Urethane paint question
Urethane paint question
How durable is urethane high build primer? I just finished up my fairings and am trying to decide whether I'm going to continue to ride it naked until I can afford base and clear coats or throw it back together and rock the primer for a while.
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Joined: Apr 2008
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From: Northern Michigan
Id say don't do it. Its very soft and absorbs moisture and doesn't have any uv resistance. The issue with it being soft is it will scratch very easy. the issue with the moisture and uv is it will absorb and begin to break down. Not a good situation for the base of your future paint. Even a high humid day will have it absorbing moisture and potentially ruining your paint when you go to apply it. If you are planning on letting it sit, you may want to get an epoxy primer since it will be more resistant to the elements. And even if the bike is in your garage, a high humid day is not good on the primer.
Another issue is the primer will absorb grease, tar, insect guts... all that will cause you many problems down the road when its time to paint, and it will absorb it down to the plastic, so the only way to truly get it off is to sand it all down. You'll basically have a bunch of areas that paint will not stick to and fisheye everywhere.
Epoxy primer is usually more durable and doesn't absorb moisture like urathane primer, but even that stuff will scratch and doesn't have any uv resistance. But it would hold up much better.
If you want to see how soft it really is. Take an area thats not noticable and press your finger nail into it. Now just imagine a rock hitting it at speed. I would even bet you could press your finger into and leave a finger print.
I imagine you have some decent amount of time into them. I would hate to see ya have to go through all that work again. If you were just going to leave it primer and not paint it, its fine. but a future paint job would have me setting the fairings somewhere for safe keeping. Prefferably somewhere dry and a constant temp.
Another issue is the primer will absorb grease, tar, insect guts... all that will cause you many problems down the road when its time to paint, and it will absorb it down to the plastic, so the only way to truly get it off is to sand it all down. You'll basically have a bunch of areas that paint will not stick to and fisheye everywhere.
Epoxy primer is usually more durable and doesn't absorb moisture like urathane primer, but even that stuff will scratch and doesn't have any uv resistance. But it would hold up much better.
If you want to see how soft it really is. Take an area thats not noticable and press your finger nail into it. Now just imagine a rock hitting it at speed. I would even bet you could press your finger into and leave a finger print.
I imagine you have some decent amount of time into them. I would hate to see ya have to go through all that work again. If you were just going to leave it primer and not paint it, its fine. but a future paint job would have me setting the fairings somewhere for safe keeping. Prefferably somewhere dry and a constant temp.
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