How to do this kind of paintjob at home?

[DDR_Fan]

Hi guys, I am trying to restore an oldtimer motorcycle.
The bike is in horrible "fresh out of the barn" condition but when i am finished with it, I want it to look as close to the original as possible.

The original paintjob looks like this (see photo below).

Golden and white stripes on the sides of the tank and on the fenders.
Looks difficult to achieve at home, especially for somebody like me who has no experience.

What would your guidelines be?
How to do this AT HOME?
I am not aiming at the Ultimate Perfect results and I will not be using professional equipment. I just need something that looks OK and close to the original look.

Thanks!

 

[Kristoffersson]

Doing it home or at your body shop is basicly the same i'd say..
take it apart, restor it, sandblast everything i whould say.. then paint:
spray primer, sand the primer, spray black basecoat, then stop.

For the white lines.. i whould take a blue fine line tape 1/4" i'd guess. use the tape to lay down the white stripes.. mask around the tape, then pull of the blue fine line tape again.. spray white basecoat.. and remove masking..

For the golden lines, i should say pinstripe.. but if you don't want that. you should do the same as with the white stripes.. but with maybe a 1/16" fine line tape. to the same process. lay the fineline tape, mask of the rest, spray golden.. remove masking..

try to not lay on to much paint when masking, cuz you will get hard edges from the paint you spray.. Then just wipe it off with a taccloth, i think that's the word? a sticky cloth.. the shoot 2 or 3 rounds of clear.. let it dry over night, or even 2 days.. then wetsand everything with a 1000grit sandpaper! you can use from 600-2500, it's just that the finer grit you use, the longer it will take.. sand off all the "orange peel" wich is the uneven surface of the clear.. and sand away those edges from the masking.. then give it another 2 rounds of clear, let dry.. and you're done!

 

[DDR_Fan]

Thanks.
What is this blue line thing and how is it diffrent from regular masking tape? :think1:

 

[DDR_Fan]

OK, how do you mask around that blue tape?
I mean, is this blue line thing a very thick tape that allows you to use masking tape around it or something? :think1::think1::think1:

 

[Kristoffersson]

the blue fine line tape is, a thin plastic tape, that allows you to bend it a lot more sideways then regular tape. if you bend regular tape only the outside of the curve will be as you want.. the inside just messes up.

the reason why to use this fine line tape, is for you to get as straight and fine lines as possible.. you use it as a template so to speak.. use regular masking tape and mask all the way into the blue fineline tape. when you then remove your fineline tape, you get an unmasked aerea that will be your white & golden lines!


The tape is used to get the same thickness of the white line all the way around.. you can just eyeball it and mask of with regular tape and leave a line that "almost" is good.. and you think " whatever, it's good enough for me " .. but then it won't look half as good as this will!

 

[DDR_Fan]

Interesting, thanks.
I will have to search for this blue tape.
Hope we have it where I live.

How about spraying freely a golden coat and a white coat (roughly around the areas where the lines will be), then sticking the blue tape to those already coated areas and then spraying the black all over the masked tank.
When you remove the blue tape, you should have the white and glod lines underneath it and the black everywhere else.

Will this method work?
It just seems much more easy to do to me and it will only require blue tape, but again: I am just somebody with no experience, so this could very much be a stupid idea. :freak:

_

 

[rob smith]

Interesting, thanks.
I will have to search for this blue tape.
Hope we have it where I live.

How about spraying freely a golden coat and a white coat (roughly around the areas where the lines will be), then sticking the blue tape to those already coated areas and then spraying the black all over the masked tank.
When you remove the blue tape, you should have the white and glod lines underneath it and the black everywhere else.

Will this method work?
It just seems much more easy to do to me and it will only require blue tape, but again: I am just somebody with no experience, so this could very much be a stupid idea. :freak:

This is the better way to do it as the 'edge' of the masked stripe is lower than the final colour coat. You can then fill this with clear and have a perfect finish all over. Without having to load the whole tank surface up with clear. I do this with pin stripes and lettering ie:- car model logos like MACH - 1, VW, etc.

 

[Kristoffersson]

I actually never thought of that, but then, i'm a beginner to!
Only thing i can think of is that you might get gold in your white, and white in your gold, if you see what i'm saying?

 

[DDR_Fan]

^ No, you will not get gold in your white or vise versa.
As long as you apply good, solid coats and not just fuzzy, transparent, thin "clouds" of paint.
If the coats are solid, then the lines will be solid too and the gold and white will not interfere with each other.

You spray the area gold.
Let it dry and then mask the gold line with blue tape - what remains under the tape will be the future gold line.
Then you spray the whole area white, over the already masked gold line - nothing bad happens to the gold line because it is already covered with the "blue line" or whatever this masking thing's name is.
Let dry, then mask a line the newly applied white - the same way you did for the gold strip.
Then you spray the tank / fender / whatever with black - all over the masked gold and over the masked white stripes.
If the blue thing works OK, there is no chance for the colors to mix.

This was my initial idea - I imagined it this way and I wanted to do it this way.
But I thought that it would be wise to ask first on this forum.
My only concern is the transition lines between the different colors.
Shoud I just overspray those areas with clear to kind of make the seams blend better?

Also: is it not better to spray clear over the whole tank than just over the problematic areas?
I mean, in the previous post Rob Smith mentioned spraying only the transition areas and not the whole tank to be an advantage.
Why?
What is the problem with entirely clear-coating everything?

_

 

[flamepain]

white,fine line. gold, fineline. black. remove tape and clear. you can coat the entire piece but you are just wasting good base.fine line tape is ideal for the job. most auto parts stores carry one brand or another. i personaly use husky or norton. 3m is good too. cyas

 

[Kristoffersson]

i didn't really get this thing with not clearing the whole part? why not?
i mean.. when the lines and basecoat is done, remove tape and clear it all till you have a smotth surface, or am i wrong again? i seem to have caused nothing but problems to this thread, hehe!

 

[flamepain]

yes thats rite.after all your base is done you clear the entire piece. all i am saying is you dont have to base the entire part with each color, just base where the stripe go.cyas

 

[DDR_Fan]

I get it now.
I get what Rob Smith was saying.

If you have the stripes ABOVE the base black coat, like Kristoffersson was suggesting, you will have to load a huge amount of clear over the entire part to even the levels up.
This will take many coats of clear over the entire big surface of the part (tank, fender, etc.).
Lots of wasted laquer ad a lot of work too.

With the more simple method, you have the stripes LOWER than the black and you will only have to fill the narrow "grooves" where the stripes are with clear. Then you will have all things leveled and you will only use one or two coats of final clear over the big surface of the part.

 

[Kristoffersson]

ah, now i see!
I've learned a lot here, aswell as everywhere else.. thanks for the info and explanation!

 

[sure]

If you care about the bike being true to how it was originally done have it hand striped by a pro..
If you're going for a true restoration this would be the way to go.
Just my .02

 

[DDR_Fan]

^ Sure thing, sure.
Interesting fact is that these oldtimer bikes were not perfectly painted in the factories.
The factory paintjobs had small differences between each other.
I guess they did them by hand in those old times. There were no robots back then.
So, small inccuracies can actually add more to the authenticity of the paint job!