I hate doing paintwork mate, But if i do i always take my time and only lay thin coats and flat off between them using wet and dry with soapy water. If you look at my avator pic of my race dd bike that's painted in radiant red.
Can't really see the bike, avy is too small! I'll have a look tomorrow. Hopefully will look better Cheers
Before I start sanding down the fairings and starting all over again, a quick question about the clear coat/lacquer - will this affect the final colour of the base coat? I find it hard to believe that my base coat could be so far off the OEM colour, so was wondering if the final lacquer coat will do anything other than making it shiny?
The lacquer won't alter the colour, but as you say it will make it shiny and 'richer'.......What will alter the colour is the sun...........Red is a b*****d colur to work with, (believe me, I'm an artist)...some reds go lighter over time, others darker.... ..but frankly I appear to have several panels on my bike of different shades which can be seen in the workshop...but in the sun, they don't show. AL.
Puh, I don't know whether to bother lacquering them or not now. When I spray red on a tester card and match the OEM panel and newly sparyed panel, they are virtually the same. I put the panels together and it's like one is red and the other is a completely different colour! I may just go for it and see what happens, if it's shit, I'll bite the bullet and get them done professionally. Right, need to find the correct decals now... Why is virtually impossible to find any Ducati bodywork/decals that match?
ir you are using a base coat and top clear the base colour will look very diferant before you put the top coat on it will look darker and duller , as soon as the clear goes on the paint will come to life , if you are useing cans warm the cans first and only spray in a warm room or the top coat will be very dull and will requre a lot of buffing . i built a spray booth in my workshop and i heat it before spraying that way at the end of the job the paint is like glass and requirs no buffing
Thanks for the tip of heating of the cans. Did it last night and did it again for some coats. Less streaky, better colour and coverage is so much richer. I've decided to carry on using Nissan 526, (so maaaany coats), so I'll start with my first lacquer coat on Thursday.
The Nissan 526 is slightly more 'orange' than Radiant Red....(I think you will find it is the same red that was used on the Nissan 200SX)..........Be warned, with a lot of coats and then two of lacquer (don't FFS do it on a cold damp day....it will bloom, possibly even if you did in the lounge) it will take a long time to dry and will be soft enough to pick up fingerprint marks permanently.......and stick to the bolts/washers to fix it to the bike. AL.
Al, hopefully the orange won't be too noticeable in sunlight? That red on the Nissan doesn't look too dissimilar to my bikes colour. The tank has discoloured over the years an is slightly orange, fingers crossed. I'm going to do the coat on Thursday as I think the weather is nice plus I'm leaving the paint to dry for 48 hours. Going to wet sand the paint with 2000 grit and then lacquer a couple of coats. Then may leave it till friday, add a couple more and then leave it for yonks! Got a room at work which is quite warm to leave it in for some time.
Thanks, and they've got a sale on! I'm still looking for one more decal though... I need the link/lines where it says Desmo.
So.....Your tank has discloured and gone lighter, eh? And you wonder why Radiant Red doesn't match it!!.......Actually in fairness, my tank has discloured and is darker than Radiant Red......sunlight plays absolute havoc with red paints and they could go any direction, light or dark. I only use 1000 grade wet and dry, I even think that is sometimes too smooth..... In sunlight you can't tell the difference between Nissan 526 and Ford Radiant Red on my mirrors....I did one in each as an experiment; but in general I use the 526 as base coat/s under the Radiant Red. I would be interested to see if you are charged the advertised price on the decals that motojohn directed you to. AL.
Haha! No, the tank has gone orange! I've been matching the work-in-progress panel with one an OEM one that I bought two weeks. Seeing that is what is most people will see first, it needs to be as close as possible. I'll let you know about the decals, I'll purchase the Ducati and Desmo ones tomorrow after getting the measurements. It's cheap so if it's naff, I've paid for what it's worth.
Anyone actually know about decal types? I called the place that motojohn offereed and the guy on the phone put my head in a spin about flat decals, vinyl decals, printed decals, wizard decals! He said that if I'm going for the orginal OEM type of decal then it needs to printed in a way but I had stopped listening as I was worried about my sandwich going soggy. He also said something about £40 for something. Anyone recently put decals on and what was the quality like? I just need to match the OEM fairings and I thought they were vinyl as they protude a bit?
go for flat vinyl for one colour but you may have to go for printed two colours like the 906 on a paso
The OEM Half fairng I have here, had a three colour vinyl Desmo decal.......(Black. white, grey)......It was the OEM decal as well.......self adhesive under two coats (at least) of lacquer........it was proud of the fairing surface. As I said, watch the price.......he has a double 750 Supersport decal on there for £2.78 or something like that....the size I need adds a bit but not much...when I rang him he said it was a pricing mistake and should be over £20........I note the website price hasn't changed. When he says 'flat' does he mean a matt finish? AL.
not shure on that one , i thought flat was a thinner vinyl that had to be lacquered as some can go on top of the paint and some are domed with a jell top
The 'image works' ones are printed, not layered vinyls and most bike paint shops use them. They're top notch quality and they match exactly to the standard ones. They do sets for the early SS's which include all the right stripes and logos (black, silver and white) and the later ones (gold and silver). A full set for an early SS is £34, I've got a set ready to go on the superlight when I get round to sorting the bodywork. They are often on Ebay, but none listed at the moment. Just give them a ring and they'll sort you out Ian.
