Oh wait, did you say it was a single stage urethane?

 

Yeah, single stage urethane

 

First off, keep the plastics on the bike when wet sanding. Takingthem off is unnecessary, and becomes awkward. I'd start with 1,500 gr. (make sure that you soak it in the bucket you will fill with cleanwater for 5 mins. first) By starting with a high grit, you can't sand away too much too fast. Make sure to use a wet sanding block made of a dense foam or soft rubber. Take your time, you don't want it to heat up the paint.Keep wiping to check progress, and make sure the paper stays very wet. Take the grit up to 2,000 to finish and buff with a fine buffing compound. To get a mirror shine, you need to be prepared to spend a lot of time doing it. Be careful not to go too far, once the orange peel is gone stop in that area. Be super careful around edges and sharp corners. It's easy to take the paint off if you aren't paying attention. The best way to do this is tonot sandedges until everything else is done, then sand them lightly with the 2,000. Oh, and sand back and forth, don't use a circular motion.

 

use slow motions when sanding...wait AT LEAST 1 week before you wet sand...if you have never wet sanded before, you might want to start with a high grit wet sandpaper or a buffer with some rubbing or polish compound and see what that gets you...you saw my bike, it has a pretty good shine and I only used rubbing and polishing compound...I could have spent more time with the poishing compound...I can always do it some more...plus it needs wax...I haven't waxed it since I used the polish compound...that will be next weekends project, after i get the tags...

 

Well, buffing compound is needed, but it won't replace wet sanding. It just doesn't knock down the peaks of small surface imperfections (like orange peel). You will still get a good shine your way, but it won't be the best it can be.

 

true...but i would be more concerned about breaking through the paint...I would start with the safest (on a small area) and work down to find your comfort zone...then do the entire bike...I would perfer a little orange peel over cutting through the paint and having to repaint the it...

 

+1. Nothing wrong with being careful. Especially if you're new to this stuff. The first paint jobs I did I finished in the exact same manner in which you recommended to him. They turned out really good.

 

Hello, I just went through a few weeks of hell with my paint project, I sanded down to the plasic in some spots and not others. I primed with a plastic flex primer and wet sanded several times. The paint was made up at local part store and the 1st coat went on ok. The second after a fine sanding started to wrinkle in spots. I was told that Honda may have used a water based paint at the factory. I had to use paint thinner to remove all the paint and prime again but did not sand past the primer. It came out ok but nothing like the factory. I may sand all the pieces again and have them done by a pro with powder spray.

 

Thanks for the help guys[sm=thanx.gif]

 

I think I heard of adding dish soap to the water when sanding. Is that recomended or just in certain cases?