Originally Posted by Joe What

Jaxx, how do the RSD exhaust sound?

Originally Posted by NickD

Look into Hot Rod Flatz from TCP Global . . .

They sell on E-bay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=220569991129

And their website is here: http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/ksflatz.aspx

It's a single stage urethane with the "flattener" already mixed in. You just add the "hardner" and shoot it. On my build I did the tins with it about six months ago and this week I'll be shooting the frame.



Those tins have been knocking around my garage since then (probably the toughest duty motorcycle parts ever endure, LOL) and I'm very happy with it. It's tough as nails and I know it's hard to scuff. And although I haven't spilled any gas on it yet, it's formulated to be chemically resistant.



I'm sure you know (or at least heard) no matter what paint system you use it's all in the prep and application. And while I don't skimp on the purchase of hand tools I'm not going to be manufacturing motorcycles in my garage for a living so everything else, chop saw, drill press, bet sanders, etc. I bought from Harbor Freight. But I did buy a decent spray gun and air compressor. The point I'm making is you need to know when to go cheap and when to spend the few extra bucks.

The cool thing about motorcycles is area wise it's not like painting a car or truck. One quart of paint will easily do an entire bike. You also don't need a million dollar downdraft paint booth. But you do need some type of "clean room" to protect the finish while it's going off.

I just threw up "hillybilly paint booth" in my garage. It's just a six sided plastic sheathing enclosure held together with tape. (Put a cloth sheet on the floor above the plastic or you'll fall on your ***, LOL.) You'll see some guys running room fans and ducting to suck out the overspray but that's somewhat dangerous as the overspray is combustible and passes over and around a fan motor not built for it. So when you are ready to shoot dress for success. Get a good respirator, a set of painter coveralls you can get for two bucks at the paint store, hat, gloves, etc. Basically the point of the booth is to protect the rest of your garage from the overspray and keep dust, bugs, and whatever else, from settling onto to your fresh paint.



Like I mentioned upboard the prep before you lay on any paint is the hardest but most important part. I used a lot of swap meet parts on my build but even the new stuff needed some body work. Especially the rear fender which I had to cut and weld to radius it to contour to my tire. Now if you take your time and do your research painting isn't brain surgery but body work is. You need a good hand and eye here because every dimple, ripple, and scratch will show through the paint no matter how thick you lay it on. (And if you try to hide these imperfections with paint, STOP, you're doing it wrong!)

Most of us "econo" garage builders take a year, sometimes years, to finish our builds. (I'm on year two with mine.) But I see other guys who let their steel parts develop a coat of rust while waiting for paint. A very light coat of WD-40 (don't spray it on, wipe it on with a cloth) will prevent that and make the first stage of your prep much easier. But of course you need to make sure and get it all off before painting. Don't use any kind of dino oil to protect the metal. That soaks in and it'll never come out. So a good wash down with some of your OL's dishwashing detergent (Dawn or similar) will remove all the WD-40. Now do all your grinding and sanding. On the subject of smoothing welds on a frame. Good looking beads don't need smoothing! Besides I like the idea of being able to visually inspect welds later on. If the frame is good to go give it an all over light scuff with a fine grade wet sandpaper. You're looking to "scratch" the surface metal so the paint will stick, but at the same time not gouge it.

We didn't talk about primer yet. If you are painting a bare metal frame you'll want to prime it first. If it's an already painted frame you'll just need to do the body work and scuff it. Once all that's done blow it off with your air compressor and wipe it down with a final cleaner. I use MEK but be careful with that stuff as it's brutal. Wear a respirator, gloves, etc. Now put the part into your paint booth and give it a final wipe down with a tack cloth to remove any dust or whatever. Then shoot it.

Light Coats!!!!!!!!! I can't emphasis that enough. Your first shot is a tack coat only. You aren't going for full coverage on this first shot. Just enough to make a sticky surface. Let the tack coat flash, about 15 minutes, now shoot a first full coat. Let that flash and then a final coat. Problems like runs, sags, and orange peel are mainly from going too heavy on the shots and from temperature issues. So don't even think about painting if it's too cold or too hot. Between 70 and 80 degrees is good.

BTW, if using a spray gun, get that all setup pressure wise beforehand. The spec sheet that comes with your paint will "suggest" the settings, but practice on some spare steel until your happy. It's a PITA step but it pays off in the end. Now step back and admire your skill!

And guess what? You are going to see flaws. You are going to see them because you know where the problem areas were and you'll focus in on them. But as long as your buddy doesn't walk up and say, "Oh man, what the hell happened there?" You're fine.

Some folks say just go for it as any paint job can be fixed. But in a way that's BS. There's just too much work that goes into painting to think of it that way. I think of paint like welding, it's forever! If you go into it thinking you can fix it later you'll get sloppy and will have to fix it later. One thing about "flat" paints are they are a bit easier than glosses to fix as you don't have the wet edge issues. (If you don't know how the wet edge works look it up, it's important on any paint job.)

An aside on the Hot Rod Flatz. It comes, like I said, with a hardener, but also a "reducer." I tried it out and thought it too thin so I did the actual shots without any reducer at all and it was fine. But your equipment, the temperature, your skill level, and the phase of the moon affects all that so practice first!

The last thing to keep in mind is a good paint job, be it a flat black rattle can job or a high dollar Mona Lisa, is all an optical illusion. The dead straight lines, when inspected closely aren't really straight at all, and the curves are nowhere near mathematically correct, but when you stand back a bit and crack open a beer it just works. That's what you're going for. And when your buddy walks up and says, "What the hell happened there," just open another beer and tell him to go "F" himself!

Originally Posted by NickD

Look into Hot Rod Flatz from TCP Global . . .

They sell on E-bay here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=220569991129

And their website is here: http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/ksflatz.aspx

It's a single stage urethane with the "flattener" already mixed in. You just add the "hardner" and shoot it. On my build I did the tins with it about six months ago and this week I'll be shooting the frame.



Those tins have been knocking around my garage since then (probably the toughest duty motorcycle parts ever endure, LOL) and I'm very happy with it. It's tough as nails and I know it's hard to scuff. And although I haven't spilled any gas on it yet, it's formulated to be chemically resistant.



I'm sure you know (or at least heard) no matter what paint system you use it's all in the prep and application. And while I don't skimp on the purchase of hand tools I'm not going to be manufacturing motorcycles in my garage for a living so everything else, chop saw, drill press, bet sanders, etc. I bought from Harbor Freight. But I did buy a decent spray gun and air compressor. The point I'm making is you need to know when to go cheap and when to spend the few extra bucks.

The cool thing about motorcycles is area wise it's not like painting a car or truck. One quart of paint will easily do an entire bike. You also don't need a million dollar downdraft paint booth. But you do need some type of "clean room" to protect the finish while it's going off.

I just threw up "hillybilly paint booth" in my garage. It's just a six sided plastic sheathing enclosure held together with tape. (Put a cloth sheet on the floor above the plastic or you'll fall on your ***, LOL.) You'll see some guys running room fans and ducting to suck out the overspray but that's somewhat dangerous as the overspray is combustible and passes over and around a fan motor not built for it. So when you are ready to shoot dress for success. Get a good respirator, a set of painter coveralls you can get for two bucks at the paint store, hat, gloves, etc. Basically the point of the booth is to protect the rest of your garage from the overspray and keep dust, bugs, and whatever else, from settling onto to your fresh paint.



Like I mentioned upboard the prep before you lay on any paint is the hardest but most important part. I used a lot of swap meet parts on my build but even the new stuff needed some body work. Especially the rear fender which I had to cut and weld to radius it to contour to my tire. Now if you take your time and do your research painting isn't brain surgery but body work is. You need a good hand and eye here because every dimple, ripple, and scratch will show through the paint no matter how thick you lay it on. (And if you try to hide these imperfections with paint, STOP, you're doing it wrong!)

Most of us "econo" garage builders take a year, sometimes years, to finish our builds. (I'm on year two with mine.) But I see other guys who let their steel parts develop a coat of rust while waiting for paint. A very light coat of WD-40 (don't spray it on, wipe it on with a cloth) will prevent that and make the first stage of your prep much easier. But of course you need to make sure and get it all off before painting. Don't use any kind of dino oil to protect the metal. That soaks in and it'll never come out. So a good wash down with some of your OL's dishwashing detergent (Dawn or similar) will remove all the WD-40. Now do all your grinding and sanding. On the subject of smoothing welds on a frame. Good looking beads don't need smoothing! Besides I like the idea of being able to visually inspect welds later on. If the frame is good to go give it an all over light scuff with a fine grade wet sandpaper. You're looking to "scratch" the surface metal so the paint will stick, but at the same time not gouge it.

We didn't talk about primer yet. If you are painting a bare metal frame you'll want to prime it first. If it's an already painted frame you'll just need to do the body work and scuff it. Once all that's done blow it off with your air compressor and wipe it down with a final cleaner. I use MEK but be careful with that stuff as it's brutal. Wear a respirator, gloves, etc. Now put the part into your paint booth and give it a final wipe down with a tack cloth to remove any dust or whatever. Then shoot it.

Light Coats!!!!!!!!! I can't emphasis that enough. Your first shot is a tack coat only. You aren't going for full coverage on this first shot. Just enough to make a sticky surface. Let the tack coat flash, about 15 minutes, now shoot a first full coat. Let that flash and then a final coat. Problems like runs, sags, and orange peel are mainly from going too heavy on the shots and from temperature issues. So don't even think about painting if it's too cold or too hot. Between 70 and 80 degrees is good.

BTW, if using a spray gun, get that all setup pressure wise beforehand. The spec sheet that comes with your paint will "suggest" the settings, but practice on some spare steel until your happy. It's a PITA step but it pays off in the end. Now step back and admire your skill!

And guess what? You are going to see flaws. You are going to see them because you know where the problem areas were and you'll focus in on them. But as long as your buddy doesn't walk up and say, "Oh man, what the hell happened there?" You're fine.

Some folks say just go for it as any paint job can be fixed. But in a way that's BS. There's just too much work that goes into painting to think of it that way. I think of paint like welding, it's forever! If you go into it thinking you can fix it later you'll get sloppy and will have to fix it later. One thing about "flat" paints are they are a bit easier than glosses to fix as you don't have the wet edge issues. (If you don't know how the wet edge works look it up, it's important on any paint job.)

An aside on the Hot Rod Flatz. It comes, like I said, with a hardener, but also a "reducer." I tried it out and thought it too thin so I did the actual shots without any reducer at all and it was fine. But your equipment, the temperature, your skill level, and the phase of the moon affects all that so practice first!

The last thing to keep in mind is a good paint job, be it a flat black rattle can job or a high dollar Mona Lisa, is all an optical illusion. The dead straight lines, when inspected closely aren't really straight at all, and the curves are nowhere near mathematically correct, but when you stand back a bit and crack open a beer it just works. That's what you're going for. And when your buddy walks up and says, "What the hell happened there," just open another beer and tell him to go "F" himself!