching your project...
3. Sand down through the stock clear coat. This is where I learned that HD facotory paint had a ton of invinsible clear coat. Amazing how hard it is to get to the base coat. So, scaratches would be cake to sand down and/or buff out.
4. Use a good quality non-shrinking buildable primer. If possible get one close to the color you are going to paint. dark gray under dark colors, white under bright colors. (easier to cover)
5. If you use enamel, which end up being much tougher than laquer, follow the directions on drying time or it WILL wrinkle. Apply many light coats rather than one heavy coat. Once you are certain that your color coat is thick enough to cover, and bone dry, sand down all the orange peel with 600 grit, then 1500 grit.
6. Repeat step 5 but with clear. But add the final step of buffing it out. You can get that factory deep shiny finish with polishing compound, but I just used a dry polishing mit to get an "old school" look. It's got a real rich classic finish rather than the deep glassy look.
7. Finally before any bare hands touch it, use a few coats of a real high quality paste wax buffed out between coats.
Keep in mind that enamel can take mounths to cure fully, so I suggest storing the tins indoors for a while to make sure you don't get any dings or scratches
Please read this...
Last edited by a moderator:
Mad Dog Jim
Banned
Right on... but I decided no stripes or flames or anything on this one. Going for the old pan look. I even shaved the "Heritage Softail" emplems and the bumper boat fender lights off. So this was more than just learning to paint for me... custom body work too.