A few tidbits for others who may be thinking about having a go at it:
Materials – buy top rated name brands only and forget the rest. The saving in a DIY paint job s/b limited to the labor. The gorilla in the room is PPG – by far their name appeared most often during my research. BASF/R-M and ICI are prominent in Euro shops but elsewhere PPG is very strong among the professionals. Cheap means high risk of troubles to these guys and redos are very costly.
Single Stage (SS) or Basecoat/Clearcoat (BC/CC) (lacquer is used very little these days) system– Catalyzed single stage and clearcoat are one and the same the only difference is that one has no pigment. The two-stage method consists of shooting uncatalyzed paint that flashes off (dries) very quickly followed by catalyzed clearcoat. Capsulating the paint with clearcoat in the BC/CC system is the most popular and most expensive. The economy job at Macco or Earl Schieb is a one shot SS system. But, make no mistake – you can get one heck of a good-looking job with SS to where you can’t tell the difference from a BC/CC job. Often the only way to tell is if color comes off in the rag when polishing. I used the popular BC/CC system as I was going for that foot deep shine.
Paint guns – HVLP (high volume, low pressure) is by far where industry has gone – less over spray, material used and air born contaminants. With a HVLP gun set at 50 lbs (HV) pressure at the gun paint comes out at about 10 lbs (LP) pressure at the tip and these guns are typically big air hogs. A full size HVLP gun with a 1.4 tip needs a real big compressor with around 14 CFM to work for any period of time – like for painting a car. But, a little HVLP gun with a small 0.6 tip will only require a little compressor with about a 3 CFM. Although a little gun would be a disaster for painting a large area like a car it’s most perfect and BETTER for painting a small area like a motorcycle. Here is why...
A small tip means BETTER ATOMIZATION where mixing of solvent, paint and air are optimal – a perfect fine mist. A better paint job on a car can be had with a 1.0 tip but it would be so slow that by the time the painter returned for next coat it would be beyond flash time (too dry). Sooooo, a compromise is made with a 1.4 tip which will shoot more material with a bigger fan shape – hence, painter can move faster. However, the atomization is not near as good with a 1.4 tip and as such the paint job is not as good as a gun with a smaller tip. So how do the pros get such a great paint job with a 1.4 tip? Easy, they work with a $600 gun that compensates.
We can get a great job with that little gun (smaller fan shape spray and small volume of paint output) because we are working with a small area and have plenty of time to get around the work piece b/4 next coat is due. So go out there and get that cheap little HVLP gun with the small tip. Worked great for both BC and CC!
For tank, headlight bucket and side covers I used EXACTLY 16 ounces of paint (after reduction) and EXACTLY 16 ounces of clearcoat (after activator mixed in). Soooo, if you buy a pint of paint and mix with typical ratio of 1:1 with reducer you will have ½ the mix left over for future whatever.
After a few days I'll wet sand and polish the work for maximum finish. More pics to follow...
Ps. I need CB500 badges for my side covers. I'm also trolling for vintage wing badges for tank - I don't know exactly what I'm looking for but I'll know it when I see it! - got any ideas? Until then I'll slap on a couple of orange colored wing stickers.
