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My brother and I started talking about our katanas the other day, discussing our likes and dislikes of the bikes. after talking for awhile we decided the things that needed fixing on his 1996 600 are: his front forks (completely gone, when stopping the front nosedives like a buick),his seat (its purple and torn, the rear seat doesnt match), his lower fairings(bright purple)and his purple wheels and windscreen.
Well, we didn't get off to a great start. I picked up some GREAT material to recover his seat from hobby lobby during a huge sale ($6.00 for 2 yards, enough for both seats). Once we removed the seat and tried to lay the new one down, we found that our staples were too long (1/2"). We went out and got 1/4" staples, and still no luck. Our staplegun just wont cut it. Also, we don't have a heat gun. So, until we can get ahold of both of those, no dice on the seat. Its not a particularly big problem, since it is so cold right now anyway.
With the seat project out indefinitely, we turned our attention to another problem. The purple underfairings.
This, I was prepared for.
Plenty of gloss paint, primer and clear ensured that we could get this done easily.
After unbolting the lower fairings and cleaning quite a bit of gunk off with brakeclean and loads of paper towels, we hung them up to get started. After a quick wipedown prep, we hit it with primer.
After the first coat, we had this:
And after a third primer coat:
(I realize the fairings may not be in the best shape, and need work. He didnt want to mess with sanding and re priming, etc. We had to sand/trim off parts of the inside of the fairings where his exhaust melted 1/4" to 1/2" of the fairing before doing anything else, thats why the insides of the fairings may look a bit.....different than usual)
Once the primer dried, we started painting!! wheee! (it was around 12:45am now):
(my brother, soon to be on katriders)
We laid down three coats of black gloss on the fairings, which I thought would be more than enough. After the third coat and two coats of clear, it looked something like this :
Since that picture (left my phone upstairs the rest of the night, five more coats of clear have gone on the fairings(it is a MIRROR). We used all krylon paint (primer, black gloss, matte black, gloss clear and matte clear). The matte colors were for the inside of the fairings as there is a slight oil leak, and gunk tends to build up inside the fairings. I am hoping that the multiple layers of clear will help make it easier to wash the gunk out at the pay n' spray.
My brother reattached the fairings, and called me yelling about how close they are to the original paint! Originally he was worried about how they would look "flat" and not match the paint. I just told him to be patient and wait for the clear, and he was really impressed.
Lower fairing painting -definitely a 1 on the difficulty scale, but VERY worth it. Looks like a different bike!
Quick update: I went by for my sister in laws birthday, and after all the fun and festivities found myself in the garage with my brother once again! This time he just wanted to show me the 6+ clear coated fairings and put them together.
I tried, but he wasnt particularly concerned with it. He just wanted to get rid of the purple on his $800 kat 
His upper fairings are nearly destroyed anyway, he will need new ones or SERIOUS repairing down the road(cracking horrifically where the mirrors and windscreen attach) .
On a better note, before we reinstalled the fairings tonight I convinced him to leave them off in lieu of further work that was needed(oil pan gasket,shift kit, trans cover gasket, etc).
They do look 50x better than they did though(even with the cracks and scratches)
I took a few more pictures of them once I got to see them after all the clear was applied and dried.
The inside of the fairings: (all matte black and matte clear)
and the outside: (gloss)
This is just one of Many mods that are coming to his katana in this thread, so keep checking! Up next, seat recovering!
Well, we didn't get off to a great start. I picked up some GREAT material to recover his seat from hobby lobby during a huge sale ($6.00 for 2 yards, enough for both seats). Once we removed the seat and tried to lay the new one down, we found that our staples were too long (1/2"). We went out and got 1/4" staples, and still no luck. Our staplegun just wont cut it. Also, we don't have a heat gun. So, until we can get ahold of both of those, no dice on the seat. Its not a particularly big problem, since it is so cold right now anyway.
With the seat project out indefinitely, we turned our attention to another problem. The purple underfairings.
This, I was prepared for.
Plenty of gloss paint, primer and clear ensured that we could get this done easily.
After unbolting the lower fairings and cleaning quite a bit of gunk off with brakeclean and loads of paper towels, we hung them up to get started. After a quick wipedown prep, we hit it with primer.
After the first coat, we had this:
And after a third primer coat:
(I realize the fairings may not be in the best shape, and need work. He didnt want to mess with sanding and re priming, etc. We had to sand/trim off parts of the inside of the fairings where his exhaust melted 1/4" to 1/2" of the fairing before doing anything else, thats why the insides of the fairings may look a bit.....different than usual)
Once the primer dried, we started painting!! wheee! (it was around 12:45am now):
(my brother, soon to be on katriders)
We laid down three coats of black gloss on the fairings, which I thought would be more than enough. After the third coat and two coats of clear, it looked something like this :
Since that picture (left my phone upstairs the rest of the night, five more coats of clear have gone on the fairings(it is a MIRROR). We used all krylon paint (primer, black gloss, matte black, gloss clear and matte clear). The matte colors were for the inside of the fairings as there is a slight oil leak, and gunk tends to build up inside the fairings. I am hoping that the multiple layers of clear will help make it easier to wash the gunk out at the pay n' spray.
My brother reattached the fairings, and called me yelling about how close they are to the original paint! Originally he was worried about how they would look "flat" and not match the paint. I just told him to be patient and wait for the clear, and he was really impressed.
Lower fairing painting -definitely a 1 on the difficulty scale, but VERY worth it. Looks like a different bike!
Quick update: I went by for my sister in laws birthday, and after all the fun and festivities found myself in the garage with my brother once again! This time he just wanted to show me the 6+ clear coated fairings and put them together.
Originally posted by StevieB
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His upper fairings are nearly destroyed anyway, he will need new ones or SERIOUS repairing down the road(cracking horrifically where the mirrors and windscreen attach) .
On a better note, before we reinstalled the fairings tonight I convinced him to leave them off in lieu of further work that was needed(oil pan gasket,shift kit, trans cover gasket, etc).
They do look 50x better than they did though(even with the cracks and scratches)
I took a few more pictures of them once I got to see them after all the clear was applied and dried.
The inside of the fairings: (all matte black and matte clear)
and the outside: (gloss)
This is just one of Many mods that are coming to his katana in this thread, so keep checking! Up next, seat recovering!
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