discussion 1/1 paintwork

[Andy T]

I'm working on an old Honda CB750 for a guy who brings me a fair amount of bike stuff. The whole thing was stripped to either bare metal or plastic, suitably repaired and primed, then prepared for painting.

He wanted a light red candy, so after formulating some suitable paint, I made a start.

Firstly everything received a few coats of a high metallic pinky coloured base.





Then it was on with the candy, basically a translucent red that allows some of the sparkle from the underlying layer to show though.



After 3 coats of candy I was happy with the colour so applied 2 coats of clear





The tank on the left here has been sat bleaching in the California sun for about 50 years



The next job is to add the stripes. He does have some stickers, similar to the picture below, but he wants me to paint them on. Only three colours to mask & paint

 

[Steven000]

Very cool projects Andy

 

[yak face]

Beautiful work andy , the subaru looks fantastic in the iconic blue

 

[Tim Marlow]

Love the Honda. I had its baby brother CB550 four in metallic bronze for a couple of years.

 

[Andy T]

Thanks gents.

Blue is definitely my favourite colour for these Tony. My mate is building a 22B replica (2 door, wide body) and has had me paint it dark grey. It really should have been blue!

Tim - he's got a couple of these, along with lots of other classic bikes. This particular one he's been trying to restore himself for 15 years he said, but now that he's retired he's realising he'll never have the time to finish them all so is bringing them to me.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Bikers are almost as bad as guitarists. One isn’t enough…..that 750 is lovely though, just what a real bike should look like…won’t stop well in the wet though….

 

[JayCee]

Very nice work, Andy. I have just caught up on the whole thread.
John.

 

[Andy T]

After a couple of days in the sun and a Bank Holiday weekend to "breathe", it was time to carry on with the Honda.

The owner had brought me some stickers as an example but wanted them painting on. After scratching my head a bit I came up with an idea.

First I laid the stickers on to the tank, taking loads of measurements to make sure they were symmetrical



I outlined these with 6mm fine line tape, leaving me with the exact shape required



A bit of further masking and I applied a layer of clear basecoat, to seal any possible gaps in the masking. I used my "toy" gun, the amazing Iwata LPH80. It'll handle spraying a full panel, but it can be dialled right down to 3 psi for very delicate areas.



After the clear had dried I applied several light coats of silver for the outermost colour required



The silver will be allowed to dry overnight, ready for more masking and the next colour.

 

[John Race]

Brilliant skilled work Andy, really interesting to see your working area. Going to show it to Matron tomorrow as she only see things on the PC and not my tablet.

John .

 

[flyjoe180]

Lovely paint work Andy.

 

[Andy T]

Brilliant skilled work Andy, really interesting to see your working area. Going to show it to Matron tomorrow as she only see things on the PC and not my tablet.

John .

I'm sure she'll have something to say about the mess

My friend that took the building over is slowly cramming the space full of his projects so my working area is getting smaller and smaller

I could build a couple of cars with the amount of spare parts he has upstairs, then there's a classic Polo GT, his focus rally car and a quad downstairs.

His "stash" in the car park consist of a Transporter T4 undergoing a day van / 2.0 turbo conversion
A T5 for an engine rebuild and respray
Range Rover needing an engine repair
Sprinter having a camper conversion
BMW X5 hybrid where we've changed just about every electrical component, including the high voltage batteries
And soon he'll be setting up a work area for his conversion business, where he buys motocross bikes and swaps out the noisy bits for electric power.

I thought I had a lot on the go at once!

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Lovely work Andy and for a classic bike as well.

 

[John Race]

Morning Andy.

Just showed your place to Matron, she was most impressed to see the amount of differing work and your skill.

She's just about to leave on her BSA to see her favorite member who has slipped a bit, a needle is required. Chris look out !

Any way she has given you


John.

 

[Andy T]

Thank Matron for me John, it's always an honour to receive a dog's award.

I may print it out to hang on the office wall


With the silver nice & dry I masked just inside the previous edge with 3mm tape and applied the black





I then repeated the process for the gold. I was applying multiple light coats, as we might do when airbrushing, to limit any bleed through.

This picture shows the first coat of gold applied. You can hardly see it



A few more light coats gave me this



Then after very carefully removing the many layers of masking I gave the whole tank a few coats of clear to seal the stripes in.



This will have a few days to settle then it'll get a light sanding to remove the inevitable steps formed by the stripes, and will be clearcoated again, along with all of the other parts.

It's a bit of a palaver but should ensure a nice smooth finish that will last for decades, and the multiple layers of clear will give plenty of UV protection for the ink based candy, which is prone to sun bleaching.

 

[Steven000]

A masterpiece