Boxerworks.com

Toga wrote:Nailhead, you need a third party photo site, I use Piccasa, upload your pics there then copy its location. Using the full editor here gives you access to "Add Image" icon ( Img )... then paste image location.

Yeah... winters project, was 4 degrees C in the "spray booth" @ 8am.
Luckily it was 21c @ 12.30pm. I managed to lay down the matt black on the underside of tank & cowling... and some black 'overspray' on the tops as a final guide coat.
Sand this back with 800 grit wet and we are ready for some colour.

PS- Steve, that box you had me pull out (lols) ... it has a couple more parts that need to be frakkin painted, instrument panel, hand leavers & switch gear housing ... and then there's the front brake master cylinder, chrome headlight surround...

Swim Toga, Swim

Thanks, Toga, for the Photo info. I have Smugmug already, just wasn't sure it worked that way here. I'm not real computer savvy.

Speaking of posting up pix, keep up the good work posting pix of your build...(hint).

Playing catch up on the pic / posts

After the 1st coat & sanding of primmer / filler I was a little unhappy with my bog filler & sanding effort... so I did it again, and am very happy I did -


2nd coat-n-sand, underside view -


3rd coat sanded then a coat of matt black under tank, also spattered top guide coat -


Because of the 'tight' nature under the tank mounting plates, I hand painted another thick coat on those as well as the centre seam -


A couple things I havnt mentioned yet...
Repairs to the rear guard -



Repaired a couple severe cracks in the fairing dash then primmed & matt black top coat -



... enjoying, what is in my opinion, after a very productive week - a well earned bourbon on a friday night.

On the whole, we have had a mild & sunny winter for 'wrenching & restoring' ... more specifically applied in aspect to where I am up to with Betsy... It has been cold, over cast, damp, windy and totally unsuitable for spray painting, except the odd day or 3 in a row.

So doing what I could to take advantage of those couple semi-suitable periods, work continues...

I wasnt too sure what to do here, so I simply followed the steps of some car painting pro's courtesy of youtube vid's.

Masking the newly painted matt black under & insides of every piece -



During the masking process, that took all day... I was pondering a couple other issues with the spray booth as it is under a shed roof & well shaded by trees; a) low light & b) cold
I know what your thinking, throw in a couple 1000W spot lights ! ... I tried that, but with the shed being on solar, I had problems with them throwing the safety switch's.

On the nice days the booth temp rises to 18-20*C. Even though I have muddled along with this so far, I felt it was still a bit cold for a nice paint flow, coverage, flash & set etc now that I have come to the serious end of business - colour top coats.

As I was walking around ... it came to me like a blinding flash - Enter stage left Mirrors !
2 huge wardrobe mirrors, nearly 3 square mtrs = nearly 3kW / 3000W of light & heat !!
This 'bent sunlight' pre-heated the parts (and paint) to be painted and raised the internal temps to 26-27*C - Perfect !




OK - Time for some fun and start painting some colour !




The fun was quickly shattered when removing a piece from the booth I heard & felt a solid "clunk" !
Im sure you can spot it -



Ahh well... nothing major that a little more time & patience wont resolve -



Things have been / will be on hold for the past week & next week while I recover from a bit of 'body bog repair'.
Until then, the crowded booth awaits more 1000 grit sanding of the 1st colour coat -

Amazing restoration job there; very impressive I've got a 1978 R80 ex pommy cop bike that ended up in Oz somehow, that I bought from the BM dealer in Cairns as a wreck. I've done 760, 000klm's on mine in 25 years, half of it with a sidecar. Maybe I'll do a story on mine one day, but I doubt she will look as pretty as yours though. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.....

Thank you pattern... im still plodding along

I have had a great conversation and got some great tips from a fellow on facebook.
Thought it may be good info for other inexperienced DIY painters.

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Guillermo Salazar - Why are you sanding the color with 1000?
Guillermo Salazar - Thought I would ask, I'm a painter for BMW

Bill Bachman - If it's like my painting experience, searching the web you will find at least 1000 different sites that say their way is the best (and they are ALL different). Not saying you are not an expert, just saying it is confusing for us amateurs.

Toga Joe - Guillermo, I would appreciate any further comments & info you may wish to share. I have posted much more detail in the above attached forum link.

Because of my limited budget setup & experience I have the common beginners flaws... a little orange peal here, a little thick bulge there, a couple specks of dust here & there.

Agreed Bill, tiss how ive come to organize my process, by blending the 1000 site info with what I have at hand and what the budget can afford... and adjusting according to the outcome of each process.

Guillermo Salazar - Orange peel in base coat means either, to low of pressure or to high of pressure and to far away from the panel, what is your setup gun wise
Guillermo Salazar - What type of reducer are you using , slow, med ? You might want to use slow

Toga Joe - I am using a gravity feed HVLP gun, 1.4mm nipple, 30psi & a medium reducer. I think it is too low a pressure.

Guillermo Salazar - That might be to high for the base coat, water born or solvent based paint
Guillermo Salazar - You might want to drop it down about 7 pounds of air and close the material down and do 75% overlap on each coat

Toga Joe - Again, Thank you for your time & feed back, Guillermo.

I am using 2 pac solvent based paint.

Due to my inexperience and desire of a good quality finish, I had always anticipated doing 2-3 coats of base gold colour (sanding out imperfections after each coat), smoke edge then 2,3 or 4 coats of candy red mixed in clear gloss to get my desired colour depth.

I started out with primer coats closer to 23-25psi... but the more I read suggested 28-34psi with one pro painting a Ferrari on video suggesting up to 45psi for maximum fan size of 5 1/2 - 6inch. So I increased air to 30psi.

I have been aiming at 4-5inch fan, 6inch surface distance & 50% overlap... I will alter this for the next coat.

I had one fellow suggest when it comes to paint the smoke edge, to increase air to approx 35psi, add 10-20% extra reducer, aim for 2 1/2 - 3inch fan & reduced paint flow.
Does this sound correct ?

Guillermo Salazar - the last part sounds good, what i would do is clear coat the gold then sand it with 1000 take all the dirt nibs out and such then then apply the black, that way you have something fresh to wrk with, that way incase something happens its just the black and not the gold as well

Guillermo Salazar - the air pressure in the last one seems really high, you will get overspray everywhere with that pressure, especially with such small fairings
Guillermo Salazar - close the fan and less air pressure, practice on something,
Guillermo Salazar - it all depends on the max psi on the gun to, my sata does 30psi max and the devilbiss guns i hae are 22psi max

Toga Joe - Funny you say that, I have been practicing on other things, mainly with the higher psi of others recommendations.
But alas - when it came time to spray, I kept turning the psi / fan & flow down as it didnt feel right... I just need to lower psi more it appears.
Thank you for the tips, Guillermo.

There's HVLP and HVLP.

True HVLP guns run off turbines (sort of like vacuum cleaner exhausts) that supply well under 10 lbs. of pressure but put out a truly high volume. "Conversion" HVLP guns (what I presume you have) all are quite different from one another, even within a single manufacturer, so I wouldn't take anyone else's word on best pressures unless they had experience with your exact gun.

Thanks for that insight, Major. So true, so true.

Just like 'Oils aint Oils' ive tried to take into account that 'Spray guns aint spray guns'...
From all the info ive read, Guillermo was the first person to quote any specific psi for those individual spray guns... this info alone I feel is valuable.

Sure, each gun will be different to mine... but now knowing the max psi of those 2, industry leading spray guns, gives the novice a more specific window of how to address 'newbie' issues.

As I said in that conversation, much info & some recommendations of others suggested the need for higher psi to ;
a) eliminate orange peel - b) get a finer smoke edge fade - c) achieve a 5-6inch fan

Threw out my 'practice' runs & primer coats, Ive had some coats lay down like silk... others, like a sheep dog...

Combining my very little personal experience, quoted max psi of brand name guns, your explanation of HLVP and a couple other references in the order of 20-30psi ...
IMO - point to using a lower psi than what the majority of info I have read suggest.

Whats the ole saying - A thousand ways to skin a cat.
Im happy to listen to all 1000 ways in order to learn... and subsequently, improve the quality of Betsy's finish.

Continuing the conversation with Guillermo -

Toga Joe - I meant to ask earlier, Guillermo, is a 1.4mm spray tip suitable to shoot the smoke edge ? ... or would you recommend smaller ?

Guillermo Salazar - I would use a 1.2 if you can get one
Guillermo Salazar - Or smaller
Guillermo Salazar - 1.3 would work fine, just close the material

Toga Joe - Thank you, Guillermo, for all your advice,

Today I added an inline regulator to the gun (found that the reg on the compressor was reading low, so my previous settings of 30psi were closer to 40psi ... no wonder each shooting session was completely different) .... so I set 23psi, changed to a slow reducer and shot the 2nd coat on 6 panels ... flowed very nicely, great feel of balance (if that makes sense) looks pretty good but wont be able to tell much until morning. I'll grab a snap....

I had been thinking (and looking) for some time (a bit too much - lols) that my cheap"ish" 1.4 might not be fine / good enough for the smoke ... combined with the understanding that sometimes / often, the quality of the job is limited by the quality of the tool...

So just now I upgraded my tool and ordered a Devilbiss Finishline 2 gun set with 1.0 / 1.3 / 1.5 / 1.8 tips
I figure that in the overall investment in Betsy's Restoration, the quality difference will be worth 10 times the cost.

I will do the 2nd coat on remaining pieces with the 'old' gun and look forward to getting my new ones for the smoke & candy red.

Yeah, I would think that a higher quality gun will really show its merit when trying to do the smoke fade.

A couple snaps this morning of 2nd coat -