The Yamaha Road Star Warrior Forum

I am wondering how hard it would be to paint a warrior. I'm not talking about airbrushing skulls and flames, just clean lines. Maybe a Pearl white with light blue designs of some sort. What is you alls input? I will practice on an old tank from a junk yard not use my bike as the practice.... It couldnt be THAT hard...can it? I can not find anyone that does paint around here, That will do it reasonable anyway. I live around Lake City Fl, do any of you guys know someone around here? Or have any of you painted your own bikes? Thanks..

 There are several members that have painted their own bikes like you are talking about.  Most of it is prep, prep, and more prep.  I've got a damaged warrior tank sitting out in the garage that you can have for shipping if you want .  We used to have a good painter not far from you, but he is out of business.  He is the one who did my paint, but screwed a lot of other members when he ran into some personal issues.

Hey what would the shipping be for 32008? I see that you are from peachtree Ga, I bought my very first bike from a guy up there, I can not remember his name really nice, it was a 1998 honda Aero 1100, very nice bike. Any who I would be interested in the tank. if shipping is reasonable. Thanks

one thing to remember about new paint these days,it is mostly base clear  2 stage or even 3 stage paint and the new paints are very serious stuff as far as chemicals are concerned,they have hardeners , reducers, pearls in your case and then clear with all the fore mentioned stuff. so dont go and get just a gun and start shooting paint ,you need a real good fan,a mask and a paint suit just to start,that is border line ,and dont paint in your attached garage with these new paints they will be in your house ,i dont know a best way to say it but the new paints are expensive and CAN KILL YOU  if you dont use extreme caution while using them. thats correct THEY CAN KILL YOU OR YOUR FAMILY. and when you throw away 300.00 or more in materials as a starting point ,just for practice, you still wont have a grip on the painting of your bike. not wishing bad on you just be very careful,please.i paint almost every day and paint changes very quick ,its not like the old days ,its a very technical art to make it all go as it should,some things are worth paying for ! btk572 

 GO FOR IT!!!!!

BUT, absolutely! 100% use the cautions just mentioned.

1. set up a spray area with adequate ventilation. I built a spray booth in my basement complete with exhaust fan and intake and exhaust filters.

2. get the appropriate MASK...a must when spraying euro's. Urethane based paints is very popular today.

3. shop around for a small touch-up type gun. Inexpensive and easy to learn with as apposed to a full sized gun for doing cars/trucks. Bike parts are reasonably small and I have managed to do several paint jobs with my small touch up gun. Worth a try thats for sure.

4. I went to a local sheet metal shop or sign supply shop and purchased a 4x8 x .040 sheet of aluminum sign material, cut up into 8 2'x2' squares. The 4x8 sheet comes painted white on one side, black on the other. All ready to be scuffed and painted, primed, whatever you want to practice.

You can scuff, base, clear and strip them over and over....works great. This is the place to make your mistakes man....although I have made mistakes on my tins, and had to start them over again. Thats where things can get costly.

5. you can save money by purchasing inexpensive base paints for practice. But when it comes to finishing the job you'll want to be GOOD at laying down the clear. This step can make or break a paint job.

I'd say go for it but get set up properly before jumping right into the painting...set up a decent spray area with plenty of ventilation and reasonably dust free and wear that mask and have a blast!

 

 

Basically everything mentioned above. It really just takes practice. I hand wet sand everything and that takes time. You want your tins to be sanded pretty good no smooth spots. You can use a epoxy etch primer for all the metal or just stick with a urethane acrylic primer only. I have sprayed a few crotch rockets and i just use dupont nason 2k primer for both the plastics and the metal gas tank and never had a bonding issue. The one cruiser i sprayed i used the etch primer and then top coated it with the 2k. Next wet sand that with 400 grit. Some people say 600 or even 800. I cannot see the sanding lines from 400 so i just stick with that. Clean your parts. I use soapy water then a quick wipe down with some prep solvent. Basically its just a wax and silicone remover. Mix up your base coat and spray. I use a SATA mini jet 3 touch up gun with a 1 mm nozzle. The base dries fast but give it flash time. That is letting all the solvents in the paint surface a evaporate into the air. If you don't let the paint flash you will see tiny dimples in the paint when you recoat. What you have done is trap the solvents between the paint layers. DO NOT try build up the base coat it's only purpose is to color. Do the fewest amount of coats to get a even finish. Next is clear. Keep a wet edge. I mainly stick with medium coats. If you go to light you will see major orange peel and to heavy you get runs and sags. You are gonna have to practice and get a feel for it. Some little tips whatever you see in the primer you will see in the finish. So make sure all blems and imperfections are sanded out before you spray your color coat. A pearl or a candy will spray over the base coat before your clear coat. Candy coats are cool cause you can change the end result by changing the base color. For example if you spray silver then a green candy it will look different than a gold base with the same green candy coat. A quart of color and clear will be more than enough for your tank and two fenders. Plan on spending 200 to 300 bucks on good materials. Good luck

 Painting is easy, prep is hard.

 

Here's a great link for Painting 101, with pictures.

http://69camaro.20m.com/painting101.html

 

if you look at the pics of the tins being done when it comes to the real paint the guy has access to a paint booth and he himself was taught a lesson even though he was doing a how to 101 about the pinstriping and the work being dicked up and costing some serious cash in the long run,and paying for pinstripping 2 times probably.you can paint your own stuff im not saying you cant ,but you will have to invest in your tools and learning curve to get close to being ready to do a decent paint job,but if you mess up and have to do more work its still probably cheaper then a semester at UTI or Wyotech right. as far as the sanding grits needed to prep for paint go by the manufactures recomendations because some paints need more mechanical adhesion then others and the body  of some paints will cover coarser scratches then others, home work ,home work, and hands on is the best teacher,but be very careful and protect you and your family from the chemicals involved in doing a paint job. btk572

I've been hobby painting for many years and have painted over 30 bikes in the last few years.  If this is your first paint job don't expect great results.  Seriously, thinking back on my first few paint jobs they SUCKED.   IMO it takes a long time to get good at painting.  Prep is key but you need to know how to spray paint as well.  If you already have a good compressor and spray gun then I'd say go for it.  If you don't have those two items you'd be better off paying someone to paint it.  By the time you pay for a compressor, gun, air filters, sand paper, tape, tack clothes, cleaners, primer/hardner, basecoat, clear/hardner, something to wheel out after, polishing compounds....  Try to find someone like me in your area, I don't have a big production shop so overhead is low and so are prices.  You might be surprised what you can get at a reasonable price.

Wow Thanks for all the info!!! I have been talking with some friends of mine who restore old cars they have all the set ups that I would need, I forgot to mention that. I am going to practice first before I take my bike apart and sand it down! My wife when I said I wanted to paint my bike just walked out of the room... I think that was her way of telling me it was ok... Ha LOL mabe not? I am going to try and find some stuff to practice on before I jump into it.... Thanks again for the response...