Painting questions & fixing cracked plastic

[dasfzero]

hey guys. im new to the forum and street bikes and recently purchases a 93 fzr600r.
I want to give my bike a custom paint job and am curious as to if the method i am thinking of would be effective or if there is a better method.

My plan is to sand all the plastic fairings using a very fine paper, give them a base coat, then tape off the paint scheme i want followed by a clear coat. I have all the equipment i would need to do this just not the paints
What type of paints/clear coat should i use?
Is there a specific tape that will allow me to paint good clean lines?
Anything else i should be aware of before i begin?

I am also curious as to the best method to fix cracks in the plastic fairings. My front fairing has a crack (approx 5") just below the headlights in the middle of the plastic. The crack does not run to any edges of the molding. I think i would be able to repair this and make it look like it was never there but dont know anything about fixing this type of damage.

This is going to be my winter project and i want to having it looking like it just came off the assembly line.
thanks for the help and tips!
chip

[dougs]

The plastic crack is an easy one use plastex have a look on the wiki
(button on top right) full instructions on there as for paint I would use 2k (two pack) paint it is as hard as nails and fairly easy to get (in the UK) don't forget to use a good plastic primer on any exposed plastic first
As for edge tape Lowes have some great tapes like frog tape that works really well if in doubt test a panel first

[yamaha_george]

Hi,
the original panels on the FZR were only ever base coloured and the other colours (red /blue etc) were tape/vynal sheet stickers.

If you are just re-doing the original colour scheme then rubbing down the clear coat with 600-800-1200 grit is fine.

HOWEVER if you are doing a totally new custom scheme you need to use a hairdrier / heat gun to remove the tape decals. You mayl then have to use solvent to remove the glue residue and rub the whole thing down with wet or dry.

WORD of Warning :- some solvents will also remove the PLASTIC so test first in an out of sight spot.

A good filler primer used after the plastics primer will get rid of any imperfections. Then paint away.

As for masking tapes depends on what paint & thinning agent you use, I used a lot of acrylic bases based paints and have used standard masking tapes in various widths and scotch tape for real fine detail edging.

With Laquers scotch tape will NOT work as the thinners is also the gum dissolver for scotch tapes !

Remember lots of fine coats is better than one heavy coat, the last colour coat should be very light & have more thinners in it to raise the gloss element in the paint.

The guy who taught me worked for Rolls Royce and his saying was "if you plan to take a week to do the job, take 3 weeks on the prep and 1 week painting."

see:-
for some of my work under a shade tree in the west indies :-

http://www.saltmine.org.uk/kgb/gallery.html


Plastic repairs see the WIKI on the PLASTEX how -to nothing better for the job in my book.

[taggy]

2k is pretty evil stuff, decent ventillation and masks are a minimum to be safe.

[yamaha_george]

2k is pretty evil stuff, decent ventillation and masks are a minimum to be safe.

YUP contains a component of Cyanide I believe

[mikevanunen]

I have not tried the plastifix but heard it works good. Expensive thogh. Plastic welding rods and a heat gun is the best way to go. It's easy to get the hang of and when done right there is no stronger repair you could make because the plastic will flex the same as the base plastic. Anything stronger or less or more flexible will seperate from the plastic and that is not something fun after you finish a paint job. I can sometimes weld up from both sides holes/scrathces that go all the way through and sand them down and not even need filler but often times a thin glaze is used. Use plastic to fill in as much plastic as you can, filler only on the tiny holes and imperfections left when sanded down after the welding. The stickers and glue is a s.o.b! I carefully grind them off with a 40-80 grit DA sander and then go over the mess with lighter grits until smoother.
Don't waste your time with anything in a rattle can! you wont get the durability, chem resistence and u.v as you will a hi quality 2 part paint. For body work that isn't perfect primer with polyesterr primer surf. Custom shop makes a good one. I use pcl it is awsome! sprays like body filler and sands like a dream. The newer stuf these days are flexibible unlike the same labels a few years back due to more advanced resins.
I don't even feel most car paint is durable enough for bikes let alone rattle cans. Polyurethane is number 1 choice. You won't need a flex agent and it bonds better and much more durable. I use PPG Delfleet essential single stage. It is made for semi trucks that need extra durability. Some people paint their airplanes with this stuff even though it isn't jet fuel proof, it stands up to gas, brake fluid, acetone etc.
If you got a good gun and know what your doing you could just spray it and your done. I always sand it down to glass and work up in grit to 3000. Then I compound and polish but you better get this part done with in a day or two or it becomes imposible to buff when cured and it dont matter what kind of machine you have. Thats a good thing because it wont scratch easy like something more buffable after cured will.
Im almost done doing a complete set of fzr1000 fairings with single light up with jet black and it is turning out to be a dream. This black is blacker then any black I have seen and when held up to any standard brand new car or truck oem paint job, makes the cars look not so good. To get them this pretty will take a lot of hard work and a whole lot of time but worth it if you want to look as good if not better then oem. Im lucky if I make 4-5 bucks an hour restoring fairings but it's what I love to do.
If anybody is interested in a whole set fzr1000 hit me up for picks