EXUP Worldwide was born from the ashes of the original EXUP Brotherhood – the definitive forum for all those who have interest in Yamaha FZ, FZR, and YZF motorcycles.
I pulled the engine on my YZF600R for a rebuild and I couldn't let the chassis alone. It had a few dings so I decided to fix(?) the ding and put some paint on it. This bike has the painted steel frame so I figured I could clean, sand and clean it again and it would be ready for paint. I used Duplicolor Engine Enamel (ceramic) in a low gloss and it seemed to work pretty well. The pictures aren't the best but it looks pretty good in the flesh.
The problem will be the wheels. You can see them in the background of the second picture. I think the stock finish is just paint (not powder coat) because it is chipping badly and scuffs easily with sandpaper.
Does anybody have any recommendations on how to prep them for paint? I want to leave the rubber on, if possible, and sanding is very difficult on those shapes. Is there some type of chemical cleaner or etcher to help some fresh paint bond?
I used chemical paint stripper to take them back to bare alloy, that should allow a metal etch primer to bond well. Or you can just polish the bare alloy.
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'95 FZR1040 '09 FZ1-S
"And they had a machine, a dream of a machine, with wheels and gears and perfect in every respect, and they lived on it..." -Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"
When we repainted my bike we used this stuff called "aircraft paint remover." Some of the nastiest stuff you'll ever work with, but does the trick. Glob it on and let it sit for a few minutes, then start scraping it off. Will make your life a lot easier instead of trying to sand into all those little corners. You could take a flathead screwdriver and put something over the tip to keep from scratching up the rim. I can't imagine that stripper would be good on the rubber, but if you masked it off really good you'd probably be ok. I'd pull the bearings out as well.
Just don't get that crap on you. I had one little pinhead drop get on my arm and burned like a sonuvabitch. Remember the blood from the Aliens? Kind of like that....lol
Btw, frame looks really sweet
Nate 1987 FZR1000 (Still with fairings!) 2003 Bandit 1200S (It didn't come with fairings!)
Really you've got to take that tire off dude in order to do a proper job of stripping and painting/powder coating.
Michael
Yes Yes I know, I said, I'm building a project YZF1070
Basement is done now, 850 finished and gone...
Gotta get the new siding up on the house.
Fixing the FZ1 up, cleaning up garage and then I might even begin
I think your right, Michael, about pulling the tires. I was feeling a little lazy but if I'm going to go to the effort I might as well do it right. The last thing I want is to screw up a fresh Pilot Sport with some type of solvent. I'll post some pictures when I complete them.
My lad did his wheels easily whilst leaving the tyres on. Paint strippered , polished the rims, masked them up and then painted the centres up.
Made a smart job of them too
Ok..Im in the process and almost finished with my yzf600 rims..they are yellow and you better believe that the middle section is a differnt type or has way to many coats on it to f*ck with. This is what you do...you need two cans of AIRCRAFT stripper, a small paintbrush about 2" wide, rubber gloves that go to your elbows that are chimical resistant9(i used lether ones and they were bulky and hard to work with,) then you need blue 3m masking tape that is chemical resitant, and a newspaper, 220 grit sandpaper, degreaaser,
1/2- Rub entire wheel down with degreaser so its very clean.
1-Let the air outa the tire.
2-Take a chissle or small screw driver, something to GENTLY pullthe tire away from the rim about 1/2 " so you can squeeze the tape into there to tape off the entire rim properly, I got mine in almost a full inch and it took me about 3 minutes for each tire with the tire flat, just dont knick the rim.
3-after you taped all the way around, tape the newspaper all the way around to that tape and seal it tightly
4-now comes the best part, sand the lips of the rim on both sides of the rim, all the way around, with elbow grease but your not looking to take off paint really, just open it up so it sucks up that aircraft stripper and saves you some. If you go right to the aircraft stripper it will only take off one layer of paint at a time, and that means about 3 coats, I used 1 and then touch up and i was done bye scratching the serface.
5-Now take the paint brush, cut the bristles in half so ther about 1 1/2" from the metal part on the brush, makes them more sturdy, and apply a good amount of the aircraft spray(or non spray kind) and spread it over the lip, getting really well in the side cracks with the brush.
6-Leave for about 15-20 minutes,, and then come back and start whiping it off with something study, like steel wool or tough rag, unless your planning on polishing the wheels, then only use a rag so theres no accidental deap scrathes.
7-That will have you with paint still left. So now take the brush and apply it to all the spots missed, if there alot, then give it time, if there were only a few, then your good to get going on the middle section, glow the heck outa the middle if you wanna strip it down, that is your choice but your looking at triple the work with all the cracks and crevices so good luck on that one, I did one, and the second wheel i said f*ck it, sanded it lightly, primered and painted it.
8-after you get all the paint off, and the primer and your at metal, you can do a few differnet things depeding on preference. There would be the option of paintging the middle polishing the outside, powdercoating them, or spraying the entire wheel the same color. I did my first wheel, spay inside, and polish lip, I didnt like the polished lip so i sprayed the entire wheel, ill continue with directions on applying the paint or for entire paint, pm me for instructions on lip plishing.
9- since its already taped off, you wanna clean it all up really good from debrit and definitly clean the work area from any floating or air born debrit that can stick to it. This is my step no many people would do this I just think it works better.
10-MY STEP-go over the wheel with sandpaper, 220-400 grit, and do a smooth job, nothing rought, just opens the pours well.
11-clean the wheel again with cleaner.
12-now you want to paint it with a primer. You can air spray it like i did or yo ucan spray can it. Duplicolor is recommended if you do spray can, or use the duplicolor car kit for air spraying or house of kolor its about $50 for enough paint for 3-5 coats of paint on both rims
13-primer it with two even coats, you cn light sand, wet sand between if wished, just clean properly after it sits for drying abour 30-45 minutes between coats.
14-when you base coat it, I did 5 really good coats, if you mess up take the drip off immediatly and respray again...the coats on the base gotta be done carefully and get in all the cracks, i used a really small airgun jet to do the small areas, all in the same motion.
15- the clear...the clean is same as the basecoat except you can light sand in between the coats if wished for a better adhesion,,,the last two you can just spray on, and buff at the end. Mine shines like a new farrari on a summer day, but that me, the description is half ass as its 4 am here, but there you go and if questions or details just ask
Thanks you guys!
Stig had just what I was thinking about trying. I considered having them blasted and powdered coated but the cost is a little more than I wanted to spend and if Stig's technique doesn't work for me I can also go back to it.
Matador, thanks for the long write up! That is some good information but I'm not only a cheap bastard, I'm lazy as well! I'm going to try some of your tips there, though. I'm hoping the existing paint will work as a primer with a good cleaning and light sanding to help the new paint bond. That will hopefully save a lot of that prep.
Right now I'm waiting for the temperature to come up. It has been below 60 degrees and raining for the last week (I love Seattle!) and not the best painting conditions.
Jimcos, I had a set of wheels powder coated for $280. That included sandblasting one and painting it white then gold to match the white one I had painted gold.
There are some who call me........Tim?
In Memory Of John "Silver" Douglas (Dec. 08, 2008) R.I.P. My Friend.
Mine cost me about $20 to paint as I already had most of the materials such as topcoat, thinners and primer. So far I've done 3 sets of wheels and I've used about half a litre of paint
Stig wrote:Mine cost me about $20 to paint as I already had most of the materials such as topcoat, thinners and primer. So far I've done 3 sets of wheels and I've used about half a litre of paint
Aye... I hear you, but how much time did it take and what is YOUR TIME worth?
There are some who call me........Tim?
In Memory Of John "Silver" Douglas (Dec. 08, 2008) R.I.P. My Friend.
I'm leaning towards the cheap option since it is a $600 bike (or it was before I started throwing dollars and hours at it!). Besides, I don't think I'll be missing a lot of valuable beach time around here for the next month. Our forecast calls for crappy weather for the foreseeable future. I could spend it in my local pub or just spend a little quality time with the solvents in my garage.
I cheaped out and rattle canned them. Only cost about $15 for the paint (glossy black tractor paint, seemed appropriate), though there was an hour or two in cleaning, pressure washing, sanding and cleaning them again.
Thanks for the tips, Stig.
It seems to have worked well. I guess I won't really know how durable it is until I try to spoon on a fresh set of tires but you can't beat the price. I'll just have to be careful to scrub off any overspray before I get too enthusiastic on the road.
Here's an update. I was pretty busy over the last 6 months but I managed to pickup a couple of spare motors, one of which had a fresh transmission and topend (it had broken it's chain and chewed up its cases with only a few thousand miles on it - a good reminder to maintain your chain!). This allowed me to rebuild my old motor (which had a bad 2nd gear). Now I'm finally putting it back together. I have an idea of a Rainey replica paint job to get rid of the last of that nasty stock paint job. I'll drop a picture in when I finish. Thanks again for all the tips!
Jim
