Thanks guys! I can't wait to see how this turns out. I'm still prepi g the tins as I didn't like how they turned out after primer. Just some fine tuning. Asuperglide that looks great! That is what I'm after. I also thought about getting a propane heater to heat the garage. I'm just worried about the whole open flame thing. I guess I just heat then turn it off right before paint?

 

 

Yeah those look good. Still not sure what I will go with.

 

First off your a braver man than most of the dudes on this forum for attempting to paint your bike yourself, most guys **** a brick when the have to take off the seat lol. I've been where ya been before but you just need a few more tips.
1. On the stripes you are going to have to remove a lot material for them to disappear, instead of focusing on just the raised area you need to sand farther out until all of the edges are feathered COMPLETELY smooth. When your finished with this don't be surprised if you have sanded to the bare metal in several places.
2. I would suggest using a larger grit sand paper and maybe even a DA sander. Even though it seems like you might be getting out of some sanding by using finer paper, in the long run its a lot less work to start with something coarse (80 grit) and work your way to finer grits. I'm not trying to bust your *****, but you still have a **** ton of sanding to do, if they still look anything like the do in the pictures.
3. In the picture of you spreading body filler on the dent, You need to spread, and feather it way past the actual damaged area, because they always need more than you originally think, also when you spread the filler farther away from the damaged area, I believe it is easier to fix the dent because your working with the contour of the tanks if you can understand what Im trying to explain.
4. After you get ALL of the striping off and you think theres NO WAY IN HELL that you can get it any smoother... smooth = without dents, waves, and without high and low spots.... you need to use a 2K filler primer (primer with a hardener). I would lay a couple heavy "wet coats down before I even started to block sand.
5. On the first round of block sanding, if the tins look relatively smooth you might could start with 320, but 180 is prolly a little more like it, just dont get carried away because primer will cut down alot easier than the clear coat. I usually prime and block everything several times, just remember your paint can only be as slick as whats underneath it, and the more times that you block sanded the slicker the final paint job will be. You can/should spray a VERY Light coat of black/dark spray paint to use as a guide. This way you'll know where you have sanded, and the low spots will stand out more , this is the difference in a "Damn that looks effing awesome" and a "Its not to bad for your first try". Just make sure that you don't start to slack off because your almost to the fun part.
6. After you have primed & blocked the tins several times, swap from 320 dry to 600 wet. I never sand finer than 600 on the prep work, if its to slick..... (Slick= smooth and soft as a lotioned baby's ***)... the paint wont have anything to cling to and your just asking for that **** to flake.
7. After your finished wet sanding, your ready for the easy part.... Don't be intimidated by people say that flat is hard to spray, because it isnt. It is important that you are using the right reducer and hardener, A slower reducer will help keep the paint from streaking, but if your having problems with anything like that on a harley, you should probably just hang the gun up and spray 30 dollars worth of spray paint on it. Some other things that make a huge difference is right before you spray your final coat of color, lightly wet sand, then lay down the money shot.
Maybe this will head you in the right direction, even though that might seem like loads of unnecessary bull ****, at least when your finished it'll be something that your proud of, take your time and the hardest thing of all just be patient.

 

Thanks Dave, I always like to hear straight answers. I have spent most of today sanding and priming the tins. Not too sure if they are ready to paint yet, I'm waiting for my buddy to come look at them. It's hard to not just shoot them but I want it to be bad *** not just ok. I don't know about having *****, there is a fine line between having ***** and just plain stupidity! We will see which one I have after they are finished!

 

It looked like you had a pretty good grasp on everything, just needed someone to tell you the "secrets". If you run into any problems and need some advice feel free to message me. If you did want to have a orange or whatever color stripe/scallop/design it really isn't hard at all to do.... something else to consider while painting your bike is to paint on emblems, again its super easy to do, and this is the time to do that sorta stuff...

Here's a pic of a pretty easy design that keeps my bike distinguishable from the rest... If you run into any problems and need some advice, or if you're interested in adding a second color hit me up.. I would like to see this turn out really nice for you

 

UPDATE: Hit the tins with a coat of paint today. Good news and bad news. Good news is the prep work held up well. No lines where the two old colors meet or where the decals were. Not a trace! Also the "baseball" is gone. If I didn't know it was there before no one would be able to tell. Now the bad news, while prep went well paint did not. I have orange peel like a ****! I'm sure it's a combo of not setting the gun up right/not knowing how to paint! This is one area I didn't prepare for. My compressor is making enough air. Only kicked on once and didn't take long to refill the tank. I have it set to 40 PSI at the tank and 30 PSI at the gun. Am I off here? Should I lower pressure. Gun spces say between 15 and 45 PSI. here is the gun I have http://www.harborfreight.com/air-too...gun-66222.html Crap I just looked back over the tech sheet for my paint and it said 10 PSI at the cap!!!! Guess I just answered my own question!! It also said to mix at 4:1 and I did that. I have medium reducer and did a final mix of 4:1:1/2. Here is the tech sheet for the paint, http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/psheets/071706HRFP.pdf Maybe someone can double check my numbers. Looks like alot more sanding and prep is in my future! I'm really bummed but this thing will not kick my ***!

 

Man I'm at work today and it's killing me not being able to work on the bike! I should have taken a week of leave so I could finish it up. Hopefully there will be enough sun left when I get home to do some sanding. If not I guess that is what they make shop lights for!

 

Keep at it, can't wait to see what you end up with. What size compressor are you running your gun with?

 

A Craftsman 33 gallon vertical. I think it's 2.8hp not the 1.6hp they sell now. I have had it for about 7 years.