I will be purchasing a 1993 Kawasaki Ninja EX500 to learn on (so that I can be ready for a CBR in the Spring :rockon ), but the damn bike is Teal Green! :beathorse

Has anyone sanded down the paint and repainted their bike a different color? I'm wondering how difficult it would be. Here's the bike:

 

how is this for a sand and paint?

[IMG]local://upfiles/1936/D18E5E1E1F424F068D9C08627EEFA3DD.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/1936/292765D9D708401F87A8970E2E716B1B.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]local://upfiles/1936/CE7FF0DA3D3F42A08E13F0870603F450.jpg[/IMG]

 

That is sweet! Obviously it looks like you put some solid man hours into that which I'm not interested in doing. I was hoping it was a like a one day or at most a weekend project, but that look like it could take a few days. Ah well, probably best to keep it stock color. I'll be picking up something new in the Spring anyways.

 

I'm actually interested in stripping my whole bike down and taking care of it so if you have a how to with some pics and such it would be nice, I'm mostly interested in the paint process though but it's always good to learn.

 

This was actually a month long project. There was no rush for it. For painting the fairing, that could easily be done in a week-end. Assuming you have a guy to shoot the paint or you can do it yourself. My 86 ZX was taken all the way down, as you can see in the second picture. The frame was blasted and shoot with house of colors gloss black and clear coated. Then the bike was pieced back together. The plastic, we tried the normal fiberglass repair.... works for the most part. I've talked to others and there seems to be a method called plastic welding. I'm not sure of this, I'm just going off what was said.... My fairing cracked around my headlight a little when I was putting it back on. My repairs were made by sanding the plastic down and making the needed repairs with a marine grade fiberglass. IMO, it's working perfect... the headlight cracked because we put it under heavy stress lining up the holes again. After the repairs were made to the plastic, primer coat, sanded, primer again and wetsand. Then a buddy took it into a paint shop and shoot the paint.

 

Look in my gallery. Theres an F2 in there that i painted. I highly recommend you do it yourself if you have the resources (compressor, gun, booth) even if you dont know how. Its small so its not going to be too costly and its a great learning experience. I had the F2 fall off the stands once and had the whole side repainted and back together in 3 days.

 

Sweet! Great job Don. I am currently painting my bike with a buddy (he's the booth and spray paint part of the operation) hehe. Well, I am having a great time doing it myself, already fully sanded, if you take it down to the plastic make sure to use a coating to make the primer stick. I'm sticking with a similar silver color, called platinum, but adding silver metal flakes to a few coats of clearcoat (which adds 2 extra wet sanding sessions). I'll post pics (ahem . . . . Don?) when she's all finished this coming weekend. Makes it a 2 week process

I also have 2 cracks that are repaired by some fiberglass repair stuff, the strongest to hold it together. Went to our local auto paint shop D'angelos and they gave me everything I need

 

Looking forward to working with the pics... I always love getting pics from my favorite wonder woman.

 

i am a painter by trade thats what i do, i have painted all my bikes from crazy custom to stock redo.. i currently just redid a 929 erion front to back fixed all road rash and tank and repainted all the tank to original u could never tell it was down..all in a weekend (how ever i been at this for over 12 years).... sounds to me u just wanna give it a new look for cheap.. so here is ur best solution..
peel off all ur stickers , take a hairblower , warm and heat up decals then peel em off , it takes a while but u have no choice.
wash the parts down with a good plastic cleaner , u can get at any local paint supply shop. next sand em all down smooth with 320 and finish off with a good wet sanding with 400.
now every paint demands a different type of prcedure prior to paint , ie primer, sealers, bease coat , clear coat bla bla , if ur lookin for a quick fix go to ur local paint supply shop pic ur colour and have them mix it in acrylic enamel.
u must use hardner in it especially on the tank so that it doesnt mess up your paint. acrylic enamel is a fast drying easy to use single stage paint that is strong ,durable and leaves a good shine. it does not require clear coat over top, which if u have never painted , is the hardest part to lay down nice, where as acrylic enamel u just keep on spraying it on till it looks good and by the next day it will look like glass..
if u do use acrylic enamel all u have to do paint right over top of what u sanded it will stick good there for it will be done in a weekend cost u under 150 dollars and also it will hide alot of imperfections , like scratches and chips and it really is idiot proof , i sujest using dupont centari it is a more expensive acrylic enamel how ever it will leave a shine that people will think is base clear and think u paid someone like me a hell of a lot of cash to do... give it a shot have fun

 

Sorry to drag this up. im looking at doing my 2 lower faring in a flat black and have been told not to use acrylic enamel but i have painted bumpers on cars with a celulose paint and laquer and it always chips.....

when using enamel do you need to sand the final coat?