New paint and graphics

I thought I would paint the bike and put on the new graphics finally. Been sitting on them for the past 5 months.

Paint is a black pearl with yamaha retro graphics. Not bad for a total cost of a 100 bucks. =)

Good job on the paint! Can you share how you went about painting the plastics? Did you prep the plastics before painting, what paint did you use, etc.

GoodShipT wrote:

Good job on the paint! Can you share how you went about painting the plastics? Did you prep the plastics before painting, what paint did you use, etc.

Thanks!

Yea you have to prep the plastic before you paint since it is very slick and the paint will not stick.

Steps I've used:

1) Sand all plastics with 600 grip sand paper

2) Wash, rinse, dry plastics before you put primer on.

3) After primer dries lightly WET sand with 1000 grit sand paper to level out any high and low spots.

4) Wash, rinse, dry and now put on your first coat of base paint. I did 3 coats.

Make sure you spray all edges first, let dry 5 mins, spray edges again, dry 5mins , and spray edges again. Then spray the flat parts of the plastic.

The edges on plastics will spray thin and will sand through to base paint when you wet sand later.

5) AFter base paint dries, spray a clear coat. SAme rule applies: spray edges first, dry, spray edges again, dry, and spray again. I put on about 4 layers of clear coat.

6) After all dries for 2 days, wet sand with 1000 grit sand paper till all high and lows parts are gone, then finish wet sanding with 2000 grit.

7) apply a cutting wax (abrasive) and use a buffer to buffer away all the fine scratches you made with the 2000 grit sand paper. After the cutting was I then apply a polisher wax and buff.

8) dance now because you are done.


Pictures of paint and clear coat ive used.

2 cans of paint and 2 cans of clear coat was enough to paint my whole bike. 25 bucks was the total cost.

Really nice work. I think the OEM can would look more finished with the plastic guard done in satin black and bolted on...

Looks very nice.

What color was it to begin with?

While that paint job and graphics looks extremely awesome, I must comment on painting plastics.

Krylon Fusion can be applied with no where near that much effort and no need for clear coats after.

The beauty of rattle can paint is that if it gets chipped or starts to dull it can simply be painted again.

On a dirt bike, or a supermoto that might see off-road duty every now and then I'd hate to spend that much time painting and sanding and clear-coating only to drop bike or have a stone bounce up and chip paint.

With Krylon Fusion paint you simply remove any graphics and make sure all adhesive from graphics is removed as well.
Lightly scuff the factory Yamaha clear coat with fine grit sand paper, and then start painting. I only sanded between coats if I got a run in paint.

From more than 2 feet away my paint job looks pretty darn good for rattle can painting by a dude who's never painted motorcycle plastics before in his life.

Don't stress it. Once you get started it's fun. Endless options too.

The paint job looks awesome!
Whats up with the holes in the side pannel tho ?

Air intake - mostlikely running with the airbox door off as well. Doesnt look like he's doing much offroading.

zestymac wrote:

Really nice work. I think the OEM can would look more finished with the plastic guard done in satin black and bolted on...

I couldn't agree more. Might have to look at painting the tank in the future. Gives me something to do. =)

BuilderBob wrote:

Looks very nice.

What color was it to begin with?

Originally it was blue and white.

motokid wrote:

While that paint job and graphics looks extremely awesome, I must comment on painting plastics.

Krylon Fusion can be applied with no where near that much effort and no need for clear coats after.

The beauty of rattle can paint is that if it gets chipped or starts to dull it can simply be painted again.

On a dirt bike, or a supermoto that might see off-road duty every now and then I'd hate to spend that much time painting and sanding and clear-coating only to drop bike or have a stone bounce up and chip paint.

With Krylon Fusion paint you simply remove any graphics and make sure all adhesive from graphics is removed as well.
Lightly scuff the factory Yamaha clear coat with fine grit sand paper, and then start painting. I only sanded between coats if I got a run in paint.

From more than 2 feet away my paint job looks pretty darn good for rattle can painting by a dude who's never painted motorcycle plastics before in his life.

Don't stress it. Once you get started it's fun. Endless options too.

Thanks for the heads up. I always love hearing new options to painting. Never heard of Krylon Fusion. I might test it out on some plastic parts to see if i like the finish.

Biglake wrote:

The paint job looks awesome!
Whats up with the holes in the side pannel tho ?

Mcdoudlehopper is right. It was for an open air box, but the previous owner put it on. I do a lot of off roading and didn't find out i was running it without a door after 2000 miles owning the bike! I bought the door, seal, and hindges and all is fine now except for the holes on the plastic. The original filter was so dirty.

mcdoudlehopper wrote:

Air intake - mostlikely running with the airbox door off as well. Doesnt look like he's doing much offroading.

Where were u able to get that graphic? Soloracer has had it out of stock for a long time in that color. I just converted my r over to white and have had my eye on that exact decal for some time

Dylonspitshotfire wrote:

Where were u able to get that graphic? Soloracer has had it out of stock for a long time in that color. I just converted my r over to white and have had my eye on that exact decal for some time

Ok.. I might have lied a little bit. I've been sitting on those graphics for over a year. lol

Sorry... looks like they are not available anymore.

Quote from BoredAzHell20

Mcdoudlehopper is right. It was for an open air box, but the previous owner put it on. I do a lot of off roading and didn't find out i was running it without a door after 2000 miles owning the bike! I bought the door, seal, and hindges and all is fine now except for the holes on the plastic. The original filter was so dirty.



So, when you put the door back on, did you notice much diff? I tried taking mine off and was just louder on the intake. I ride 50% offroad so I didnt want my filter to see that much dust. Also didnt want to clean it once a week!

mcdoudlehopper wrote:

So, when you put the door back on, did you notice much diff? I tried taking mine off and was just louder on the intake. I ride 50% offroad so I didnt want my filter to see that much dust. Also didnt want to clean it once a week!

There is a noticeable difference between airbox door on, and airbox door off. Even without the holes in the body panel.

You'll definitely want, and most would say even NEED an efi programmer if you want to open "her" up that much though.

Yes indeed the programmer will be first! Im just afraid to expose the filter that much. Saw a post where a guy cut top of airbox out where flapper is and made a 3x4" prefilter on the top with like scotch brite pad or something. This is more reasonable

To open up my airbox I cut a 2 1/2 by 2 1/2 inch hole directly above the filter and gutted the flapper crap out of the stock snorkel.
This setup is great for offroad, you get lotsa air and its protected from water splashing in, the extra hole above the filter is actually better protected from water than the stock snorkel is. I rode around through a bunch of deep water before cutting holes, the area directly above the filter stayed clean, the snorkel had some mud stains on it but nothing made it to the filter.
The filter doesnt get dirtier any quicker than it does with a stock airbox with my setup.