XJ's 50 Dollar Paint Job Step by Step

So I was thinking about repainting my tank on Black Betty. I was asked by my wife not to spray paint it because it is winter and we have a 6 mo old baby girl. The fumes from spraying would be to much and when i did interior spray painting of my Cavalier, we knew the smell and the mess was to much to do that again. So reading the forums some one suggested the 50 Dollar Paint Job. So I googled it and found how to do it.
I am using:
Rustoleum Professional Performance Protective Enamel, Gloss Black
Low Odor Mineral spirits (for the baby) others suggest 100% mineral spirits
80, 120 prep sand paper
400, 800, 1000, 2000 wet/dry sandpaper
2 inch high density foam rollers
Multi-pack foam brushes
Tack cloth


The general idea is as follows:
1. Prep
2. Prep
3. Prep
4. Final prep sanding with 120 grit to give the paint something to hold on to, wipe down with mineral spirits, wipe down with tack cloth



5. Mix the paint. 50% paint, 50% mineral spirits
6. Load a roller with paint and squeeze almost all of it out. This ensures a light coat of paint. Roll the paint on, not trying to get complete coverage first time.



7. let first coat dry to the touch, 3+ hours
8. Roll on second coat. I used the same roller and paint from the first coat. If over night, may need to ad a few drops of mineral spirits to get it back to the original thickness.
9. Let the second coat dry over night, 10+ hours.


10. Wet sand with 400 grit. Make sure Orange peel and dust is removed completely at this step to ensure it does not get worse further along.


End day one!! More tomorrow.

 

Good luck with the paint job, can't wait to see how it turns out. Mine will be next! Keep us posted, EH!

 

Very cool. I'll keep watching the progress.

 

I used the exact same process when I painted my car last year. If you add alot of thin coats and wet sand between every second coat, it'll turn out like a mirror when it's done. However, you don't have to mix it 1:1. I mix mine 1 part mineral spirits to 3 parts paint. This ensures that the coat isn't too thin, yet not too thick. But your 1:1 may work for your needs.

I just may have to do something similar to my 650 this winter, if I don't continue to ride it.

 

day 2 part 1
Wet sand with 400 grit

Wipe down with Mineral Spirits
You can see how it would buffed from this picture


Third coat after wiping with tack cloth:


You can see how thin I putting it down from that picture. Just enough to put paint down and that is it. Looking good I think. Fourth coat will go on after dinner. Prob around 7.

Thanks for watching. I am learning with you guys... nah, did a practice on an old fender, didn't do to hot with that one, but then I haven't buffed it yet.

Also painted my crash bars, they were starting to rust, did them in 3 coats, used the paint unthinned for the last coat because a tube is hard to wet sand. They look good. I will post those pics when I post the rest of todays.

 

Looks passable, I'm sure buffing it out will make it shine! Thanks for taking the time to document this for everyone.

 

Thanks for posting the step-by-step with pics. This is something I am interested in doing myself.

A couple of questions if you have the time to reply:

It doesn't look like you took the tank to bare metal. How did you know when it was ready to begin painting?

What kind of final coat do you plan to use to protect the paint?

Thanks again for letting us follow along.

Bill

 

First, wfuglaar's questions:
You don't have to take it to bare metal, the bare spots are from where there was surface was rusted, needed to get that off first, the rest, used mineral spirits to remove the wax, then sanded first with 80 then 120 to get it read for the paint. After the stripping, washed agian with mineral spirits. I thought about taking it to the bare metal all over, but decided not to. Now that I am looking at the 4th coat, I see it might have been better to go all the way to bare metal. can still see a little bit where the old cracks in the paint were. You basically want it as smooth as possible. I plan on doing a second wet sanding of 400 grit tomorrow to see if i can't get those cracks out. Should be able to, hope I can.
Final coat, not going to do anything to clear coat it. What I read on the Mopar forums where this originated, the rustoleum doesn't mess up with gas on it, as long as it is removed soon after spilled on the tank. After all it is OIL based paint, so I would hope after it cured it would not be a problem.

New pictures, fourth coat. As you can see, almost completely covered the bare spots.


Also, repainted crash bars, added one more coat b/c i dropped one, so need to touch it up any how.


As a final note for tonight, this stuff is working great. I did a scratch test with my finger nail, not a scratch, that is after only 1 day of curing on the first 2 layers. I am gonna take a nail to the fender I practiced on tomorrow.

 

Rettic,

I, and I'm guessing a lot more, are watching this with a lot of interest. Thanks for all the updates. My tank is just waiting to be taken down to the bare metal (meaning it's in sad shape, on top of the few dings from the previous owner) and to see what I could do as an option is great. So far I have started the prep really early by spilling carb cleaner on the tank occasionally. I can't wait to try this out.

Jon

 

Who cares about the WGA strike. This is better than anything I've seen on TV in a long time! Thank you.

One more question for you or any other of the knowledgeable people that are following this:

At which step would you apply pin-striping or any other sort of custom graphics?

Thanks again
Bill

 

After the main color has been applied to desired look and coverage, graphics, stripes, two-tones, and or any other designs would then be applied. A layer of clear can sometimes be added between to give a little depth to the design. Pin-striping, whether hand painted or tape stripes, are usually added last, on top of all layers of paint. Pin stripes are usually put on paint lines or tape edges to protect from wear and eventually peeling in that area (or put anywhere just for cool designs). Enamel, hand painted pin-stripes can't be cleared over unless the enamel is catalyzed with the hardener used in the clear. Tape stripes or stickers can be cleared or colored over at any time.

Good job on paint so far. A lot of extra steps and work involved, but you can never be to carefull when it comes to your paint. You can't beet it for the price. Very interested on how it ends up.

 

whats wrong with a spray gun and real paint?

 

fumes, paint over spray in the garage, building a tent, no money for a good gun and compressor. This is a poor college grads waiting for a job to hire him paint job. Got a baby, don't want the fumes. Plus paint for a gun with hardener is more then I want to spend.

AND, i want to say, I painted my tank with a ROLLER

 

I'm with the Polock.

I reshot mine over the summer.
Stripped it with chemical stripper. Primed it and shot it with Basecoat/Clearcoat.... right in my carport.

The man at the auto parts recomended the clearcoat, one that wont spoil if gas gets on it
I learned NOT to use Martin Senour paint as gas will trash it quick!

MAN did it turn out sweet!!!

Good luck with that roller stuff though

 

Absolutely nothing BUT for some of us, me included, it's not an option when you don't have the proper fresh air breathing equipment, spray guns and an adequate compressed air supply. I have kids running about too and fogging them out of the basement with fumes and over spray would just not be a nice thing to do.

Rettic, great work...can't wait to see the finished product 8)

 

im watching this thread with great interest because i do not own a garage and a rattle can paint job would be too hard to pull off in my basement due to the fumes. i dont have the proper breathing equipment either. oh and i dont have alot of money. haha so being able to pull off a fumeless paint job would be amazing.

keep up the good work rettic. im not sure if you seriously understand what would happen if you succeed hahah. i bet at least 20 guys will immidiatly set this up and repaint their bikes.

for this job your doing you dont need any breathing equipment at all? paint is really new to me so i have no clue.

 

How about a gas spill test on the test fender too? heh

I need to redo mine as gas left nasty marks on it....

 

Think i will do both, come to think of it. Scratch and gas, have some in a spray bottle anyhow... don't ask.

 

Ok, did the gas test, great results, no peeling or bubbling. Scratch test, tough stuff to scratch, almost as tough initially to scratch as standard paint job. difference in the scratching, on the original paint job on my car fender, once I broke through, it went all the way down to metal. When done on the Rustoleum, once broken through, only went down a little bit, scratch is there, but not as visible as the original paint. So, in my personal opinion, the rustoleum is better because it would be easier to fix the scratch because there is no clear coat and easy to find the perfect match for the color. Only would take a few days of painting to fix, or you could lay it on non-thinned and then sand it down.
So on to pictures:
First ones, gas and scratch tests. I only did the gas test on the rustoleum and not the original paint, b/c I know that paint is resistant to gas.
This one had gas left on it from 1:30 to 3:30 today.


Scratch on rustoleum


Scratch on original


Today I wet sanded with 400 grit agian in hopes to lessen the number of scratches shown through. It worked, a little bit. I am hoping that the next steps in the process will eliminate them.

Cleaned and preped for next coat:


5th coat on:



And in case anyone is wondering I think I am going to do 8 coats. If i don't like how it looks I will do 10 more.

 

Just finished coat 6, not much change now from the last, now the layers are going on to try fill in the small cracks. Will wet sand in the morning with 800grit, unless I can find some 600 grit at the store tomorrow when I pick up some more 2 inch rollers. It is getting very reflective now too, if the flash would wash stuff out, then you could see the stuff surrounding my work area.




As you can see in the last picture, there is a run, guess what, couldn't see that with out the picture, as soon as I saw it, went and fixed it, just barely enough time too, almost to dry. you can see how things are starting to reflect very well in the finish. Makes me very ready to get those 4 more coats done.

Patience young grasshopper... patience.

Thank you again for watching my work progress. I am loving doing this, very fun, not to hard since it is small. Very nervous about sanding though, always afraid I am sanding to hard.

 

very cool. are you working your way up to 1000 grit? feel free to divulge any sanding tips you are using.

 

On the mopar site they said to use a block for flat areas and sponge for the curved areas to keep the sandpaper even, so far I have just sanded with my hands and made sure I was sanding with my hand side ways, that way no finger areas would be seen. It makes it smooth with out having to use something else. Also, I have been keeping the area I am sanding very very wet, the floor in the garage is wet because of how much I use. Yes I am working my way up to 1000grit, if I like how it is looking then, I will buff it. I will be picking up some turtle wax polishing compound and hitting the fender tomorrow. I hit the fender with 2000 when I finished it, tried waxing it like that, very hazy like you can see in the picture.

Something I noticed when sanding is that before you sand feel the paint all over, you will notice it is rough, while sanding feel for a glassy finish, that way you know where you have gotten and where you should go next. Also the way the water beads up on the paint also tells you where you should go next. I hope that is helpful, but that is how I am doing it.

One problem i foresee is = black paint.... very hard to make look great. Good thing I have experience with extensive clay bar and waxing.

 

Hey Rettic, it's looking good. I think I'm going to give it a try as well! The only thing that scares me is the sanding , don't want to sand off what you just put on. But I read on the net, if you use dish detergent with a little water it helps the sanding process. Have you tried that? Good luck, and keep us posted with the pics.
Mac

 

Not tried with dish detergent yet, I think I will be doing that on the 1000+ grits though. Today is 800grit. Will be working on the fender today to see if I can get it to shine.

 

please tell me you read this before you waste money on the turtle wax CRAP. Buy Meguiars Scratch X if you are going consumer level, or if you really want it to look good, buy 3M polishing compound available at most carquest and other jobber stores.

 

Acutally, just finished with the turtle wax, did the rubbing compound and then the polishing stuff, it turned out not bad. I am trying multiple things so, i will keep in mind the other stuff. I am using a Random Orbital polisher/sander to do it with. Worked great till I tried using the wool thing, it fell apart and messed up the work I had done. So I put some Zano on to see how it would look. I am waiting for that to dry and then will be pulling it off to see what I have. I know everyone has their preferences on what to use. As said b4, not much money, Meguiars was more costly. One thing at a time. This is new to me, so I will consider what you suggest if I can't get the cheap stuff to work.

Thanks for the input.

 

Awesome... This may be the way to fix my tank up and keep a flat finish Will be loking into it now for sure....

 

Well today did a wet sand with 800 grit, did great got rid of some of the scratches. Also exposed some metal again.. doh. Well that is ok, I thought with my success with wet sanding, put it on heavier. Well that was good, except the grage was open and got a little to much dust on it. So tomorrow after my interview (wish me luck) I will be wet sanding with 1000 grit to see how it looks. If I can not get everything smoothed perfect, I will go back to 800 and do a few more coats. We will see tomorrow. Forgot to take pictures after wet sanding today so I will take some tomorrow.
Seventh Coat:


Eighth Coat:


Buffing of the fender with cheap Turtle Wax rubbing compound and then polish. After that I waxed and it turned out OK. Not a show car shine, but that is not expected. You can see where it was buffed next to where it was not buffed. Huge difference. I will be taking more time buffing the tank so it will look better.

 

Hvnbnd, what was the name of the clear coat that was recommended and did it work?

 

I have found that B'Laster polish ( same people that make PB B'Laster) part number 15 AP or AP 15 ( can't remember which )works really well to bring out the shine even when polishing compound wouldn't. This leaves a finish like 3M's fill & glaze but with much less effort. Don't use the buffer for best shine do it by hand. Wax afterword with Wicked Paste Wax (www.wickedproducts.com ) this is the best wax EVER. Polish with flannel. Water will bead up on this stuff like no other. Makes Mother's California gold look like Turtle Wax! I've been using both of these for over 20 years. Oh Yeah they're cheap too!

 

Quick update, no pictures, still looking great, only did one coat last night, it looked good. I had to get dust out of it, and one place I seemed to rub to hard. So had to paint another two coats tonight. Will use 2000 grit tomorrow evening to get the small dust particles out. Hopefully that won't go to deep and I can start buffing. I am going to use the turtle wax stuff. first with the rubbing compound (lower grit) and then the polishing compound (higher grit 3000-3500) then it will be ready to wax. I am doing the buffing with a $40 Skil hand sander/polisher. Using a cloth pad to do the first rubbing, then the foam pad to do the second part. Will be hand waxed using Zaino #2 (I think its that). I will post pictures of each stage of the last process. It will probably be on Friday when I get that done.

 

Ok, now you have my attention. Which "Mopar" forum are you referring to? It wouldn't be either TD, TM, or BM dot com's?


EDIT:

After going to BM dot com, I realized that there are a couple recent posts on this subject. Good to meet yet another person from multiple forums.

 

http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/sho ... ost2655425
This is an extension on the original thread about this.

 

Looks good, I think I may break down and actually use this method. I saw this link about yachtpaint in there too... I just dont want to spend all the time that is required with this method, but I might anyway!

 

Afterthought.... is there a Rustoleum clear?
That would be a cheap easy way to protect a rattle can job as long as the 2 paints didn't conflict. Could be buffed for a gloss or wet sanded to give a matte finish.... opinions?

 

Woohooo... finished it. To me, it looks great, in no way a show car finish, but guess what... this is not a show car/bike. I love the way it looks. Very little orange peel, few swirls, nice gloss. Can't complain. So here we are:
Polished after 2000 grit to smooth out the dust:



Waxed with 2 coats of Zaino #2 and emblems and trim on and back on bike:



Emblems repainted by my lovely wife:

 

WOW, what's all the white crap on your bike?!?

 

LOL that is polishing compound.... Nasty weather here in Boone, otherwise it would be cleaned off. Prob be cleaned up this weekend when it finishes being crappy.

 

Hey rettic, looks pretty darn good. If you want to protect all that work with a clear coat, this looks to be the ticket:

www.uschem.com/product...glish).pdf

With the hardener in this stuff it's supposed to be tough as nails. Apparently gas spills will have no effect on this stuff according to the auto shop guy who recommended it to me.

 

Whoops, not sure if that link worked. Try this one:


http://www.uschem.com/products/docs/Spr ... 20(English).pdf

Muttly

 

It looks like it came out more of a matte finish more than anything? Are the pics just not doing it justice?

 

Pics are not giving justice... sun is out... Think I will get some washing done in a bit. And then some pictures.

 

Rettic,
Got to say for 50 bucks and some elbow grease it looks pretty good. Still I just got a paint gun with my compressor kit. So I might try that as well. Never know, winters are pretty long up here, so I have lots of time to think about it. Regardless that's pretty impressive for 50 dollars( or loonies as we say)!
Cheers Mac

 

I a recent Hot Rod issue, there was a an article on roller-brushing a car. It didn't turn out too badly, either. If anyone is interested in the article, email me and I'll get the issue and tell you which month it was. I do know it is also in the Hot Rod tips and tricks annual magazine, too. I have that one.

 

I do like this idea, I have a gas tank and a guitar body that need painting on the cheap

 

Hey Rettic,

Thanks again for taking the time to document this project for all of us to see. Please keep us posted on any further steps you take, and in a few months, how it's holding up.