I have a 2002 Suzuki Katana that at the moment is yellow. I purchased some Crossfire paint for it, a quart of World Rally Blue bc, a quart of cc, a qt of etching primer, and the reducers and all that good stuff. I have already begun sanding and doing some minor body work on the bike, the gas tank has 3 good sized spots that have bare metal because I had to sand some decals off and a about 6 different areas between all the plastics have bare plastic showing because of the repairs that I had to do. My main question for you guys is what kind of prep work after I'm done sanding the plastics do I need to do before I lay down the basecoat? I don't plan on sanding it all down to bare plastic, I'm just scuffing up the oem paint on it in the areas that are good and didn't need repairing. Do I need to prime the entire piece or just the areas of bare plastic? And what kind of primer should I use for this? As far as I understand, the etching primer that I bought is to be used for the gas tank because it is metal. If you guys could shed some light on this for me it'd help quite a bit, thanks!
First painting project, have a few questions
- Thread starter Brian_M
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hoss
New member
sounds like you're on the right track. as for the plastic, make sure that you don't go through the factory clear if you do, you'll need to prime them before you basecoat. go back to napa and get some tint prime for that.
as far as prep.
get some mildly soapy water in a bucket and wet sand the parts w/800 grit or so. rinse well and let dry. look for shiny spots,these are the spots you missed when sanding. hit those spots till they are all gone.
hit the parts w/ wax and grease remover and a tack cloth after that then basecoat.
have fun and let us know how it turns out!
as far as prep.
get some mildly soapy water in a bucket and wet sand the parts w/800 grit or so. rinse well and let dry. look for shiny spots,these are the spots you missed when sanding. hit those spots till they are all gone.
hit the parts w/ wax and grease remover and a tack cloth after that then basecoat.
have fun and let us know how it turns out!
Ok so if I want to prime all of the plastic pieces anyways just for a uniform end result, is the etching primer safe to use on it? And for the areas of bare plastic can I prep them using an adhesion promoter out of a spray can? The adhesion promoter I'm looking at using is from martin senor or whatever the other napa brand of paint is. Let me know, thanks!
hoss
New member
if the parts are already painted, an adheasion promoter doesn't need to be used. you can just scuff the stock paint w/ 800 grit and paint over it. if there are any parts of that paint that you sanded through, or any chips you'll want to sand those areas smooth and hit them w/ the tint prime before you shoot your base coat.
Ok they sure don't make this easy getting products for a beginner. What I have so far is the following:
- 1 QT 15210 Etching Primer - Probably won't end up using it since I can't use it on the plastic
- 1 QT 15212 Reducer
- 1 QT World Rally Blue base
- 1 QT 5010 Spot/Panel Clearcoat
- 1 QT CR232 Reducer
- 1 QT CR733 Reducer
- 8oz CR256 Hardener
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your going to want to use a urethane primer filler on your repair areas, both plastic and metal. i would recommend using your spray adhesion promoter on the plastic repair areas before applying the primer, use the etch primer on the bare metal spots of the tank. sand all your parts down so there are no shiney areas left (you can use anything from 320 -800, but if using anything corser than 600 a sealer is a must). if at that point, you have some areas where you have broke through the original clearcoat, or any of your repairs, you will want to apply a primer sealer (to lock down the broke through areas and to have a uniform color to apply your basecoat over) at this point you have 2 ways you can go from here. 1. allow the primer sealer to completely dry and wetsand with 600-800 grit, reclean, and start applying basecoat. 2. apply your basecoat directly over the primer sealer as a wet on wet application (allow sealer to flash befor applying basecoat, no sanding needed) step 1 requires more work and time but usually results in a better finish