PROJECT: Black Glide!
Intermediate
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 28
Likes: 0
From: Panama City, FL
Looking forward to seeing your bike in flat black. My 07 WG is gloss black and I've been wanting to go satin black since day one..
If you don't mind a little unsolicited advice from a long time body shop guy..
As far as the dent, find a local body shop that does "paintless dent repair." Most car dealerships have a guy who can do that kind of work. You might find a guy on the net who travels around to dealerships. They use long rods with different types of ends to "roll" the dent out from within. I've seen them push out dents in tanks in minutes.
Try to stay away from using bondo as much as possible. It will crack if more than 1/8" or so.. Temperature change causes expansion and contraction at a different rate than the metal - fuel in the tank will make it worse.
Last thing..make sure you use a good primer-sealer before you paint. You may want to use an epoxy. I get my stuff from Eastwood.com
Good luck man - keep us up to date..
If you don't mind a little unsolicited advice from a long time body shop guy..
As far as the dent, find a local body shop that does "paintless dent repair." Most car dealerships have a guy who can do that kind of work. You might find a guy on the net who travels around to dealerships. They use long rods with different types of ends to "roll" the dent out from within. I've seen them push out dents in tanks in minutes.
Try to stay away from using bondo as much as possible. It will crack if more than 1/8" or so.. Temperature change causes expansion and contraction at a different rate than the metal - fuel in the tank will make it worse.
Last thing..make sure you use a good primer-sealer before you paint. You may want to use an epoxy. I get my stuff from Eastwood.com
Good luck man - keep us up to date..
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,562
Likes: 11
From: Palm Harbor fl.
good luck...even the pros say flat/ satin is the hardest paint to apply. You see, you cannot wet sand it afterwards. Also, if any of the tins get uneven application, the paint will be glossier where it is applied thicker. I ended up sanding my paint job down and redoing it with krylon flat black. The krylon came out incredible! Have fun. Hope it works out for you. If you not painting in a really good spray booth, your gonna get dirt in your paint and you cannot sand it out. Anyways, painting flat/satin black in a garage is a nightmare. If I were you, I'd return the paint supplies and get krylon. Use 400 grit for the final sand, and paint in a humidity controlled environment. It will come out perfect, you'll not have to battle dust in the air, the paint will be much less sensitive to high and low spots and it is as durable of a finish as the paint you bought. I have had zero problems with my finish since it was done last year. Oh, yeah, the cost is about 30 bucks for paint and supplies. I get compliments all the time on how great my bike looks...folks are blown away when I tell them that I used krylon for the paint job. Even had a custom painter comment on how good the guy who painted my bike laid down the flat paint...LOL it was me with Krylon.
Last edited by rounder; Feb 20, 2011 at 08:18 AM.
Flat black is not as easy as it looks. There's no way to fix any little junk that might get in you paint. Spray consistantly and do all your parts at the same time so the temp and humidity are the same, they can affect flat black. If you do one part today and it's 80 and humid and another part tomorrow and it's 65 and dry they might look different. And get an air gun filter(at a minumum) to filter out any water that's in your compressor tank, like this
http://www.sparepartsnmore.com/tools...ir-filter.html
Also as several have said already, prime/seal your parts before painting. It will cover up all your sanding spots and then block sand it before you paint. You may think you have all your edges smooth but block sanding the primer will make sure you didn't miss anything.
http://www.sparepartsnmore.com/tools...ir-filter.html
Also as several have said already, prime/seal your parts before painting. It will cover up all your sanding spots and then block sand it before you paint. You may think you have all your edges smooth but block sanding the primer will make sure you didn't miss anything.
Last edited by abi; Feb 20, 2011 at 08:10 AM.
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
From: Jville NC
Alright so I got alot more time into it today. After the dent yesterday i decided to call it quits for the day. Spent most of today working on the dent. I was able to get most of it out. Then used some filler to blend it. Its not 100% but I hope to work it out. Took your guy's advice and went ahead and hit everything with some primer. I'm glad I did too because like you said, it showed what i could not feel or see. Like the lines from where the two colors meet and where the decals were. Tomorrow I will sand some more and try to work out what we are calling the "baseball"! On to the update pics!
Knocked out most of the "baseball" from inside the tank.
Filling the valleys with filler.
Primed fenders.
Notice you can still see the line.
Rear.
The tank still needs alot of work.
Nevermind the Scentsy boxes in the background!
This was after the first coat of primer. There is a few more coats on there now.
Like I said there is still alot to be done before paint. I really wanted it done this weekend but am not willing to sacrifice quality for speed. On a good note, I AM NO LONGER A LAKERS FAN!!!!!
Knocked out most of the "baseball" from inside the tank.
Filling the valleys with filler.
Primed fenders.
Notice you can still see the line.
Rear.
The tank still needs alot of work.
Nevermind the Scentsy boxes in the background!
This was after the first coat of primer. There is a few more coats on there now.
Like I said there is still alot to be done before paint. I really wanted it done this weekend but am not willing to sacrifice quality for speed. On a good note, I AM NO LONGER A LAKERS FAN!!!!!
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
From: Jville NC
Side note: I'm going to need new emblems. What do you guys think about the night train ones? Has it been done too much? Any other ideas? I would like to see pics of what you think would look cool with flat black.
I've always been a big fan of the street bob script emblems either chrome or gloss black on a flat black tank.
How did you "work" the dent out? I've got one almost the same size in the exact same place on my new tank.
How did you "work" the dent out? I've got one almost the same size in the exact same place on my new tank.
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 139
Likes: 0
From: Jville NC
I used a wooden closet rod. I had some scrap laying around so I cut it down to a few feet. I had to remove the float in the tank so that I could get to the dent. Then I used a ball ping hammer and kept lightly tapping around the dent. Ok so a few times I tad to smack it pretty good. I'll have to look into that emblem. I haven't seen many that I like out there.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 8,051
Likes: 50
From: Florence, MT (Bitterroot Valley)
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Road Captain
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 707
Likes: 11
From: West Chester, PA.
Flat Black
I painted my 90' FLT flat black with rattle cans. That's all the tins including the hard saddlebags and batman wing. I used Rust-stole'em and in my opinion came out great. Just be patient. If you screw up with a run don't try and "fix" the run area, sand and repaint the whole piece. I've found the flat is much more forgiving. If I can find a pic on my other computer I'll post one. I lost a lot of brain cells between the spraying and burning the propane heater to keep the garage warm but it was worth the experience.
Last edited by Asuperglide; Feb 21, 2011 at 02:59 PM.