SO I could use a little advice on painting your own plastics.. Fairings an etc. ie. what paint ? What aftercoats ? Sanding methods you know.. the goodies. Thanks  

I am interested in learning as well... being able to paint seems like a valuable skill to have.  

I'm a painter.  Pm me what you need help with and i'll get back with you.  

Chris  

This is generally, what I do (I may have left a step or two out):

depending on the brand of paint you are using, to make the paint sprayable, you may need a reducer, for example "ppg" paint normally requires you to reduce it, to thin it out so that it can be applied to your part.

also, your gonna need a hardener (so that your paint will dry) and depending on the temp, youll need either fast, med, or slow drying (if its real cold, you can use a fast hardener) cali weather i normally use a medium hardener. you may also want to use a flex agent (mixed in with your single stage). usually it will tell you how to mix it, should be something like 2 cap fulls per quart (depending on brand, etc.

i also recommend using an plastic adhesion promoter on you bikes plastic (which is sprayed on after primer and body work)

as far as paint guns (HVLP), i have binks, sata (to spray actual paint base coats, kandys etc), and cheaper brands to spray on primers/adhesion promoters.

you can get the job done with cheaper brands. the most important factor is going to be the tip size, generally youll want to use a size 1.4 for spraying clears and your base coats or single stage.

i use 1.8 or 2 for spraying the primer.

to save a little money, some guns allow you to interchange the tips, so you could buy one gun and use it to apply different stages of the painting process. the cheaper guns usually come in one size only.

i hope this helps and makes sense to you. if i am not making sense, just ask some questions and ill help you as best i can

so to sum it up, you may need (for a basic job):

spray gun HVLP, tip sizes 1.4 and 1.8 or 2

single stage paint

reducer

flex agent

primer

adhesion promoter

hardener

this is why it may be better to save the money up and pay someone who paints bikes for a living, there are many companies that do it and at a lower cost than what you would expect...





 

some steps:
1. body work if necessary (you could actually just scotch bright the fairing if no damage or scratches).

2. primer (if needed) and more sanding, etc.

3. wetsand primer (get most imperfections out at this point)

4. clear sealer (adhesion promoter for plastic), thin coat, helps base bond to plastic and helps prevent peeling/cracking, etc. in long run

5. spray base coat (with flex agent)

6. wetsand base (if doesnt lay down properly) using 1000 or 1200

7. Clear coat (at least 3 or 4 coats)

8. color sand and buff/polish and

if your painting a job similar to my paint job (where its a 3 or 4 stage paint)
in between steps 6 and 7, you would spray the "midcoat". You would not wet sand or even sand the midcoat! then you would go on to 7 and 8. most people miss alot of steps or cut corners, but when done properly you could create a show paint job out of your garage. my paint job took about three days (total of about 16 hours, give or take a few hours for "goofing off" moments)