vicztrix
Makes the rest look good
I was at Robin's today, who has gotten pretty deep into the race bike painting and was lending a helping hand. I used to be pretty into it myself, but the last year+ I have been busy with work and other things, that I just haven't found myself doing it as much or at all. As I was helping him, I had forgotten how much you need in materials to finish a job. Never mind brand new race fairings that are ready to go, because neither of us have come across these very often. I am talking about the stuff that has been crashed, plastered with stickers or painted before with rattle can.
For the stuff that has been rattle canned before...it all has to come off, all of it. The better quality stuff, that requires being sprayed out of a gun and clear coat etc. will react adversely to rattle can paint. It tends to gum up or bubble around it and not stick well. This requires hours of sanding to get it all off before you can think about laying down the fresh stuff.
Sticker....oh stickers. Not only are some just a pain to get peeled off, but then you have to get the residue left behind off as well. "But Vic, doesn't adhesive remover take this right off?" No! It does not, there is still residue, pretty much invisible to the naked eye, that will leave that patch still showing after fresh paint. So guess what? That's right, more sanding.
Now the fun part, the crashed stuff. Truthfully, I don't mind the crashed stuff. It does involve more work, but the work is more satisfying if done right. Fiberglassing broken parts, filling holes or whatever makes it look ugly and returning it back to its original state just makes you feel good. Seeing those beautiful body lines come back to life again is almost like art work. But a lot of hours and materials go into this.
Now I want to break down most of the materials needed for a thrashed set of body work, just so most of you get a good idea of the overall cost.
$20 Fiberglass resin- You can buy bigger cans, which will knock out about 7-10 bikes depending on damage, but I am using the small cans which do 2-3.
$15-Fiberglass cloth- Usually this will take care of one bike
$45 Body filler- No, not bondo. That is the cheap, heavy, un-sandable garbage you buy at AutoZone. Rage is the best stuff, its extremely light and sands easily. Not only that, if mixed right and in a clean environment, it leaves the least amount of pinholes which is what you need the next item for. This stuff will last you though. I would say with one can, you could probably repair about 12-15 bikes. You need this to go over your fiberglass to smooth it out once you get the desired shape.
$32-Body Glaze- This smooths out your filler and gives you a finished product. It eliminates little pinholes and small imperfections your filler might have left you. It will only last a few bikes though
Mixing sticks- Egghhh, usually when you buy a bunch of stuff from the supply store they throw these in, so its not a big deal, but they are still needed.
Filters- Same deal as the mixing sticks. These are used to strain your paint before going into your beloved spray gun.
$1 Mixing Cups- Not a major expense, just annoying. You need a new one for every type of paint to mix your hardener into your clear coat or reducer into your sealer or base coat
$1 Spreaders- Best of using a brand new one every time you spread some filler, glaze or resin. Trying to reuse them will give you more problems in the long run
$5- Respirator filters- Only need to replace old ones every so often, but if I don't use a respirator I get high as a kite and am drastically shortening my life span
$12 Latex gloves- I am going to go through about half a box of these at a bare minimum per paint job. I think the use is self explanatory.
$16 Thinner- This stuff is gold. It cleans the spray guns, so we don't have to buy a new $500 gun every time we paint.
$30 Primer Sealer- Once you get all the body work prepped, you hit it with this stuff. This will hide all of the different colors after sanding, fiberglassing, filling etc from your base coat. If you don't use it, you will see a lot. This is enough to spray one bike.
$70-200 Base coat- The price on this can vary, certain colors run different prices, red is the most expensive. Doing multiple colors in a paint scheme will make the cost higher. This will do one bike as well.
$200 Clear coat- The prices vary on this vary, this is about the average price for something decent but nothing over the top. This will knock out abot five bikes.
$35 Loads of sand paper- You will need quite a few different grits without even wet sanding a clear coat. 80, 150, 220, 320, 400 and 600 at a minimum. You want to wet sand a clear coat? Then you need 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 and even 2500 grit paper. Then you will also need rubbing and finishing compounds to buff all that out, which is more $
$15 Tack cloths- You use these before spraying your first coat of paint. It gets the last little bit of dust and debris off. This will get a decent amount of bikes done if you buy a box of them. You can buy them individually but it will cost more. Might as well buy in bulk.
Power- You need power to run all of your lights, air compressors etc.
I have probably left off a couple items, but this is a bulk of the costs. This is really the cost for hobbyist like Robin or myself. The big shops who do this for a living usually get everything they need a discounted prices because they buy in bulk or even have the ability to mix their own paints on site.
It is probably going to take at least three 12 hour days for one guy to do this from start to finish. Keep in mind it could take longer if is wasn't a race bike and you wanted a show quality finish. So I just wanted to share this with you because the hobbyist like Robin or many of the others out there aren't doing it to make money off of you. They do it because they love it. It's a good feeling to see your art out there on the track. That and it keeps us from watching "Fastest" for the 879th time.
For the stuff that has been rattle canned before...it all has to come off, all of it. The better quality stuff, that requires being sprayed out of a gun and clear coat etc. will react adversely to rattle can paint. It tends to gum up or bubble around it and not stick well. This requires hours of sanding to get it all off before you can think about laying down the fresh stuff.
Sticker....oh stickers. Not only are some just a pain to get peeled off, but then you have to get the residue left behind off as well. "But Vic, doesn't adhesive remover take this right off?" No! It does not, there is still residue, pretty much invisible to the naked eye, that will leave that patch still showing after fresh paint. So guess what? That's right, more sanding.
Now the fun part, the crashed stuff. Truthfully, I don't mind the crashed stuff. It does involve more work, but the work is more satisfying if done right. Fiberglassing broken parts, filling holes or whatever makes it look ugly and returning it back to its original state just makes you feel good. Seeing those beautiful body lines come back to life again is almost like art work. But a lot of hours and materials go into this.
Now I want to break down most of the materials needed for a thrashed set of body work, just so most of you get a good idea of the overall cost.
$20 Fiberglass resin- You can buy bigger cans, which will knock out about 7-10 bikes depending on damage, but I am using the small cans which do 2-3.
$15-Fiberglass cloth- Usually this will take care of one bike
$45 Body filler- No, not bondo. That is the cheap, heavy, un-sandable garbage you buy at AutoZone. Rage is the best stuff, its extremely light and sands easily. Not only that, if mixed right and in a clean environment, it leaves the least amount of pinholes which is what you need the next item for. This stuff will last you though. I would say with one can, you could probably repair about 12-15 bikes. You need this to go over your fiberglass to smooth it out once you get the desired shape.
$32-Body Glaze- This smooths out your filler and gives you a finished product. It eliminates little pinholes and small imperfections your filler might have left you. It will only last a few bikes though
Mixing sticks- Egghhh, usually when you buy a bunch of stuff from the supply store they throw these in, so its not a big deal, but they are still needed.
Filters- Same deal as the mixing sticks. These are used to strain your paint before going into your beloved spray gun.
$1 Mixing Cups- Not a major expense, just annoying. You need a new one for every type of paint to mix your hardener into your clear coat or reducer into your sealer or base coat
$1 Spreaders- Best of using a brand new one every time you spread some filler, glaze or resin. Trying to reuse them will give you more problems in the long run
$5- Respirator filters- Only need to replace old ones every so often, but if I don't use a respirator I get high as a kite and am drastically shortening my life span
$12 Latex gloves- I am going to go through about half a box of these at a bare minimum per paint job. I think the use is self explanatory.
$16 Thinner- This stuff is gold. It cleans the spray guns, so we don't have to buy a new $500 gun every time we paint.
$30 Primer Sealer- Once you get all the body work prepped, you hit it with this stuff. This will hide all of the different colors after sanding, fiberglassing, filling etc from your base coat. If you don't use it, you will see a lot. This is enough to spray one bike.
$70-200 Base coat- The price on this can vary, certain colors run different prices, red is the most expensive. Doing multiple colors in a paint scheme will make the cost higher. This will do one bike as well.
$200 Clear coat- The prices vary on this vary, this is about the average price for something decent but nothing over the top. This will knock out abot five bikes.
$35 Loads of sand paper- You will need quite a few different grits without even wet sanding a clear coat. 80, 150, 220, 320, 400 and 600 at a minimum. You want to wet sand a clear coat? Then you need 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 and even 2500 grit paper. Then you will also need rubbing and finishing compounds to buff all that out, which is more $
$15 Tack cloths- You use these before spraying your first coat of paint. It gets the last little bit of dust and debris off. This will get a decent amount of bikes done if you buy a box of them. You can buy them individually but it will cost more. Might as well buy in bulk.
Power- You need power to run all of your lights, air compressors etc.
I have probably left off a couple items, but this is a bulk of the costs. This is really the cost for hobbyist like Robin or myself. The big shops who do this for a living usually get everything they need a discounted prices because they buy in bulk or even have the ability to mix their own paints on site.
It is probably going to take at least three 12 hour days for one guy to do this from start to finish. Keep in mind it could take longer if is wasn't a race bike and you wanted a show quality finish. So I just wanted to share this with you because the hobbyist like Robin or many of the others out there aren't doing it to make money off of you. They do it because they love it. It's a good feeling to see your art out there on the track. That and it keeps us from watching "Fastest" for the 879th time.
