Quick painting question!

Ok I have been painting the gas tank, side covers, and fairing for my maxim. I put on the clear today. Tomorrow I will be wetsanding it with 800 to get it smooth. Than applying 3-4 more coats and wet sanding with 1500+ within the next week to get it ready for polishing it out. Now as far as using a polisher, does anyone have a recommendation as to how to go about it? I am aware of how to use one, but the typical buffer/polisher seem to be a bit too large. Anyone have any good ideas on a good buffer for motorcycles? Also, any recommendations on what polish to use to cut the clear coat smooth? Thanks guys.

 

No suggestions?

 

Your paint supply shop should carry the compounds that work will with the products they sell and hopefully can offer good suggestions.

IMO you are better off wet sanding between coats and lay down a good final coat that doesn't require any major follow up work.

 

Im in the process of wetsanding between coats. But wetsanding and polishing out the final quote gives your that deep shine.

 

I use Wizards Products Got everything from there, the pads, microfiber cloths and compounds. Stuff works great!

 

Pictures... we need PICTURES!!!

 

3M "perfect it" is a great product.

You'll need the rubbing compound as well as the polish-I bought a 3"
kit for my drill that included 4 diff polishing heads 2-foam, 2-old
style buffing heads.
Use the foam heads as directed (compound / polish) and use it
sparingly. amazing results.
I only hope your paint store has it in small quants...if not prepare
to spend close to $30.00 a bottle and enough to do 10-20 bikes!

You can also go to the local jr.college auto shop dept and talk with
the intructor...mine is always ready to make a deal or two lol.

 

I finally got through wetsanding and polishing and I took a few pictures.

There is red flake in the paint. You cant see it really because its not in the sun but oh well. It was on the old paint job so I decided to replicate it. When I get it going Ill get some more pictures.

Let me know what you guys think










There is still much more work to do. Engine covers need polished, remove hard bags, probably get the seat redone to look stock, and I still need to do the emblems. But its getting there......

 

Oh before I forget. Len! Thank you very much for helping me with my petcock issue! Thanks to you, I dont have gas spilling all over fresh paint.

 

Nice job!!!

Looks real good.

 

FYI I love (and have) those hard bags (white). I just wish I had straight(er) mounting brackets and that luggage rack. (I have a rack that works but meh...) If dumping your hard bags, we should PM (shhh don't tell the wife).

Oh and great looking so far!

I'd have my Bro-in-Law paint my stuff but he's like 3.5 hours away.

 

Im still kind of iffy on the bags. On one hand, they are great and built like a tank. Lots of room to put anything you might need in it. On the other, im not the biggest fan of side bags. One thing good about them is if it falls, the side bags can take an impact without taking damage. I would consider maybe some leather bags, but idk. I will keep you in mind when I decide what to do. If you would like to take a pic, I think it would be pretty neat to see what those bags look like in white.

Also with my wanting the seat to look like stock, I might decide to rid the old cover and get a completely new one, so I would also have a seat cover in good condition.

 

For some pics of white bags see the vetter link in my signature.

I did lay/set my ride down once at a complete stop. The bags did hold the weight that time. It was a very slow loss of control and balance I could not stop. It was very shortly aftee I started riding.

 

White doesnt look too bad.

I used to have pretty much that black windjammer on mine. I wish I had known about this site back then because I scrapped it.... For some reason my father told me no one would want it and I listened. If I had know, I would have given it to someone on here for free probably.

Oh well...

Since this was the bike I learned on, it got dropped a few times because I didnt have a kick stand. Never dropped it while riding though. Surprisingly the bike and the bags do not have a scratch on them. The worst part was the embarrassment of dropping it at a gas station in front of everyone and then the hassle of trying to pick it up with no one offering a hand ever!

 

I have a damaged white fairing (at the mounting holes to the bracket) and a black one. Both Windjammer V.

I can mix/match pieces to make a good one, but the black one is in better shape even with some road rash.

If you read my Vetter post, I didn't pay much for mine. I probably wouldn't have paid much more than I did...

 

Very nice job Raven!! Lookin good