Nozzle size for painting candy onto a motorcycle tank and panels?????

[dixiethedog]

Hi all,ive just bought some candies to try on a couple of bike projects,and im wondering what size nozzle etc you'd recommend for spraying the tank seat unit and front fender????
Im worried in case i use too small a nozzle and end up with stripes on the overlap of spraying,or too big and end up wasting all my paint!
Any help gratefully appreciated.:cheers:

 

[Kong]

I shoot with either a 1.2mm cap (Iwata LPH-80) or a 1.3mm cap (Iwata LPH-300LV). With motorcycle parts striping is almost never a problem simply because two or three passes are all that are required for coverage of the relatively small parts. Where you tend to get tiger striping is when you paint large flat areas like hoods or roofs or on long-walk side panels. If what you've got in front of you is a tank and a pair of fenders, maybe an oil tank or even a fairing, when you've made one pass north to south, the next east to west, then when you shoot your third north to south again you'll generally have nicely even coverage. Also, a lot of guys will back up after that third coat and just dust a quick coat over it from afar before it tacks - not recommendin' it, just sayin'.

On Edit: I should have mentioned, if you are having problems with striping just mix your candy colors thinner by adding clear and shoot more coats to reach the tone you are looking for.

 

[dixiethedog]

Thanks Kong,i'll give the 1.2 nozzle a try. The candy paint im using is (im new to this!)the type you mix with thinners and spray,then clearcoat. I wonder what would happen if i did mix it with the clear coat??? Think some experimentation is needed!!! Thanks again.

 

[Kong]

Well, that will work but keep in mind, that gun I use the 1.2mm tip in is a mini-gun, the model 300 that I use the larger tip in is more like a full size gun in that it shoots a fan that is about twice as wide as the smaller gun. The LPH300, with the 1.3mm cap, will cover a motorcycle fender with 1 pass and the side of a tank with 2. So in a very real sense it is the fan width makes a very big difference when shooting bike parts and may be more important to you in your selection than the cap size. For whatever its worth although you'll find recommendations for different size caps from different paint manufacturers in general they all recommend something around a 1.3~1.4mm cap and in fact you can't go wrong buying something close to that. If you're looking for a primer gun go larger.

 

[dixiethedog]

Thanks again Kong for great advice. Im going to try to get to the spray shop this week to look at buying a new gun. I'll hopefully post some pics when i get started with the job.
The job I"m going to spray is some old kawasaki z1 panels,candy orange over a black base. Ive also been asked to paint a Yamaha fj1200 trike,more candy orange (this years colour of choice??),but over a silver base with a silver sparkle shimmer. Should be bright!

 

[Kong]

Something like this?

This is my own bike, a 2002 HD FXSTD/I (Harley Davidson Deuce, Fuel Injected). A quick rundown: Most of the prep work was done with PPG products; epoxy primer, Icing filler (non-PPG), high build, and then epoxy sealer. That was followed with HOK Black. After the black I shot white undercoat for ghosted Kandy Kandy cobalt blue on the bottom and rear of each part, you can see some reflection of it on the bottom of the tank in the picture. Next I highlighted with white and overshot with Kandy Tangerine (KK mixed with SG-100) to give the orange effect (I think I did that is 4 applications). Finally I finished with my normal shiney-bike procedure, which is 4 coats of UC-35 - air dry 2 days, sand with 600 grit, then 2 more coats of UC35, 2 more days of air dry, then cut and buff. This job was done 13 months ago, I'm starting a new paint job for it this week.

Here's a view of the bike in profile:

This is my wife's bike, a 2005 Sportster, which was painted in a similar pattern, but this time it was done with Several different blue KK products, four I think it was, and the same finish procedure.

 

[TAZ]

dixiethedog,

When you do the candy tangerine over the silver base, but sure if you use a coarser flake (bigger than the HOK Orion) that you put a couple coats of interclear over the flakes. If you don't and the flakes are sticking out of the silver metallic, sometimes the candy gathers around the flakes and you end up with some darker spots that look like dirt.



Sharp Bikes Kong!

 

[dixiethedog]

Wow,cool paint on both bikes,your obviously more talented than me!! Maybe in a few years i can hone some skills to be able to do work like that (i doubt it though! lol).But seriously,nice work.
Thanks Taz as well for input,the flake size in the silver shimmer is fairly small,so maybe i can get away with putting candy over the top,before clearcoating?? I'll experiment and report back,hopefully very soon!!
Thanks again.
Dixiethedog

 

[TAZ]

Sounds like you'll be all right to do the candy right over the metallic then.

Just do a test panel and check it out first ! Good luck to you!

 

[dixiethedog]

Thanks again for reply,with having to get on with life in general,i still havent done the candy,but plan on completing in the next week or so. If it goes well,i'll post some pics,if it goes badly,well,i'll hide myself from the World! lol.
Enjoy Christmas and have a very happy new year!

 

[TAZ]

Good luck to you!

Happy New Year to you as well!

 

[dixiethedog]

Its a while since i posted,so here is a pic of the finished item,here getting a nice soapy wash. Theres videos on the motorcycle painting section entitled"my first try at candy".