As a few of you know - I have been practicing my hand at the delicate art of painting. I have been painting my bike pearl white - first two fairings (upper left, and tire hugger) have been so - so, the tire hugger being the worst of the two. Tomorrow I am meeting a professional painter (mostly on motorcycles) who has offered to help me learn. If this turns out well, I will be looking to practice more, painting other bikes. If it turns out as I hope - Then I will offer my painting service to a few people for free, as long as they buy the required materials. - But that is in all due time, once I am more comfortable painting, and I have finished my bike to my degree of satisfaction. Hope all goes well, i'll update this thread when / if I know it could work out or not. Mostly - After I have finished painting my bike, I will know! If you are interested PM me or comment. (I won't be taking any names yet, until I know I can do a decent job, and WANT to learn more about painting.)
I'll let you see the end result of my ZX6R first before any conclusions are made. I do not want to practice on a persons brand new Duc.. or anything.. If / when I choose to - I would prefer a bike that either has been damaged, or isn't cared for as in looks wise. I can fix most issues with plasti fix... Getting better with it I will post up a gallery of images from what my bike looked like - to what it is when I am done. Next week I should be done. Also - should only take me a day or two to paint the bike. - if I am just receiving the fairings and such. I will start learning more tomorrow with the pro - Currently I do a 5 stage paint lay out on my bike. - epoxy primer, high build primer, base paint, pearl, clear coat. but, that may change if I learn a different/better way.
Good luck on learning a new skill. I could see something like this being good for people who want track plastics painted.
As soon as I learn how to ride well enough to not be dropping my bike, I would love to contact you about my ninja 250!
Sure thing man! Like I said, I'll get my bike finished, and show the finished product, if people like it, i'll take the first 2 / 3 guys to give em a paint job, they are still paying for the materials. The only thing I will ask from them is that they be a reference for me if I try and take up painting as an occupation, or partial occupation, or hobby occupation... Lol.
A previous owner of my bike rattle canned the plastics on my 98 R1. I would be more than happy to let you pratice on it. There is no way it could come out worse than it is now. If you are interested, let me know.
It's nice to have a mentor. I was lucky enough to have my wife's dad help me paint my old Suzuki. It's all in the prep work. In my case, thanks to him, the prep work was so good there was virtually no cutting or buffing needed after laying down the clear. It's not rocket science, but it's important to not compromise when you're doing the prep. Anyone can lay down a few sloppy coats of paint. That's the fun part. It's the willingness to work through the preparation properly that makes a good paint job. The other pieces of advice I'd give are to spray your coats on lightly (four or five coats for full coverage) and to buy quality materials. I generally choose colors that are found on high dollar cars (BMW Titan Silver and BMW British Racing Green went on my Suzuki). Industrial Finishes is THE place to buy your supplies for this type of thing.
I'm certainly interested. My 2005 zx-6r is my "dirty girl" and she's been down a couple times at the track. the bike's not gonna get ridden all winter, so I could certainly take off the fairings and let you have a go with it. My nose fairing is the OEM piece that I glued back together and fiber glassed the back side of. so it's got scrapes and the glue sections that could be sanded and painted. I've got a piece that is breaking off my front fender that you could practice your platic welding on. And my tank is a bit dented. Not sure what you'd want to do there, but if you want to try your hand at bodywork, I wouldn't be opposed to it. It would be amazing to see my 636 back to some of her former glory... I'd be happy to cover materials without a 2nd thought. And I'm not in a hurry. I've also got a set of flat black track plastics for it that you could play with if you like... This is how she looks now:
We just need to find a used stunt cage for her bike and Anders can hit it with the pink paint. opcorn:
Obviously this has garnered more than enough attention :]. thank you all. I am still in the process of prepping my entire bike, then will be painting it. Covering plastibondo.. and such. Obviously painting anything that isn't perfect, ends up being 90% body prep. So more body prep, more time. And everyone knows you can live off nothing. I'll probably finish my bike. see the outcome. Get one other persons bike to re do also. As a second test. Past that... Well - I cannot see into the future, Thank you all for your interest- like I said i'll update this thread once my bike has been finished. Then we will see from there!
