It’s going to be a couple of months before it’s warm enough to paint, so I’m just gathering information while I think about the prep work.
I’m sure everybody knows that my 1994 Yamaha XJ600 Seca II was stolen and was recovered trashed. Originally it was Faraway Blue. I want to restore it in Reddish Yellow Cocktail. That’s what I really wanted, and the NOS fuel tank is YRC.
There are five plastic body pieces: The front fairing, the front fender, left- and right side fairings, and the tail fairing. Both side fairings are damaged. I have a ‘like new’ right-side fairing in YRC, so that one will not need to be painted. The replacement left-side fairing is YRC, but has some rash and it has an XJ600N decal on it. That one will need to be repainted. The front fairing, the fender, and the tail fairing are the original Faraway Blue pieces, and have been sprayed with flat black spray paint.
Reddish Yellow Cocktail is a three-stage paint: A base coat, a colour coat (I think), and a clear coat. Amazon will not ship to this state, but I have some rattle cans from a manufacturer in California. I do not have a compressor or spray gun. I don’t think this will be a problem with the smaller parts, but I’m wondering if I’m up to the task of painting the large front fairing evenly.
And now to the solicitation of advice.
How do I prep the parts for painting? Do I need to remove all of the old paint? Or do I just need to sand them down and smooth and spray them with primer?
What grit sandpaper should I use to remove the old paint?
What grit should I use before applying the primer and paint?
I think I read somewhere that the YRC won’t be shiny until it has a clear coat. Is that correct?
Right now, pending answers from people who actually know what they’re doing (which I don’t), I’m thinking of using 100 grit to remove a lot of the paint, followed by 220 grit to smooth it out, and then 1,000 grit for an ultra-smooth surface. Is 1,000 grit too smooth before the primer coat? Or could I get by with 220 grit, spray on the primer, and use 220 grit for that? What about the base coat? I still think I should use 1,000 grit on the colour coat and the clear coat. I’d like a ‘factory’ finish, but I’d rather not over-do it.
That’s all I can think of for the time being. I’ll probably get tedious going forward.
Hubs (who used to be in the biz) read your post and said he really couldn’t help. He tries to keep up with things but says that about 7 years ago, paints changed so much that he doesn’t want to point you in the wrong direction.
He says that a decade ago, he would never use anything smoother than 220 for the primer or base coat, they both need something to grip. Now he hears about folks using 600 grit for certain paints, but never a 1000 grit.
He says that you really can’t do three-stage paints with a rattle can because every layer of paint must be perfectly even or the colors will look different from side to side.
But again, he says his advice is a decade old and there have been many changes in paints since then so double check everything I’ve posted.
He also says, and I agree, that we want pics of the finished job, he looked the bike up and that’s a very good looking machine.
Fortunately, the bike is three decades old. 220 it is.
Alas, I don’t have a choice. I thought I could spray it on as evenly as possible, and then sand down anything that looks thicker; hopefully making everything even.
Even though it’s 30 years old, I think the design holds up.
My brother was a pro 30 years ago and when I asked him for advice 2 years ago on painting my old car he stressed that I needed to not scratch the material (bondo) too deeply, but then again not to sand it with too fine a grit. So your 220 idea is a good one. Then the primer must be able to fill the scratches you make while shaping and smoothing the surface, and when the primer fully dries it may “shrink” and expose those scratches, so important to allow time between operations. good Luck!
I don’t want to hijack my own thread, and I hope this post doesn’t. Back in the '90s the bike slid out from under me on a curve, and I damaged a muffler. I decided to switch from 2-into-2 to 4-into-1. The Vance & Hines muffler really is too loud, so I’ve decided I’d go back to 2-into-2. The trouble is that a new right muffler costs $700, and left ones are not available; so I bought a couple of salvaged ones that have road rash on them. Can I use Bondo on mufflers?
Mufflers get too hot for Bondo. I’ve seen damaged mufflers covered with a clean heat shield for appearance. I’ve seen that there are high heat fillers on the market. Don’t know if they’d work on a muffler.
