Has anyone spray painted there own bike and whats the best way?

I just bought a really cheap but very good fairing off of ebay for my zzr600 track bike but the colours are all different and although it does'nt really matter i thought about spraying it black as i do use it on the road as well sometimes.
I asked about a respray but they cost to much and have always fancied a go myself as ive got a garage.
So has anyone done this and whats the preparation, i.e sanding it down how much do you need to go down to, as well as theres the original stickers which look like not coming off easy shall i just paint over them, what grade sandpaper, shall i use paint cans or use me mates compressor and paint gun... any info gratefully received.

spray cans from halfords will be ok as it's only a track bike.  Rub it down - sandpaper it all lightly to give it a key then wipe down with a smooth cloth.

 Then shake primer up and spray it on as per instructions in a dust free, windless environment.

Then let it dry for an hour so it's touch dry then bang the clour you want on.... allow it to dry for an hour, then whack laquer on it if needed.

Wait 24hrs and job done.

Not good but it's done and it'll look ok til you lob it up the track.

All of my bikes were spray canned.

 check out www.dancannellracing.com for pics.

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Go To The Dan Cannell Racing Website

Good men do finish last....

"Food makes people fat - look at the people in the concentration camps... they went in fat but they weren't fat when they left.  It's simple innit."

Agree with CBR6DC, spray cans are good enough for a track bike (if you drop it regularly) and they save you the trouble/expense of kitting up to use 2 pack or whatever.

 BUT if you do want a harder wearing finish...the most important thing to remember if you use 2-pack is to get a forced air mask, or a proper organic filtered face mask if that's too expensive - I prefer the air fed ones because the saturation time on standard filters is pretty quick. Don't stick one of those dust mask things on, this paint is lethal in relatively low concentrations. Sorry if that's teaching you to suck eggs, but I'd rather tell you stuff you know already than not mention it at all 

Cost wise, you're looking round about £20 a litre for decent 2-pack, £20/l for etch primer,£8-9/l for hardener & thinner, and probably £15 for clear lacquer (which you can live without if you're not using metallic color). Most suppliers will sell you half litres, so adjust price accordingly. Pick a hardener according to how fast you want the paint to dry, they're graded as fast,normal or slow, so no prizes for guessing what each type does...If you don't have infrared heaters, slow probably isn't a good idea as it'll increase the amount of time for your paint job to gather fly cr*p and all the other natural goodness floating around in the air.

I generally recommend etch primer as it just seems to stick better to plastics than any of the dedicated plastic primers I've tried. You can buy the U-Pol spray cans for 12-15 a go, and as you don't need a lot that might be the way to go.

Stickers generally come of with a paint gun as they're only vinyl, so after stripping them just rub down with medium grade paper (600 grade is what I generally use on ungouged paintwork), then adjust this keying surface according to how much build you want from the primer. I usually lightly sand (800 -1000 grit)if I'm not covering too many scratches etc.

Always wipe down with panel degreasant/lint free cloth before spraying (yet more expense!), it does make a big difference to adhesion. Mix Primer/paint with hardener 1:3 or 1:4 and adjust the viscosity with thinner (about the same price as Hardener)  up to about 20-25% before spraying. For acid etch primer, start with a very light first pass - almost a 'dusting' - as it'll greatly reduce the chance of runs.  repeat as necessary. I usuallykey the primer with 1000-1200 grit paper then degrease before top coating - same 'first dusting' principle has worked well for me with topcoat as well.

 Note: you get 10-15 minutes with normal hardener before your spraygun turns to a block of solid pigment. Worth remembering, bitter experience speaks

Blimey thanks guys thats proper info, cant wait to give it a go, ill probably get it looking really great now, then throw it down the track on the first corner and rip my own spleen out and rupture my gizzard ... but cheers anyway

As it's for a track bike don't piss about too much.

Hairdrier to get old stickers off, then clean glue off with WD40.

If the original paint is good just rub over with 800 grit or an abrasive pad.

Then a couple of coats of primer, warm the cans in some hot water as this helps the propellant and drying.

Then top coat, warm the cans again.

Easy.

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Bringing bling to life

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Go to track 2 Come the Night written by our very own Katseye

Please visit the Charity Trackday site

A mind of useless info. If i can ever remember anything.

Demolish in a day. Rebuild in a decade

pauln_yzf wrote (see)

Agree with CBR6DC, spray cans are good enough for a track bike (if you drop it regularly) and they save you the trouble/expense of kitting up to use 2 pack or whatever.

 BUT if you do want a harder wearing finish...the most important thing to remember if you use 2-pack is to get a forced air mask, or a proper organic filtered face mask if that's too expensive - I prefer the air fed ones because the saturation time on standard filters is pretty quick. Don't stick one of those dust mask things on, this paint is lethal in relatively low concentrations. Sorry if that's teaching you to suck eggs, but I'd rather tell you stuff you know already than not mention it at all 

Cost wise, you're looking round about £20 a litre for decent 2-pack, £20/l for etch primer,£8-9/l for hardener & thinner, and probably £15 for clear lacquer (which you can live without if you're not using metallic color). Most suppliers will sell you half litres, so adjust price accordingly. Pick a hardener according to how fast you want the paint to dry, they're graded as fast,normal or slow, so no prizes for guessing what each type does...If you don't have infrared heaters, slow probably isn't a good idea as it'll increase the amount of time for your paint job to gather fly cr*p and all the other natural goodness floating around in the air.

I generally recommend etch primer as it just seems to stick better to plastics than any of the dedicated plastic primers I've tried. You can buy the U-Pol spray cans for 12-15 a go, and as you don't need a lot that might be the way to go.

Stickers generally come of with a paint gun as they're only vinyl, so after stripping them just rub down with medium grade paper (600 grade is what I generally use on ungouged paintwork), then adjust this keying surface according to how much build you want from the primer. I usually lightly sand (800 -1000 grit)if I'm not covering too many scratches etc.

Always wipe down with panel degreasant/lint free cloth before spraying (yet more expense!), it does make a big difference to adhesion. Mix Primer/paint with hardener 1:3 or 1:4 and adjust the viscosity with thinner (about the same price as Hardener)  up to about 20-25% before spraying. For acid etch primer, start with a very light first pass - almost a 'dusting' - as it'll greatly reduce the chance of runs.  repeat as necessary. I usuallykey the primer with 1000-1200 grit paper then degrease before top coating - same 'first dusting' principle has worked well for me with topcoat as well.

 Note: you get 10-15 minutes with normal hardener before your spraygun turns to a block of solid pigment. Worth remembering, bitter experience speaks

Just a bit OTT for a trackbike that will prob go down the road at least once a year.

---

Bringing bling to life

http://www.myspace.com/loosehounds

Go to track 2 Come the Night written by our very own Katseye

Please visit the Charity Trackday site

A mind of useless info. If i can ever remember anything.

Demolish in a day. Rebuild in a decade

Just rubbed the plastics down primed it 3 times and painted it with SIMONIZ acrylic black spray paint, it went on well but when i looked in the morning deep lines have appeared in it right down to the primer, i dont know why can anyone help?