where to get paint?

[riverajay23]

Hello KR members,
I've been reading for awhile how to paint my motorcycle, but my question is where do i get the paint from? I want to get that orange color (gm and ford seem to used it a lot lately) This might be a stupid question but is there a difference between car vs motorcycle paint? Anyways, main thing is finding out where to get my orange color so i can get started. I will most likely powder coat my tank black and the bottom fairing black also. Thanks.

[Hegmann1391]

colorrite.com is a good place to start. You can find pretty much any stock paint you need, but if you search for different colors you can find them.

[Sasquatch]

try google. HoK has nice paints. As far as powder coating, did you mean your going to pc your lower fairing?

[teddy]

If you want to rattle can it, most any automotive store that carries DuPont has the ability to put custom colors in rattle cans, and is usually cheaper than colorrite from my experience for a much better product anyway.

[Kreylyn]

The quick 101 on painting......

Paint in general...

Comes in several different types, and will vary in costs depending on color, effects, and resistances your looking for. Most cars and vehichles when professionally painted use a multi step process of applying a sealer, then primer, then color (additional stages may occur here if your wanting sparkles in the paint, etc...) then a clear coat over top of it all. You may also see multiple coats applied at any of those stages depending further on fine tuned effects you want to see... for example, most show cars have multiple coats of clear coat to give the effect of lots of depth and smoothness so that you can easily see a clear reflection of yourself.

The second thing to consider is that auto grade clear coats are much more resistant to oil and gas. Cheap clear coats will allow gas to eat the paint and cause discoloration, or worse.... paint removal.

Spray cans....

Available at most places that sell any kind of auto parts, home improvement supplies, or other hardware stores. Anywhere from lowes, to advance auto, to walmart will have various kinds. You have options from one coat-color to multi steps processes as well. In general, most spray can paints will be less durable than "pro" multi step paints... but can still be made to look great. The prep is the key to a good looking paint job, much more so than the paint at the start. More durable paints will simply last longer through abuse, but both will look bad if the preperations are bad.

Powder coat....

Is just that... a powder that is sprayed onto a part, and then heat is applied for a short duration (around 20ish mins) to cure the paint into a tough, chip resistant finish. Some advanced colors include multiple stages as well. This is generally only used on metal parts as the heat is upwards of 375+ degrees... and most plastics would melt or deform at that temp.

Anodizing....

Not a paint, but a process where metal is "Dyed" a color just like clothing for example. Normally the process includes some not so friendly chemical baths, timed electrolysis, and for best results... specially designed dye baths. Most often used on aluminum.

Hope that helps...

Krey

[BigFish]

Hello KR members,
I've been reading for awhile how to paint my motorcycle, but my question is where do i get the paint from? I want to get that orange color (gm and ford seem to used it a lot lately)

TCPGlobal.com is a great place to start. I recently painted my bike and found that not all paints are created equal. Things went a LOT faster once I started using a quality paint. The place I went to is a Sherwin-Williams distributor and most everything they sold me has a Matrix label on it. TCPGlobal.com has these same products and you can order over the internet. I've been to their local warehouse, and it's huge. You can also find some of their stuff on e-bay. The other local guys (Kearny Mesa Auto Paint) I worked with were more helpful but TCPGlobal is more established online.

If you know which make and model of car has that color of orange then they'll be able to make it for you. Rattle cans are kind of ok, and in the right hands can produce nearly the same quality with less effort (considering cleanup). If you go that route I'd suggest getting a quality rattle can (SEM for example) that provides the color you want, and as Krelyn says, make sure to use a quality clear coat. The best clear coats are the ones that have to be mixed before being sprayed.

This might be a stupid question but is there a difference between car vs motorcycle paint?

I think the underlying question here is, should auto paint be used on a motorcycle? The answer to that is yes. The difference in paint is negligible, but the painting methods are different. OEM motorcycle parts are generally dipped while auto parts are given a static charge and sprayed. The way that you paint the parts will definitely be different. For the tank, grab bar and anything else metal, you'll want to sand down to the metal and then spray with a self etching primer, then paint your base coat over that, etc.

For the plastic parts you'll probably want an adhesion promoter (like Bulldog). Those are a pain because when sprayed you generally get too much which causes runs or an orange peal texture depending upon temperature, or too little which limits adhesion. I wound up spraying it on a cloth and wiping it on to avoid this, which added some texture and increased my sanding time . You'll also want to sand these down to the plastic. You can try just sanding through the clear coat, but risk getting a reaction with the underlying paint, which means you'll wind up wasting paint, re-sanding and repainting. I know this from experience.

I will most likely powder coat my tank black and the bottom fairing black also.

That's a very interesting look. Would the rest be orange? Have you run this through photoshop to see what it will look like? If not feel free to upload a photo and send me a PM and I'll do it.

If you want to be unique and have access to a spray gun consider whether you want to do something unique. Pearls, metal flake and candy all look really good on motorcycles, but sadly people usually reserve that for the cruisers. I've got a blue base coat with a subtle teal midcoat with silver and green metal flake, under a quality clear coat. It looks amazing in the sun, and decent in pictures...and I haven't even buffed it yet.

[mreedohio]

i wouldn't recommend colorrite with expierence i had with their paint.

[kevin2502000]

Nason paint is very reasonable, very easy to work with and looks good. You can get it at some Oreilly's.

[GTSE OLDMAN]

I went to NAPA and CarQuest to get my paint each time. The biggest thing was the prep work and the primer Dupont Primer for plastic was great. I went Volvo blue first and then Gm blue was what i settled with. PREP WORK IS KEY!!

[riverajay23]

Thanks for the responses. I meant to say that the tank was going to be pc black and the bottom fairing painted black. I do have access to a paint gun, and not i haven't run my color scheme through a photoshop (I'll pm you later with a pic, thanks for doing that)