Painting multiple stripes/layers ??

[bajafool]

Hi all,

Getting ready to paint my '06 Road Glide. I'm going to be painting it in two colors with stripes in a third color. I'm using House of Kolors dry pearls over a black base coat.

First coat will be the black base coat followed by the striping color. The intent is to then tape off the stripes and reshoot the black base. Then add the bottom color. After it dries, I'll then tape off and shoot the top color. Once done, sand and shoot the clear.

My question is, do I need to pull the tape for the stripes after the bottom color and reapply a new set of tape before doing the top color or will it be Ok to tape once and leave it till after all paint is applied? My worry is that if I leave the tape till the end, will I wind up pulling off some of the first layer of paint around the edges of the tape.

I'd like to leave the tape till the end to pull off as it may be diffulct to retape to the original tape lines. I have a buddy woh is going to draw up the stripes and such on the computer and then cut them out of painters masking tape on his CNC tape cutting machine. At least that way they will be exact on each side and easier to use.

I'm doing the painting myself as I've had too many painters flake on me and I want to get the bike painted and back on the road. I've got a friend helping who as painted cars and such and works at a automotive paint supply store.

Any help or insight will be helpful. Thanks.

[kustom_flames]

Use HOK SG-100 before taping. It is an intercoat clear, basically a clear basecoat. It is made especially for these purposes. Do not tape and mask and expect the original substrate to be intact 100%

[bajafool]

Ok so I shoot primer, sand, shoot my base coat, shoot a intercoat clear, tape, shoot my clear with dry pearls, repeat? Do I shoot a intercoat clear between each clear/dry pearl color?

If this is not correct, can you please explain to me how I can achive what I am trying to do.

The process I was looking at for ease was to shoot the black base, shoot the first dry pearl/clear for the stripes, then tape them off. The stripes run down the middle of the bike to seperate the upper color from the lower color. But they are tripple stripes that twist in and out of each other so that is why i was thinking it would be easier to do the stripes first. Then tape and shoot the lower color and then the upper color.

If I am wrong in my thinking, please correct me. This will be my first time at painting a bike. I've done a lot of clear coating of woodworking in the past but that's a different story, no multipule layers of colors.

Thanks for your input.

[bajafool]

One other question I just thought of.

If I'm doing the inertcoat clear, do i mix my dry pearls in this clear or in my regular clear that I shoot over the interclear?

[kustom_flames]

YEs you can use SG-100 as a flake carrier for dry pearls.

You spray base then 2-3 coats of SG-100. Wait till it cures (usually 12 hours) then wetsand lightly w/ 600 grit. Now you are ready for your tape out. Spray whatever you are doing then remove all tape. You'll degrease the area now and then can spray more SG-100 if you will be doing more tape outs, if not you can skip and go directly to topcoat clear...

If you are doing a three-tone, than you can shoot your base, spray your sg-100, then do your separating design, sg-100, and then your other color. You'll then want to clear this once with about 4 coats, then wetsand and then shoot another 3-4 coats so that you have no raised edges...

[bajafool]

Thanks.
Thanks a ton for the info.

I guess there's no way, from what you are saying, that I can tape and leave it till I'm done spraying the different colors/layers. I was trying to do that as it would be easier than having to try and realign the stripe taping.

I know it's going to take about a week or so just to tape and spray as I'll have to spray primer, base, first color/clear and then after it's good and dry and sanded, I have to reassemble the bike so I can get the lines laid out right to line up from peice to peice.

I knew I was going to be shooting clear after it was all painte dbut didn't know about the clear, sand then reclear.

So it looks like my process will be: Tape lights, primer, remove tape, sand, retape lights, basecoat, tinted SG-100 ( stripe color), remove tape, sand, tape stripes and lights, tinted SG-100 (bottom color), remove tape, sand, tape stripes and lights, tinted SG-100 (top color), remove tape, sand, top clear, sand, top clear, sand and buff.

Does that sound about right?

Thanks a whoel lot for taking the time to answer. I'm trying to do this all my self so that when the bike is completely done, I can say I did it all.

[kustom_flames]

When you say lights, do you have flush mounted? If so, just leave them masked off till the job is done. You don't necessarily have to have the pieces mounted to lay out the design if you have real good pics of how it lines up...

I did this job off the bike:


The process, was to base it orange first, then the SG over. Next I laid out the tribals, airbrushed and more SG. Next I masked the parts I did not want black pearl. I finally shot the black pearl and then cleared. I wetsanded to flatten it out, added the drop-shadows and then shot my final clear...

I reference the pic, b/c I assume you are thinking of doing a similar type of job...

[bajafool]

Bike is a '06 Road Glide with streached tank and custom bags and rear fender.

Brake and turn signals are LED lights mounted behind a clear lens thats flush mounted in the rear fender. Lisence plate is behind a clear lens as well.

Bad Dad customs built the fender for me. ( www.baddad.com ) They used to have a video of it called Ray's fender. It has sequential flashing turn signals like the old mustangs. Rear tail light will be the bar and shield. That's why I need to tape it off before primer.

Stripes will be 3, 1/2" wide stripes spaced 3/4" apart. They will start at the head light as one, similar to the stock harley stripe, they split into three strips on the faring and do a roll over with the bottom stripe becoming the top stripe. They go down the tank and roll again but converge into a single 1/2" strip to leave the tank and enter the side cover. On the side cover, they open back to three and do another roll. They cross the saddle bags and do a double roll going down to the lower part of the bag. There they go across the back of the bag, roll again and converge into a single 1/2" stripe to cross the rear fender between the lisence plate and turn signals and meet up with the stripes from the other side. The tour pack will have a matching set of stripes, same as the saddle bags.

The color is red on the top of the bike, gray on the bottom with copper stripes. Between the stripes, the color will flip, ie gray on top and red on bottom. But it will flip as the stripes roll.

It's a bit basice but still a bit complicated. I've got my son whos been doing a bit of air brushing and we're going to try and Air brush in some shading where the stripes cross each other. I've got a friend with a machine to cut out the stripes in painters tape so that they will be even and keep their spacing and size.

I'm using a black base, with the dry pearls, Kopper Penney, Pasion red and Silver Streak. Because of the stripes and the way they flip, that is why I thought it easier to do them first. Spray a strip of Kopper, lay out the stripes, then reshoot the black base and go from there. Do you have any other ideas on an easier way to shoot it? Can you understand my babbling?

Nice bike by the way.

[kustom_flames]

I know BD, very well. Good stuff, and I think I saw that on their site before...

Start with whichever color will be predominant - the red or the gray...be sure and lay down some SG-100 in between - 2 coats will do. After I got the one color sprayed I would do the tape outs and get them done, and the finish with the last color...

Not sure there is an easy way...and once you're done with all the work and see all the materials that have gone into it, you'll understand some of the costs involved in custom painting...

[bajafool]

Thanks for all of your help.

Oh and after getting started on this project, I do certanly understand why it cost so much for a custom paint job. I have a new found respect for you artist after just trying to do my body work. I can only imagine the work ahead in trying to paint it out.

I'll post some pics as I go thru the process of painting.

[kustom_flames]

I love revelations Look forward to seeing the progress! Good luck~Pat

[bajafool]

Well I printed out the stripes and laye dthem out on the bike to try and get a good idea of how they would look. I still need to tweak the angle a little to match the angle of the saddle bags. Other than that, what do you think?

On the rear, you can see where the red lense for the tail light is and the clear one below it is the lisence plate.

[kustom_flames]

lookin pretty good...yeah just need to try and stretch the bags part a bit more...

[Harley Cruiser]

Originally Posted by bajafool

It has sequential flashing turn signals like the old mustangs. y.

Baja, how did you set that up?

[bajafool]

Harley,
I found a company that makes a electronic sequential flasher for the new mustangs. I sent the info to Bad Dad and they wired it up. very basic wiring from looking at the site. They made up a string of LEDs', 3 blocks of 4 led's on each side. It was then wired into the original turn light circuit.

There is enough resistance in the LED's that it dosent throw a bulb out code. That is a problem with replacing the lights with LED's on some designs but this one worked out fine. The block of LED's are mounted behind a lens that's molded into the fender.