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Sanding fairings after accident

7K views 43 replies 12 participants last post by  jlpierce 
#1 ·
I am in the process of repairing my 2007 R6S after an accident I had. In short I locked up the front tire and went for a ride, the bike flipped and landed on its top, and then landed on me. All is well.
My question is when sanding the ABS plastic do you have to get all of the paint out down to the bare plastic? Or do you need to just get through the clear coat? See pics for examples: Thanks!
 

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#5 ·
Thanks for the quick replies. I suffered a broken collar bone which is still kicking my butt 2 weeks later. All things considered that wasn't bad cause that bike was sitting on my head and shoulder when it came to rest.
I sanded the undertail with 150 and then block sanded it with 320. As you can see the clear coat is gone so, now it should be ready for priming? I plan on using Eastwoods candez system. Anybody have experience with that? Do I have to use an adhesion promoter before priming the ABS plastic? I'll be using Eastwood Epoxy Primer. Thanks!
Got the first crash out of the way.
 
#6 ·
OK, got everything sanded down with 320 grit and the tank is temporarily rattle canned primed until my order gets here. I will be using the epoxy primer on the tank and a urethane on the plastics, and only the raw ABS plastic needs an adhesion promoter. Does that sound about right? Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
 

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#9 ·
I dabble in paint, been doing it a couple years now. Your plan is running in the right direction. Only bare materials need a primer, but I suggest priming the entire surface. After you let the primer dry, take a look at the piece from all angles and if there are any imperfections then the primer will bring them to sight. This way you don't spray color on your part just to find out you have a pin hole or some other imperfection. If you find a flaw that you cannot live with, wet sand the primer and spray again. If it's a deep flaw then you need to use some Bondo spot puddy, let dry, wet sand smooth, prime again, inspect, repeat if necessary.

Certain flaws in spots that aren't easily noticeable I wouldn't go through the trouble of making perfect, but of course that's all up to you. For large flaws after fiberglass or plastic weld repairs I recommend Bondo short strand fiberglass body filler. It's a two part product (add hardener) with fiberglass hair already in it. You mix it up and spread it on with a grocery store plastic card (well that's what I used since they're free, flexible, and work perfectly). Just make sure you add the correct amount of hardener; too little and the shit will take forever (like a day) to dry, or too much and it'll dry before you get a chance to spread it on evenly. I like to add a little more than recommended since it takes a quick mix, scoop up with the card, then slap it on the part. It'll dry enough for sanding in like 20 minutes or so. Great stuff.

Hope that helps.
 
#11 ·
The putty adheres to primer, but I don't recall if it will adhere to bare metal or not. It'll say so on the back of the tube. I used the Bondo body filler on my Kawasaki tank to fill in a dent, then spot putty to level it all out before priming. I had to go back over that spot a few more times but it came out pretty good.
 
#12 ·
Alright, thanks LJ. I've got some bondo filler and will redo the tank tomorrow. Nothing like a little rework.
I've got one more question about the primer...I've got both a 2k urethane primer and an epoxy primer. The way I understand it is that the epoxy will give better protection against gasoline spills on the tank and will adhere better to raw metal. And that the urethane will adhere better to raw ABS plastic (I've got one new piece). Can I just use urethane on the whole bike or does the tank have to be epoxy????? Help please.
 
#13 ·
As far as gasoline protection goes that should be up to your clear coat, not the primer. Urethane or epoxy I'm not totally sure. I'd pick one and go with it. I've had good results from the cheap rattle can stuff so either one you have should be fine.
 
#15 ·
OK, I think I've got a plan of action. I called and spoke with a service tech at Eastwood. I will epoxy the tank for the sealant and then hit everything with urethane for the flexiablity. I'll start spraying Sunday or Monday and I'll post back again. Thanks.
 
#17 ·
That's basically what I did in my garage and it worked pretty well. I made my booth a little small though, so it was a little hard to move around, but it was do-able. I built it next to a window and put up a box fan facing out, too.

Good luck with the paint.
 
#20 ·
oh man, the orange candy paint looks great. but, i made so many mistakes...
everything i painted has orange peel (kinda ironic). i had a real hard time getting the candy paint to cover without stripping or spotting. and i ran out of orange paint. now i am block wet sanding with 600 and 1000 grit to get rid of the orange peel. since i have to get more paint and i have to sand everything again do you think i can repaint with a regular paint without re-priming???? i am afraid to get more orange because of the stripping and spotting. any ideas why so much orange peel? i was going with light coats, too much air pressure?
 

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#21 · (Edited)
HVLP guns are really hard to spray without orange peel. It takes a lot of practice and technique. Not like the older guns. HVLP uses about 15 psi at the gun (opposed to like 60 psi in the old ones.) But don't worry about it. orange peel can be taken care of with 1500 grit and buffing with a finishing compound. It'll come out like glass.

The only issue with buffing plastic is that it is not very stiff. Try to rig up a stand that can hold the piece securely and use light pressure with the buffer.


You can fix a lot of bad application with post prep, but you can't fix bad prep with paint application. So, far, it sounds like you are doing OK. Good luck!
 
#22 ·
Thanks 8ball i'm trying to be patient. I went ahead and ordered more orange candy and i will live with the stripping or spotting just not the orange peel. I sanded one piece down with 600 and 1000 grit and was planning on repainting evrything with more orange, i just want to make sure everything is covered. I have some spots where the candy orange is alot thinner. When you mentioned the compound you are prefering to after the clear, right? I thought that i have to get rid of the peel before the clear coat. Any advice is greatly appreciaed!
 
#23 · (Edited)
Use 600 between coats. And yeah, the 1500 grit and buffing is after clear. But 600 will smooth out in between coats. As far as getting rid of ALL the orange peel between the coats, it won't show up as bad as you'd think if it ain't perfect.

Best advice is to get some test panels and practice so you can get the gun adjusted and your technique down.


Candy is tough because it has to be even because the color darkens where it is thicker. Pearl and flakes are the same way. I'll tell ya, a candy is a brave first paint job!!

Edit: Oh yeah, pick up some prepsol wipes to clean the piece after sanding, in between coats. Wipe the piece in one direction, and let the prepsol dry (it only takes a few seconds).
 
#24 ·
Yeah i got in over my head. What do you think the best route is now? If i go with a single stage i am guessing that a quart wont cover it without repriming. I think i will sand down everything with 600 and hit it again with the orange candy and just live with the different color shades. Or spend another $100 and reprime it with a single stage.
 
#25 ·
Before I started over, I'd wet sand it down w/ 600 (go lightly on the thin sections) and spray more orange. The darker (thicker) the candy is, the less visible the color changes are. See if you can get it looking good. But keep in mind, you will end up with a shade that will be darker than what you may have had in mind to begin with....that's OK. The trick is to even it out. If you can't, then go ahaead with a single stage.

Another thing, as you wet sand, the water will give you an idea of what it will look like with clear.

Good luck. Just be patient.

BTW, I don't generally give advice on painting 'cause I don't consider it something I do particularly well. But I have painted a couple of single color bikes, some metallic piece-parts and the tank on my R6 to match my yellow bodywork, which has a mid-coat pearl (see link). But again, I ain't that good. I usually end up doing alot more post prep than I think I should have to.

http://www.r6-forum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129729&highlight=
 
#28 ·
You don't re-prime over the paint you've already sprayed. Wet sand and spray again. Primer is really for something for the color coat to stick to since it won't stick well to bare materials like metal and plastic.

You just need to practice to minimize the orange peel. After your color coats are done, spray the clear. After your clear coats are dry, you can wet sand and polish up. The clear will fill in the orange peel on the color coat basically, so after the right amount of wet sanding and polishing/buffing, there will be no more orange peel (or very very little depending how bad it was before spraying the clear).

Practice, practice, practice. That's all you can do. I'm still not great at paint, but I'm good enough to make my paint not look cheap (i.e. rattle canned flat black).
 
#29 ·
Here are some pics of my first paint job with a spray gun on my Kawi. Not great, but good enough to look pretty decent I think. I used cheap Duplicolor Paint Shop paint from my local auto parts store, so I think that has something to do with why it doesn't look better. That and the clear coat sucks so I have scuffs to buff out. What do you expect for $23/qt? Lol. It's lime green pearl and jet black.

Up close you can see the paint isn't as smooth as factory, but at the same rate I've seen cars with paint that looks the same texture-wise as my bike, so I don't feel bad.
 

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