Newbee painter on a H-D FLT

[asuperglide]

I've been reading some threads over the past few days and there's some great talent here.

I hope I'm not lowering any of you to my questions or standards but want to try something simple.

I have a 1990 FLT HD that's factory gloss black with red & yellow pinstripes. I like the black but hate the pinstripes and the extra chrome dribble. I want to paint the bike flat black period.

Over the years I've come to be pretty good with spray bombs on small jobs. I painted the hood of a YJ Jeep with tri-color flames and after several years painted it back to stock color and all worked out well with spray cans. I don't know anything about paint types and will count my success to luck.

Is it possible to get a decent job with Rust-o-lem flat black if the prep work is done well? The tank & fenders are metal and the flairing and side covers some kind of plastic.

The plan was to sand the clear coat down with 180 and prime with black prime then wet sand with 600 and then paint bomb it. After the primer how many coats of flat black? Any prep before re-coats? Should it be clear coated after final coat? Anything to be watch out for?

The bike is a kick around bike. It's 18 years old and high miles but runs strong. I just want to get rid of the factory look and don't have a lot of $ to pay someone to paint it for me.

Comments appreciated.

 

[hoss]

if you have a paint gun, or can borrow one, i'd go get some flat acrylic enamel to shoot on it. rattle can paint has little resistance to gas. so if you drip some on it, you'll eat through the rattle can paint or it'll leave a dull spot where it fell.

i'd block sand the tank w/ 400 grit. make sure all the pinstripes are flat, not gone (if they're under the clear) just make sure the clear is flat over the stripe. if you sand throught the clear, you'll need to prime to cover that area.

600 grit is a good grit for a prep for black paint, so the rest should be ok.

good luck!