To spray or not to spray

[royal1]

Hi all,
I've just made a bit of a mess, with the touch-up stick, hoping to 'blend' in new to old paint on the mirror housing of my R1100RT.
Does anyone think I should have a go at spraying the item, or should I give up and get a new one?
I am a bit of a perfectionist and so would prefer the bike to look good!
Thanks
Royal1

[jenunn]

1. Try the spray and if you mess it up then....
2. Take it to a body shop and have them do it or...
3. Buy a new one and use the time you would have spent doing the above riding your bike.


Good Luck!!

[alien_hitchhiker]

Royal1,

I've been down that road a few times and have never achieved anything even approaching perfection.

My best results were obtained by thinning out a tiny bit of the paint so it would flow nicely, and then applying it with a super fine tipped art brush. I worked with a magnifying glass to keep from overlaping the touch-up onto the original finish. It wasn't bad - in most light it was not visible from 2 feet away unless you looked for it. Of course, I always saw it and eventually had the tank resprayed.

With my current bike, now eight years old with 60K on it (turned 60 today on the way to work!) I've decided to let go of my obsessive need to keep it perfect.

I'm accepting the blemishes as battle scars, marks of a well traveled motorcycle that's ventured down a few rough roads. No duct tape or bailing wire mind you - I'm not talking rat bike - just the patina of age.

[royal1]

Thanks for the responses; my mind is now made up.
I shall buy a can of spray, do the business, if all goes well I'll drink to it, if not I'll get it done professionally OR buy a new one.
Steve; I'm in your locale at the end of February; hope it's as good as I've been told.
Have a good day.
Ricky

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

Brush painting a metallic or a pearlescent color leads mainly to disapointment if you are a perfectionist. The paint really needs to be sprayed to be a good match and achieve flake or pearl orientation whether it be a blend or a panel paint.

Buy the new one for perfectionism sake and then keep the other one and have it repaired by a shop and keep it as a spare for the next time? Riding time is too precious at this time of year to sacrifice for a mirror paint repair.

[westofone]

I've gone through this a few times: to limit overspray, after careful sanding, make a masking tape circle around the scratch. Mask off the surrounding area with paper then spray. When it's dry, careful use of rubbing compound can help blend the new paint with the old.:clap

[rmarkr]

Pudgy
Please help me out here. I have a patch on my tank where the clear coat is gone. (Brake fluid leak) The base coat looks OK. Can I patch up the clear coat, and with what? I believe I have the original paint job on the bike - charcoal metallic, 91
K100.
You're the expert!

:bikes

[royal1]

I'm informed,by local BMW shop, that they're no longer producing coloured mirrors and that they only come in primer, so ordered my spray can! $35 Will rub down and do the whole thing!

[BuddingGeezer]

Pudgy
Please help me out here. I have a patch on my tank where the clear coat is gone. (Brake fluid leak) The base coat looks OK. Can I patch up the clear coat, and with what? I believe I have the original paint job on the bike - charcoal metallic, 91
K100.
You're the expert!

:bikes

You can buy urethane clear coat in a spray can. I have seen it in PPG auto paint stores. You still need the special mask for urethane.

Ralph Sims

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

Pudgy
Please help me out here. I have a patch on my tank where the clear coat is gone. (Brake fluid leak) The base coat looks OK. Can I patch up the clear coat, and with what? I believe I have the original paint job on the bike - charcoal metallic, 91
K100.
You're the expert!

:bikes

Hi Markr, in answer to your question there are some considerations for you. If indeed the basecoat was okay then it is remotely possible to repair the clear, however the edge of the clear is likely ragged or at least finely pronounced thus making it necessary to sand the edge of the clear before application of clearcoat. The next consideration is that by sanding the clear edge it is virtually impossible to do so without affecting the base color thus making it essential to spot the color in prior to the clearcoat.

Another consideration is that the resin technology of basecoat renders it akin to a lacquer and in so doing it accepts chemicals very easily, especially highly corrosive chemicals such as brake fluid. (lacquer is a 1K resin that reacts to heat and solvents and makes it not only absorbant, it can also make it an unstable foundation upon which to repair with subsequent coatings).

My personal recommendation for a do it right the first time type of repair is to take it to a bodyshop or a repair facility and let them repair it professionally. They will likely sand down the entire area after cleaning it chemically, and will be able to see if the brake fluid has corroded the metal below or not (entirely possible). If it corroded the metal it will have to be treated prior to repairs. Depending upon the technology of the paint at OEM level, the repair techniques will vary in order to repaint the damage area.

Due to the manageable size of motorcycle tanks it is likely cheaper to have the facility simply strip it and repaint it to ensure that substrate instability does not become visible after repainting over a repair (Rings that form as a result of solvent swelling around the repair edges below the color. These are referred to as "bulls eyes" etc). I imagine your bike is a nice piece and as such I would imagine that you wish to restore the finish to a pre-accident condition. This will require application equipment similar to those used at OEM level (spray guns etc).

If you need more info don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks,
andy

[TomBarnhart]

Get a grip on reality. It is a R1100, several years old. Scratches are character lines. Forget the repair. Get on the thing and ride, preferably where you can hit enough bugs to cover the blemish.
What color is my bike???..Depends on what bug is in season. Great thing about Florida riding is that the bugs vary with the season so I have a multi-colored motorcycle. Sometimes it rains and I have to start over with a new color scheme.

[rmarkr]

Andy and Ralph,
Thanks for the responses.
I mentally went down the the line of having the tank resprayed.. would the color match? can I get the knee pads and decals back on? etc. Then, if I was going there what about the many little nicks, mainly in the front from road debris. I will probably have the whole deal done in time - when serious cabin fever sets in.
The fluid leak on the tank happenned at night (I know, I know...) on a 2 hour ride. I noticed it as soon as I pulled into the lighted garage. I tried to clean it off immediately. It left a few "streaks" in the clearcote, which I polished out with rubbing compound and polish. I have cut through the clearcoat - black basecoat appeared on the cloth. I don't think the fluid had enough time to penetrate down to the primer or metal (alloy of some kind). So, really I'm looking at a stop gap fix untill such time......
My concern is if I spray on (canned) clearcoat, will it react with the existing stuff, and will it be chemically resistant (to fuel, as the existing coat must be), and can I blend it into the existing finish?
To change the subject - I would like repaint my wheels at the next tire change. The paint finish is worn off in places from aggresive cleaning. They appear to have a silver basecoat with a clearcoat on top (These are the 3 spoke alloy rims) Any advice?

Thanks again.
:type

[alien_hitchhiker]

Rmarkr,

A few years back my daughter drove her Saturn through a heavy hail storm which left the clear coat on the roof and hood with multiple pits.

I polished it out for her with a product called Blue Coral Clear Coat Polish. The pits disappeared and were still not visible over a year later when she traded it off.

If what you're looking for is a cosmetic fix, this might be worth a try.

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

Andy and Ralph,
Thanks for the responses.
I mentally went down the the line of having the tank resprayed.. would the color match? can I get the knee pads and decals back on? etc. Then, if I was going there what about the many little nicks, mainly in the front from road debris. I will probably have the whole deal done in time - when serious cabin fever sets in.
The fluid leak on the tank happenned at night (I know, I know...) on a 2 hour ride. I noticed it as soon as I pulled into the lighted garage. I tried to clean it off immediately. It left a few "streaks" in the clearcote, which I polished out with rubbing compound and polish. I have cut through the clearcoat - black basecoat appeared on the cloth. I don't think the fluid had enough time to penetrate down to the primer or metal (alloy of some kind). So, really I'm looking at a stop gap fix untill such time......
My concern is if I spray on (canned) clearcoat, will it react with the existing stuff, and will it be chemically resistant (to fuel, as the existing coat must be), and can I blend it into the existing finish?
To change the subject - I would like repaint my wheels at the next tire change. The paint finish is worn off in places from aggresive cleaning. They appear to have a silver basecoat with a clearcoat on top (These are the 3 spoke alloy rims) Any advice?

Thanks again.
:type

Hello again, if that is all you need, a stop gap then yu have nothing to really lose by attempting a spot however it will be seen perhaps easier than just keeping a coat of protective polish over what you have right now if it is only a small burn through. Sometimes a half repair looks far worse than a tiny burn through.

As for the wheels there is a nice line of products in aerosol that are designed for wheels. I suggest begining the process with a specific wheel cleaner as it is strong enough to remove the brake dust that can be partially melted into the factory finish as hot dust has a tendancy to do such a thing for real. There are plenty of colours to choose from now and I would suggest clear over it, that is the wheel clear. Wheel clears tend to be much better than ordinary clears at resisting moisture and humidity soak/exposure etc. I use these clears over fork legs for the chip resitance and moisture resistance to prevent the newly polished aluminum from corroding etc.

[PETDOC]

Pudgy or anyone else,
A little off topic, the wheels of my '04 GS look great, but my '88 4 Runner with 295,000 miles has seen better days. I've been wanting to strip the clear coat off the alloy rims, clean them up and re-coat them. What would you recommend to strip and clean them?

[PUDGYPAINTGUY]

Pudgy or anyone else,
A little off topic, the wheels of my '04 GS look great, but my '88 4 Runner with 295,000 miles has seen better days. I've been wanting to strip the clear coat off the alloy rims, clean them up and re-coat them. What would you recommend to strip and clean them?

I typically use regular stripper for the clear removal and a soft plastic squeegee to remove the clear residue after bubbling off. Depending on what you find under there may alter the prep technique. If there are pits then they must ne removed (unlees you are okay with them cosmetically speaking) and that is usually done with sandpaper. I use ever increasing grit numbers and then polish them with alloy compound afterwards. I want all sandscratches gone before clearing.

A trick that some of the bike manufacturers and wheel manufacturers do is to apply a very thin coat of a bright silver prior to the topcoat clearcoat to attain hiding for some minor imperfections that would take a lot of time and effort to remove. All this is done with specific wheel paint as described in the other post for the same reasons. Often folks just use ordinary rattle can clearcoat and find it blisters back off with corrosion (the white powder and pits) below it.

Depending upon how serious you want to get with it will direct your course of prep. There are metal cleaners and conversion coats that we often use that are user friendly and awesome for adhesion improvement and corrosion deterence.