What a sense of relief to be done with the painting...To those of you who are painters or who have painted and are rookies like me you know exactly what I mean. Painting in itself is a very technical adventure...there are so many things that can go wrong when you don't have the experience to know. The two things I can tell you about painting that are critical to your mental sanity are these...Never ever ever use a rattle can (spray can) to paint or primer your bike....it probably cost me an additional 300-400 dollars worth of material to correct mistakes related to spraying with these demonic devices due to "spitters" (extra globs of paint). Temperature is also important...Paints are meant to be used at around 72-75 degrees...Using a rattle can outside in a light breeze at 55 degrees will **** with your sanity. You might think..just sand the extra glob of paint down. which I did on some pieces a half of dozen times...but you still have the extra pigment even if it is flat. Did you know that paint is not only a paint...it is also a solvent..so when I would spray a color coat over the spray can primer..that extra pigmentation which is impossible to sand out unless you do down to bear plastic would react differently with the spitter pigmentation than it would with the flat gray of the rattle can primer..which would cause "lift" and would be readily visible in the black paint...a fricking nightmare at best... The second item is always get with a professional at the automotive paint shop or pro level painter...believe it or not these guys will share their experience with you and don't mind helping a nubie. I had to strip my gas tank down to bare metal twice and paint it three times before I got it right due to technical issues with compatibility of different paints, cleaners, and glue backings on frisket paper (frisket is a vinyl plastic cut out of a design that has a very light glue that acted as a mask over the red paint)....so, get professional advice...they don't mind telling you what paints go with what primers..what go with what clears...on and on...
Just a couple of extra pics and then it is time to work on the bike...
Just a couple of extra pics and then it is time to work on the bike...
