I have a lot of experiance painting motorcycles and cars (relativly speaking) If you want to keep the bike and have a really nice paint job USE AUTOMOTIVE PAINT! The rattle can stuff from the local auto zone wont work. the paint doesn't have harndner in it so it will always be "soft" If gas comes in contact with the paint it will "swell" and "bubble". Real auto paint is mixed before used.
As far as the paint gun goes... you can get one for about $40, now a $40 paint gun is a piece of junk but it will get the job done. A pro gun would cost $300 and up!
For a real quality paint job get "2 stage" paint" From PPG It costs more than the other no name stuff but its the best. 2 stage paint means there is a "base coat" and a "clear coat". The 2 stage paint will give a deep rich look to your paint job.
For the best paint job spend 90% of your time on prep! The better your prep job the more awesome your final paint job will be.
step 1... bondo if needed... a very thin coat of bondo on your parts will smooth out any defects on the surface. If your parts don't have any dents or dings in them then skip the bondo.
Step 2 ....primer, you want to use "High fill latex" primer, or "Primer Sealer" The high fill primer can act as a bondo, filling in any small imperfections. Spray on and let dry compleatly. Get your primer at the paint store also... no rattle can stuff. Once the primer is dry sand with 125 grit paper then use 400 grit. If you sand off to much you will have metal showing if that happens you will have to reshoot the primer, NO METAL can show!!!! I like to finish sand the primer with 600 grit, it will give the primer almost a satin finish 600 grit is a "wet Sand" paper, soak your sand paper in water and cover the part in water then sand. Dont go above 600 grit because there won't be enought "scuff" on the primer for the paint to stick to.
step 3... Use a tack cloth and or "prep clean" to clean the surface of the parts that you are about to spray. If you are spraying in your garage make sure you wet down the floor and keep it as dust free as possible. Dust is your enemy!
Step 4 ... PAINT! Make sure you use a "resporator" not a paper face mask you need a quality resporator they cost about $30. If you new that you could have avoided getting canser 20 years earlier by spending $30 ... wouldn't you? Painting isn't hard its all about technique. you need to move the gun fast enough to lay the paint down smooth enough but not to fast because it will go on "dry". If you go to slow it will "wrinkle" if that happens STOP. let it dry and go back to step 2 (resand and start over) always spray past the part that you are spraying. spray the color in straight lines. each line should overlap the last line by about 30%. once you have an even coat of color paint down then you can spray in multiple directions to eliminate the "lines in the pain" (you'll know what that means when you do it). The color coat will dry in about 15 minutes, you should put on at least 2 coats, I like to put on 3 coats.
Step 5..... clear coat. Clear coat is harder to spray than the color base coat because you can't see it as well. you spray it in the same manner as you did with the color coat. The most important part of clear coat is to make sure you don't spray it on to thin because then it will be "dry". You also do not want to put it on to thick because then it will "sag" Sagging is when the clear coat sort of ... saggs, bad times. you should put at least 3 coats on ... wait at least 15 minutes between coats. Let the clear coat dry you will be able to touch it in 3 or 4 hours.
Step 6 COLOR SANDING Color sanding is another term for finish sanding. the clear coat when it dries will have an "orange peal" texture to the surface. In order to have a mirror finish to your paint job you need to get the orange peal off. Wet sand your with 1000 grit, 1500 grit and then 2000 grit. Make sure you do your sanding on a warm day in the shade and have a big bucket of water on hand. Keep the parts wet whenever you're sanding. 1000 grit will take off most of the orange peal the 1500 will take off the scratch marks from the 1000 grit and the 2000 grit will take off all the scratch marks. DONT SAND NEAR OR ON CORNERS YOU WILL SAND OFF THE PAIN AND HAVE TO START ALL OVER. If you are sanding and start to see color in the water (a milky white color is normal) then you have sanded through the clear coat and you messed up big time GO BACK TO STEP 4! this process will make your paint job look dull and you will feel like you just ruined all of your hard work .... don't worry you can fix it!
Step 7.... last step Polishing. You will need to buy a polisher (Ebay $50) well worth the money. buy 2 different liquid compounds, "course and fine" you should also buy 2 differnt buffing pads "course and fine" start with the course pad and compund then use the fine pad and compound. Keep the buffer moving, do not hold it in one place you will "burn" the paint. there is no need to press hard on the paint LET THE BUFFER DO THE WORK. Buff untill you don't see any scratches on the surface.
CONGRADULATIONS you have a professional quality paint job! Its a lot of work but it will last forever and you will be able to say, "Yeah, I painted that"
Good luck, I hope this helped
Matt-
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