Need oponions for 2nd Bike paint job

[Squirt]

I am building a custom from the ground up and its almost time to paint. My limited experiance is a Harley, HOK Kandy tangerine,pinstripe(taped off) and black truck with flames( thanks to this board) and minimal airbrushing. must say they both turned out pretty well(luckly) So now, I think that I'm good LOL. Want to attempt to paint this custom with a kandy or pearl base then put 4 different colors of graphic on it with contrasting shadows. I havn't picked any colors yet so I'm open to suggestions.My questions are these: 1. base coat and then clear, should I wet sand this 1st coat of clear with 600? 2 :Tape out my graphics then spray, do I need to put intercoat clear on EACH graphic then tape over this "fresh" graphic before moving on? I am sure that I am taking on a "very" large job for a newbee, but I have done all this by myself and would like to put a killer paint job on it myself as well. Any help before I tackle this would be appreciated. thanks, Squirt

 

[kevsLX]

I think you pretty much have a good plan.
I would definatley go ahead and clear over your main base color then sand it to lay your graphics. I usually use 800 but 600 is OK, just watch the sharp edges.
Main thing is to plan ahead and know what your going to do next after each color and graphic. Just keep your topcoat window timeframe in mind, don't want to push that too far.
But if you have a solid plan it's not hard to get alot of colors and different grpahics laid down within that timeframe.
Plan your colors and layout so that you minumize the amount of backtaping, That can be hard though becuase if you're like me you keep thinking of differnet stuff as you go along /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/2idea.gif I try to keep it under two or three applications of intercoat but that's just me, probbaly nothing wrong with 4-5.

 

[Squirt]

When you intercoat, do you need to do the whole item(tank,fender,etc) or just the last color you put on?I was thinking that if you only intercoated the "graphic" then you would have a big "ridge" that you would need to put many clear coats over to get it smooth. How many coats of clear is the norm? To many and they say it will "yellow" or "crack" is this true? Thanks, Squirt

 

[rex]

The only thing that really works is plan out the layout and try to minimize clearings.You're right about the ridges,if you have alot of overlapping you need to figure the most individual grafix you can put down and then clear and sand,then do the overlapping stuff.It can get thick so plan it out the best way possible,HOK is good for holdung up on thickness.You can get cracking if it ends up really thick and sees lots of sun but scooters don't live outside like cars do.The yellowing is mainly from cheap clears or if you get carried away with accelerators.

 

[paintricks]

I like using 2042 ppg or fast clear between coats with a little flex additive so it can take a little more abuse. Seems to work. Chipping sux. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/flame.gif