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$50 paint job: multiple colors, sharp lines. You can do it!

9K views 64 replies 23 participants last post by  dlk7u 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi everyone:

I just wanted to post up some pictures of my efforts to repaint a second-hand set of sharkskinz I picked up for my new (used) bike.

Here's what I started with:

Here's what I'm going for:

I just finished painting the tail last night (clear goes on this weekend), and I'm really, really happy with the results so far:







The real reason I wanted to put these pictures was to show that it is possible to do multiple colors on a rattlecan job and get sharp dividing lines:

The secret is 1/8" 3M plastic tape (also known as pinstripe tape). Unlike traditional painting/masking tape, the vinyl/plastic tape bends and stretches, which allows you to trace curves while still giving a nice sharp line. After I laid the tape down, I used a knife edge to make sure that it sealed well.

One additional trick that I've heard, but did not use, is to "seal" the edge of the tape by first spraying a coat of the "other" color (i.e., the color on the far side of the tape), then laying down the color you really want. that way, the color that bleeds through is the same as the color on the far side, so the bleeding will not be visible.

I still have a long way to go in this project. the finish is not perfect by any means. there are runs, and orange peel, and lots of other defects. but those are really due to my own laziness in prep, not an inherent problem with the rattlecan method. I'm convinced that any bleeding I experienced was due to poor prep, not the tape.

Bottom line: for something that I spray painted (with no experience) on top of a cardboard box sitting on a dirty street in front of my apartment, especially after doing at most a 5/8 ass job on the prep, I'm pretty happy with the results!

More pictures to follow!
 
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#3 ·
Beauty! Love the design, (but anything is better than that neon green and orange disaster)

Does the bike have gold wheels like your photoshop job? Along the edges of red, black, and white I would put some 1/4" or 1/8" gold pinstripe tape, or black-stripe on the border of red-white, white on the border of black-red, red on the border of black-white. (I don't know how you'd do the 3 stripes interacting in the tail, though) Pinstripe really makes a paint scheme pop and look a lot more clean and professional, in my opinion.

Either way, good job!
 
#5 ·
Thanks guys!

I'm hoping to prep and prime the upper and lower this weekend. Good bye day-glo orange.

Does the bike have gold wheels like your photoshop job?
Good catch. No gold wheels on mine. I have an '06 in the charcoal color, so the rims are grey, I believe. I think they'll go we'll enough with these colors for now, although black powdercoat or gold w/ the accents you sugested would be nice.

My garage-mate has a Street Trip w/ black wheels, so maybe I'll "trade" for his when he isn't looking :)
 
#15 ·
nose

cool. putting the stripes on after clearing sounds easy, and will let me finish up the rest of the project before turning to that.

My real question at this point has to do with the design of the nose. I'm concerned that the all-red nose in the mock up might be a little boring. One option that I liked was an 848/1098 style white or black panel that traces imaginary headlight lines. This might be a little bit too much Duc influence, though, being as i've already stolen nicky hayden's paint scheme.

Here's a mock of the original all-red, two 848-esque styles, and the standard number plate style. Thoughts?

 
#20 ·
cool. putting the stripes on after clearing sounds easy, and will let me finish up the rest of the project before turning to that.

My real question at this point has to do with the design of the nose. I'm concerned that the all-red nose in the mock up might be a little boring. One option that I liked was an 848/1098 style white or black panel that traces imaginary headlight lines. This might be a little bit too much Duc influence, though, being as i've already stolen nicky hayden's paint scheme.

Here's a mock of the original all-red, two 848-esque styles, and the standard number plate style. Thoughts?

Slapped these together in 5 minutes. The one with stripes now looks way too much like a ducati and both the noses are too middle-of-the-road, so NEVERMIND! I choose your second one!
 

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#21 ·
I really like the black borders you added to the white stripes on the side. Really helps to bring the design together and look more "finished".

I actually like your first design a lot, but agree that I probably need to lose a cylinder in order to run with it.
 
#22 ·
So I actually found an example of a 675 using an 848-style color block on the nose. His pattern is quite close in terms of the side-design that I'm going for, so it gives a pretty good sense of what it might look like. I think it's pretty sharp looking:





Thoughts?
 
#27 · (Edited)
Updated mock of the front / nose. Current plan is to use a white 1098-style color block that traces the (imaginary) contour of the 2009+ headlights, which I prefer to the 2006 lights. I've incorporated a black pinstripe at the color boundaries per StayAwake's suggestions.

I like the idea of tracing Daytona headlight contours as a way to preserve the look/identity of the bike (even though i'm heavily borrowing from another brand's paint scheme). I want it to be obvious that this is a daytona from a distance. That said, I'm slow as hell, so folks should have plenty of time to contemplate which bike it is as I come by :)



I'm not sure how exactly I'm going to get the outline for the 09 lights. I might have to apply masking tape to an 09 at my garage, trace the outline on that, and then use that outline to lay down 1/8" tape on mine. Typing that out, it sounds like a dicey plan, so i'd love to hear ideas on a better way.
 
#28 ·
You don't have the skills to do it by hand? Get the symmetry by going from low detail to higher detail. I'd just look at it straight on, put down some straight painter's tape from the cockpit down to the under-side of the nose. Move it around until it's symmetrical, then put down your 1/8 tape on the inside of it, add a general horizontal arc, make sure that's symmetrical, then add the headlight detail to the arc and cut away the excess. You can check symmetry by putting your head where the windshield should be and look at the whole thing in a mirror.
 
#29 ·
So I went out for dinner last night, and ended the meal with an "affogato," which is a tasty italian drink that's basically 2 shots of espresso with a scoop of gelato on top. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep until 4AM.

On the plus side, made some progress:







On the down side, I was a sprayed too heavily and got some runs in the paint. I'll probably finish up the (black) bottom part first, then go back and sand and re-coat the red. Getting the red-black line to be parallel with the top edge of the bellypan is tricky - so going back with also let me fix that up.
 
#33 · (Edited)
upper complete!

finished painting the upper. added the black pinstripe per stayawake's suggestion. then applied spray clear, which was easier than I expected. end result looks pretty good, i think. I would describe it as looking very good at 3 feet. closer than that and you can see imperfections, but overall a great result considering it was painted on the street (I had to chase away pigeons while applying the clear!).

I think the pinstripes made a huge difference in the finished product. I used black 1/8" ones off amazon. As an added bonus, using pinstripes allows you to cover up small imperfections in your paint borders. A good suggestion that I read elsewhere is to store the pinstripe tape in a plastic bag (this goes for painting tape also) - otherwise, dust adheres to the edges and interferes with your lines.

Another suggestion from my experience is to avoid the temptation to use the panel-breaks as dividing lines on your color scheme. My original plan was to do the white stripe on the upper, and then have the red start at the top of the belly pan (you can see this in the picture in my last post). doing it that way would obviously be much easier since you can just paint all the way to the edge. The problem is that the fit of the panels (Sharkskinz) wasn't quite good enough to give the crisp edges I was looking for. I fixed this by moving the color break up an inch to the top panel - that let me do the break "on my terms", and the result is much cleaner IMO.

Enough talk, on to the pictures:







belly pan should be finished this weekend!
 
#35 ·
Awesome looking good. Can't wait to see it all finished and on the bike. Are you going to be painting that small bit of the tank as well like your original drawing?

Staying tuned to see the finished product. Looking for ideas for my paint scheme. I'm not very creative/artistic so I'd rather steal someone else's design. :laugh:
 
#37 ·
Looking really nice! I hope you get enough ventilation in that 15th floor apartment it appears you live in!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S II using motorcycle app
 
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