Hey guys, I am about to paint my bike. I want to do a full semi-flat (?) black paint job. I will be doing it at home and by looking at pictures, I feel like I am getting my hopes up on the finishing look. Do you think it could look anything close to this with a rattle-can and experience, or would I have to get it done professionally?

 

i would say yes, but it depends on how much experience you have with a can. If its your first time, then no im sorry it most likely wont look that good.

word of advice: dont overpaint, especially on curved areas where it can drip easily. Take your time, have fun.

 

It'll be my dad painting it. He's owned numerous shops and painted plenty of cars and bikes. So HE has the experience haha not me. Glad to hear that a can has the potential to make something like this. Thanks!

 

it can be done. But honestly, it won't hold up very well. spray paint does not harden like a 2 part paint does. It doesn't have any uv resistance either. It may look ok for a little while, but it will loose its look pretty quick if left unprotected. Also, it will be hard to get all of the surfaces even with spray paint. If you are set on using spray paint, I would use dupli-color, or at least spray paint that has a wide fan tip. You want a can that will throw a wide oval shape pattern, not a round one.

If you dad knows how to spray, I would suggest buying a touch up gun. If you don't have a compressor, see if you can borrow one from a friend. A little extra cost now will pay off in the end. You would also have a few options. You can buy a hotrod black single stage. Or, you can spray the bike flat black, then clear it with a flat clear. You will have a much easier time time getting the coverage and uniform pattern as well. and it will last much longer. the other nice thing about a touch up gun is the pattern is smoother, and you won't have a huge cloud in the air. Its not much worse than a spray can.

 

A spray can job can be very good - unfortunately, to get auto-grade paint, you need to have the cans made up by a local paint shop, and the cans run about $25-30 each.

I repainted the right side of my bike over the summer/fall and while the paint looks good, there was a lot of sanding required, basecoat and clearcoat to get a nice smooth finish. Multiple layers to get the coverage needed, and that means more paint out of those $30 cans.

You'll get a better result from using a compressor and a spray gun - even a lower cost gravity feed system on a smaller compressor would likely end up being a better deal than the way I did it.

 

You can do just as good looking of a job with cans if you take your time. However, when you do it right with cans, you will be going through a TON of them. If you have access to a compressor, it is actually cheaper to buy a crappy harbor freight gun, and better paint. You should be able to get a few uses out of the cheap gun and save yourself a lot of money on spray cans.

I did my bike with cans, and the clear coat is just as strong as using spray gun paint, but just a rough guess here, I think I used around 18 spray cans.

 

HAHAHA. What!?!?!

 

https://cbrforum.com/forum/how-mechanical-40/how-paint-bike-without-compressor-gun-not-considered-rattle-can-job-115135/

that being said i plan on spray painting my 1000rr tail and rear cowl with black dupi color...

but i will be putting a very good amount of time for proper prep/tape off.... couple good layers of primer, a adhesion promoter, dupicolor gloss black, and clear

 

Go and buy a gun. Pep boys has them for like 40 bucks. Then go to an auto store and find the color you want. I got 2 cans of primer, 2 can color and one can clear. If your prep is good your paint should come out good. This is how my very first bike came out after i painted it. Not to bad and it didnt flake off.

https://cbrforum.com/forum/picture.p...pictureid=8428

Total cost was about 120.00.

 

lol guns are only good with compressors...