Painting Bike

[HndaEtr]

a friend of my dad's said he would paint my bike for a REALLY good price. so i figured it may help sell it since there are quite a few scratches on various parts of the bike and also the flat spot (which the guy said he could fix) on the bike would be painted too.

now i just need to decide on what color i want it.
i def want a blue but not really sure which shade.

some of my thoughts were:
BMW LeMas Blue (older model M3's)
BMW Laguana Blue (new m3's)
Suburu STi Blue (wrx sti)
Honda Electric Blue (99-00 civic si)
Honda Vivid blue ( new civic si)
Yamaha Blue (of the r6/r1)

i've heard from a few people that repainting a bike will actually lower the value of it because people will assue its been down, but i figured it would just make them think we fixed it back right instead of the patch job it has now, for those of you who've seen my bike the black vynil on the left side is covering scratches from being layed down.

This paint job is going to cost me 250-300 (normally he charges 800+) so i figure its worth it. probly after it gets the paint it'll go on the floor of a dealer my friend works at, and with the new coat of paint i figured more people would take a look at it.

what do yall think?

[HS2020]

Sure go for it. You can always show people the before pics of the bike. Then you state that you wanted it to look better for the next owner. I paid $600 for my paint job.

[The CyberPoet]

A few thoughts come to mind:

(A) Got color swatch samples for us to choose from? Just teasing. I really like the STi blue... but if I paint another bike for myself, I'm going with Ascot or Triumph green (just a personal thing -- I think it's a sweet color and quite rare). The STi blue ought to be close enough to the 2001 stock factory blue color that people won't immediately notice that it isn't a factory paint job unless it's parked right next one with the late model factory blue.

(B) The quality of the paint and clearcoat is critical. Don't go cheap on the clearcoat, and make sure you use one that is gasoline/oil impervious and contains an UV blocker. Either that, or if your friend wants specifically to use a single-stage paint without a clearcoat (can't imagine why except to save time & effort), consider using an epoxy or "rockhard" paint, which won't give you the same number of color choices, but will stand up to anything that can be thrown at it.

(C) If you're worried potential buyers will think it's been down, take some "before" pictures and tuck them under the seat -- then buyers can see the level of damage/non-damage and reassure themselves.

(D) Decide if you are going to layer decals in under the clearcoat or not. If you go with decals, they'll last far longer under the clearcoat.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Haggisman]

Go with the R1 Blue. It looks awesome once you ave it done. Get the lettering done in white.

[HndaEtr]

cyber, the bike has been down, and with the paint you can still see signs of it on the mirrors and the foward controls

also since it would be at a dealer where my friends work i would assume they could talk it up for me, or at least assure the perspective buyer that it runs good and everything from them riding with me.

i just need to get this bike sold, i've came across quite a few deals on bikes i'm interested in but i don't have the money until after this one is sold.

[duff daddy]

if i were you i would look at the corvette Le mans blue ...or corvette electric blue all from dupont chromabase colors and loooook great ...i was gonna do my bike either vette yellow or montecarlo yellow ...but i did it viper yellow ...def teh corvette blue though

[The CyberPoet]

cyber, the bike has been down, and with the paint you can still see signs of it on the mirrors and the foward controls

Consider replacing the mirrors -- the replacements for the late models are cheap (eBay, JCWhitney, PartsUnlimited) and can be had for under $30 a pair if I recall correctly.

As for the controls, are they mangled, or just scratched at the tips of the bar weights and levers? The big issue is usually a slight bend or increase in bend in the bar extension, which would cause the handlebars to vibrate more than usual from being unevenly weighted (left vs. right) because of different distances from the center axis of the steering stem.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[kahluamud]

I had the same delimma when I was trying to decide on a blue. I was at the paint shop every day for 2 weeks looking at the same colors over and over again. I almost went with the Honda Electric Blue. It is awesome in the sun. You should go with Honda Electric or Vivid, but I like Electric better.

The Paint is the only thing good about Hondas!!