Painting question

[kat600rdr]

Just a quick question.. How many spray cans of paint/clear/primer should I get to do an enitre post kat.. No major body damage just wet sand/prime/paint. Any help would be great. Thanks.

[decdrummer]

I did three each(primer 3x, base 3x) But I sanded a lot between coats and did not use clear. That worked for me

[kat600rdr]

Thank you..I was guessing 3-4 each.. but wanted to see what else people have used.

[hinow41]

I painted my ninja 500 all the plastics and tank. Used 3 cans of paint and 4 of clear. The katana has a bit more plastics to paint. I would go for 4 cans base and 5 clear. Just in case you need to touch something up.

[burrsg101]

I painted my buddies gsxr this summer (he literally got run over by some stupid old people) and did some repair work, but we went to a paint store i knew back home and had him mix up the heaviest primer he could and put it in a rattle can, and then we used 370z metallic black because it looked really sexy and was a 2 stage (base and clear) and had him put that in some rattle cans as well. Just used regular clear in a rattle can. Once the fiberglassing and bondo was done i threw down about 3 thick coats of primer and wet sanded to perfection (would've used more if the primer wasnt so thick) then about 4 light coats of paint that got steadily heavier with each coat starting off very light so as not to run, wet sanded a TINY bit, and put like 6 coats of clear on to make it look extra deep same method as the paint. It turned out better than most body shops can do with a spray gun and real paint booth, and that was with black paint which is just about the hardest color to get perfect. Came out looking real deep and shiny and a million times better than the ugly flat red crap the previous owner had painted on. Overall to sum it up i think we used like 4 or 5 cans of primer and the same for paint and clear, and its been almost a year of it getting hit by helmets and flexed and massivley heated under the sun, keys banged into it, people rubbing on it....it gets abused as far as paint goes, and its not actually showing a single crack or scratch.

[Mojoe]

with the right paint, it is very possible to get a show room paint job with rattle cans....but like I said, has to be the right paint. I don't have much faith in any of the "off the shelf" paints just for the fact that the hardener is inferior because they have to withstand long(er) shelf lives....where as if you do what burrsg did, and have an automotive paint supply store fill you up a few cans of the good stuff, you will be much better off. from what I have heard of people paying for stuff like color-rite and such, I think it is actually cheaper for the good stuff.

[hardlydangerous]

it is cheaper for good paint.
the last spray job cost $100 for dupli-color spray cans. In order to properly polish the clear you need 2x the clear over the color. if you use 4 color you need 8 clear... for a proper job. I have seen hundreds of crappy rattle can jobs. The good ones are done right and that requires a lot more clear so it can be wet sanded and polished.

a qt of dupli-color paint shop paint is $22
qt of 2k clear is about $40
hardener $20
$15 for a HVLP gun

it will cost almost that for rattle cans. but this is a professional quality job

you can get awesome results with spray cans... I can prove it. but it will never be as strong or as durable as a 2 part clear. you cant use a tank bag on spray can paint jobs and stone and clothing will easily damage it. If you get any fuel on a spray can paint job it will be ruined instantly

I have painted a few bikes with my HVLP guns from habor freight and its so much easier then spray paint cans. The Dupli-color professional paint shop paints are ready to use, just pour it and spray it. 2 med coats then clear with 2 med coats of a 2K 4:1 clear.

[thainglo]

HD - what has been your experience with the Duplicolor for longevity? I got talked out of it by an Autozone employee when asking about how well the Duplicolor clear stood up to gas spills. His comment was the paint was poor quality overall, so I moved on to the body shop for supplies.

Wondering if I missed an opportunity there!

it is cheaper for good paint.
the last spray job cost $100 for dupli-color spray cans. In order to properly polish the clear you need 2x the clear over the color. if you use 4 color you need 8 clear... for a proper job. I have seen hundreds of crappy rattle can jobs. The good ones are done right and that requires a lot more clear so it can be wet sanded and polished.

a qt of dupli-color paint shop paint is $22
qt of 2k clear is about $40
hardener $20
$15 for a HVLP gun

it will cost almost that for rattle cans. but this is a professional quality job

you can get awesome results with spray cans... I can prove it. but it will never be as strong or as durable as a 2 part clear. you cant use a tank bag on spray can paint jobs and stone and clothing will easily damage it. If you get any fuel on a spray can paint job it will be ruined instantly

I have painted a few bikes with my HVLP guns from habor freight and its so much easier then spray paint cans. The Dupli-color professional paint shop paints are ready to use, just pour it and spray it. 2 med coats then clear with 2 med coats of a 2K 4:1 clear.

[hardlydangerous]

The dupli-color paint shop clear sucks, the guy was 100% right.... you need to use a 2 part uarthane clear on a motorcycle tank. Although the paint shop clear is better then a spray can its still a soft lacqure paint.
but for base colors like black, orange, red. blue etc its better then spray paint by a long shot

for a good clear on a car or bike a 4:1 urathane clear is a better solution.

FWIW I use have used Creatx and auto air water based colors, dupli-color spray paint and dupli-color paint shop as base paints and cleared with u-tech Urathane. incliding this last paint job
its dupli-color graphite wheel rattle can spray paint with u-tech 4:1 clear sprayed with my $15 Harbor freight gun

[thainglo]

Agree on the HF gun. I went with the slightly fancier version ($40) with its attached regulator and additional adjustments. Got it dialed in pretty well for the base coat. Not as smooth as I wanted, but I'm chalking that 100% up to user error.

[kat600rdr]

I called my local paint shop and they can put PPG paint in aerasol cans their. (Not the omni brand) I priced everything and with 4 cans of each and all the supplys (mask, sand paper,etc) it will run me right under 300.. This is for the paint scheme I want.. I know what I'll be doing this winter