planning chopper paint, need some advice

[quadcam79]

I am building a 79 sportster chopper and I have decided I want to move away from the flat black and red look and more into 70's style paint. i want to paint the frame a light metallic silver.I may have the frame powdercoated depending on the price.

I want to do the tank, fender and oil tank in sour apple green metalflake like this

I have zero experience with auto paints, I've done airbrush off and on for about 15 yrs but all I ever had to use were small amounts of hobby enamels and clearcoat.

I do have a gravity feed spray gun (central pnumatic 20 oz. Required air pressure: 50-60 PSI; Air consumption: 5 CFM; Nozzle size: 1.4mm)that has never been used. I picked it up on sale at harbor freight when i was going to paint the bike flat black the first time. I ended up using spray cans for the flat black.
ok the questions:
1. first ,where do i start on this project?
2. I have a couple thin coats of flat black from a spray can, it's my understanding that those paints don't contain any hardeners which is why it chips so easily, how far down do i need to sand the parts and whats grits should I use?
3. what type of paint and primer do i need to use, I was thinking of going with HOK but it's pretty pricey. theres so many choices of paint, thinners, hardeners it's really confusing
4.will i be able to spray flakes through the gun or would i be better off using a metallic paint?
5. how much paint would I need to cover a sportster tank, small oil tank 5" diameter x 11.5" long bare steel, and a small flat trailer fender?

I did a bunch of reading in this forum and I think i have the basics.
first I sand or have everything sandblasted, clean everything really well with a tack rag and thinner or alcohol to remove any grease or fingerprints. spray a couple coats of primer, then a couple coats of silver metallic or maybe pagen gold base, then flake goes on top of that followed by a few layers of clearcoat, wetsand the clear and aain hit it with a tack rag and alcohol. then I would do a few layers of the green candy? followed by a few more layers of clear?

 

[TAZ]

Welcome to the forum.

Definitely going to tackle a tough type paint to spray for your first paint job.
I would suggest using HOK...you mentioned pricey, but actually this is cheaper than most paints. Average price for a PINT of PPG runs about $60-$80, and a QUART of HOK candy runs about $50.

If you go with all HOK paints, be sure and use the HOK catalysts and the reducers. Plan on spending about $300+ for the materials.

Basically just need to prep the parts by painting them in pretty much any decent epoxy primer. Then you will need to sand this. 400 grit will be fine. Once you get the parts prepped and ready to paint, go ahead and coat them with a sealer, then spray some BC02 directly over the sealer. Then paint your candy over this (I would guess Organic Green). Then you need to clear over this. This should get you a candy color close to what is shown in the pic you attached.

If you want flake, you can spray this over the silver metallic base. You will also need to mix the flake with some HOK interclear (SG-100).
I wouldn't recommend using the flake since you don't have alot of experience on this. Sometimes if you don't get the flakes laying right, then candy will gather around the flakes, and you end up with dark spots.

Once you're ready to buff, you can use 1500 grit, then use a 3M foam pad along with some 6060 compound.

That's just the basics though...alot of steps involved. Just be sure the prep is perfect, before spraying.

:luck:

 

[quadcam79]

Thanks for the advice. I just got really lucky because one of the best custom painters around invited me to come and help her prep and paint the parts for a bike thats going to be featured along with her on the today show this month.
So i'll be making a 5 hr drive to her place and spending most of the week helping and learning :cheers: