What up forum!

I've got a few plans for my bike over the winter months and one of them is painting my Targa Solo Cowl. I have an 06 F4i so it has the banana seat but I always wanted that split seat look (the subframe swap never really appealed to me).

Anybody have any experience with rattle can and have some tips to share? The cowl is in "unpainted primer" so I can skip the sanding and don't have to reprime the cowl right?

Also, do you think clear coating it worth it? The paint is SO freaking expensive (I need a base coat and then the actual color) but I want it to look good so I guess you pay for what you get...

Color Rite Recommendations

I'll post pictures of what the cowl looks like when I order the paint and when I'm done with all of it!

 

You can paint directly onto the factory prepped surface. Just be sure to inspect for imperfections, fingerprints, etc, which may require a quick sand & re-primer.

Clear coating is def the way to go after painting. That surface will take a lot of sun & wear & can use the protection...not to mention, more closely matching your factory color.

Good luck w/ your project.

 

If it came factory primed you might want to give it a quick scrub down as mentioned, Maybe use 600ish grit just to help give the paint a good surface to stick to.

 

Alrighty just about to order my paint, hopefully I will be able to get this done within the next month or so (school is starting back up for me).

I got my two rattle cans of paint, a rattle can of clear coat and one touch up pen from ColorRite. Shooting for one coat of paint for each of my three "layers".

Leggo.

 

Clear coat is a must. And you should probably give it two layers of the color. Better to get it right the first time, then to have to strip it down and do it again.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys, I ended up sanding down the cowl before doing any of the painting with 600grit sand paper.

Here's the cowl unpainted:


I was planning on spray painting outside by the side of my apartment. However, the weather has been too cold or windy. Luckily, I am friends with a few people in theatre department so they let me used their spray booth!

I did two coats of the base, two coats of the color and finally two coats of the clearcoat. I was extremely worried about the color because it came out sort of darker than what I remember my bike is like (its stored in a garage right now). However, after two days now, the color has lightened up a bit and it looks pretty good. Just needs some polish and it'll be nice and shiny!



I went toward home a few days ago and stopped by to throw on the new accessory for Julia! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.



Do you guys think I should put a decal or two on it? I was thinking about something like a Honda Racing logo on the top of it or CBR on the sides since it covers up the 600F4i decals.

Cheers!

 

Looks great!

 

That looks great! Excellent work.

 

Where did you get the cowl? Looks great man. Good job on the paint.

 

Thanks guys! Means a lot to me!

I bought the cowl off eBay, from the company Targa based in California. It came in a white primer already and I just threw on paint ordered from ColorRite.

Thanks, I was super worried about how it would turn out, but I am very happy with the results.