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Painting a RG

bigcletus

Active Member
I'm considering painting my 07 RG, Mirage Orange. Just want a change.I have a friend that has an auto body/paint shop that will do it.

Is it regular auto paint that's used? Any comments on the new paint being less durable than the original ?
Not looking at any fancy graphics, just painting it a darker color, (something like the black cherry I've seen on some.

Any comments/opinions greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
If your friend ownes a body shop I am sure he knows what he is doing. As far as durability goes, I don't think you can beat the urethane catalyst paints of today. That is probably what comes on the bike to start with...
Most important thing to remember is stick to 1 manufacture. Whomever you choose in brand of paint (House of Color, PPG, Dupont), stick to their entire system, meaning primer, basecoat, clearcoat all from the same company. Follow the flash times & spray pressures to the "T". Todays Urathane clears have a finish to die for.
If you apply the clears correctly you won't have to wet sand out any orange peel. You can have a paint job with no orange peel without wet sanding.
 
I just did a search for Harley paints and on one site, ColorRite.com, they have HD paint at $200 per quart ?? Whats with that ?? Is it made of gold?? Seriously, are other quality paints as good or better than the HD stuff ?
Any paint recommendations?
 
Any paint recommendations?

You mean Brand name?
Buying paint for a 1 time job is a painful learning lesson.

Example:
Base coat PPG Concept DUC2021 Heavy pearl/Heavy metallic will run you $100 a Quart.
A Gallon of the same stuff is $220.

You want to buy a gallon but what do you do with the extra 3 quarts.:p
 
I'm just looking for enough to do the fairing, bags, fenders, tank, and the 2 small side covers. How many coats would do a good job?? And how much paint (ballpark) per coat ? I just want to get an idea of what I'm in for.
 
The paints of today are not inexpensive. As a rule your looking at 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of Base color and 2 coats of clear. Depending on the gun the painter uses, I would say a quart of each. Also factor in hardeners and reducers.
Example:
1 Quart of clear is a 4:1:1 reduction/hardener so you wind up with 1.5 quarts.
You probably could paint 2 washer machines (sides & tops) with 1 quart of base coat using an HVLP gun @ 6".:s
 
Like everything else they can MOCO buys some off the shelf item from a vendor, marks it up a bunch of $$$ just because the label or item has HD on it.....
 
Harley paint is simply PPG relabeled and marked up 100 percent.While there are many paint lines out there, for the most part they're all pretty much the same.

PPG,Dupont,Sikkens,Sherwin Williams,Diamont,Glasurette,RM,Speeze Hecker,Omni,House of Color and on and on will all tell you they are the best.When you consider there are roughly 5 plants in the world producing the chemical ingrediants needed to make up the modern clearcoat they all use,you have to question why one company charges twice as much as the other.

If your friend has a shop Im sure he's using a quality product.As such his supplier should offer a warrenty for that product in the event of any problems down the road.The red's you see on many Harleys {Red Hot/Crimson Sunglow}are actualy 3 stage paint schemes.Red hot is achieved with a gold base followed by the red flake top coat.Most of the truely dazzling reds are 3 stages.Unfortunatly red is also the most expensive color due to the rarity of the pigment required to make it.Also unfortunate that 1 quart will not do the job on a 3 stage paint job as you'll need 2 colors to produce it.

Most suppliers offer there own custom paint lines.Ask your friend to contact his rep and see about a custom color chip book.By sticking with his paint line you'll get the warrenty at a cheeper price and he'll have the ability to reproduce your color perfectly in the event of an unfortunate mishap.He also wont be able to complain about the product the hole time he's using it.
 
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