My '81 Honda Gold Wing GL1100 -- First Paint

The gold tint to the carbon fiber turned out to a drab green that just didn't grow on me. Because money is rather tight for me right now I've decided to paint it myself using spray paint a.k.a. rattle can paint. Oh, I can hear the groans now so stop it! The parts are small and I'm learning about surface prep. I've also discovered that wet sanding is AWESOME! It keeps the sandpaper from loading up (making it last much longer) and is a no-brainer. Just let water trickle onto the waterproof sand paper so it rinses away the dust -- yeah, it's THAT easy. I'm not expecting a miracle, just a decent paint that's a three footer i.e. looks good from a distance of three feet or more

The products I'm using are: Naturally, I follow the instructions on the cans. I also wear a multi-purpose respirator from Home Depot that meets NIOSH Regulations. Basically it keeps my lungs protected because painting the parts requires me to be present in the vapor cloud much longer than I can hold my breath! I want to get one coat on in one step instead of spraying, leaving, spraying, leaving, and thus forcing up a lot more dust/contaminates into the air Working in my garage is less than ideal but...

Side Panels
The c/f was also peeling from the body parts so on the right side panel I peeled it completely off. I primered in white (to help increase the brilliance of the yellow top coat) and filled in the pits and blemishes left over from the previous owner, wet sanding with 400 grit. Once the primer was to my liking I coated it with yellow, rattle can paint. I kept the strokes even and light, being diligent to keep it from running. After letting it air dry for seven days (per the instructions) I then gave it several coats of clear acrylic enamel. Finished it off with a waxing.


I peeled the c/f off on the left side but, in hindsight, I should have left it on. I could see by the inside fiberglass repairs that the panel had seen some damage. Three long cracks were on the outside surface, along with a lot of filler (bondo). I filled and sanded, filled and sanded, etc. and just simply could not get the cracks to disappear. This side also had broken bits at the bottom edge but, luckily, they can only be seen if up close and pressing your head against the rear disc brake. On this panel I wet sanded the final coat of paint with 600 grit before I cleared it. I was hoping to reduce the orange peel appearance -- not that it was bad at all, just wanted to see if it made a noticable difference. Side by side, there isn't a noticeable surface texture difference, however, the color difference is a bit more noticeable! It seems that the wet sanding of the finish coat gives the paint a little more pop, a little more color. So I'm going to finish my top coats from now on with a wet sanding before applying the clear.


Having learned from both panels, I was ready to tackle a bigger part. Off came the front fender. Learning from my left side panel experience, I decided to leave the c/f on since it also covers up some holes in the fender body. The surface is smooth, too. I applied epoxy (JB Weld) to the edges of the c/f that was pulling away -- the c/f that was wrapped around the lip is not lifting and thus holding much better.

Front Fender
First step was to clean and primer the cable hooks on either side of the fender. Since they are black I primered them in black then painted them with Krylon Rust Tough Enamal, Semi-Flat Black. Reason: It's what I had on my garage shelf at the time plus I don't want them to stand out as much, thus the non-shiny paint. That was convenient!

I wet sanded the fender with 400 grit sandpaper to provide a rough surface for the primer. Primed it in white and all the defects just popped right out...groan. After four sessions of filler, wet sanding, and re-primering the fender finally looked decent enough for paint. I gave the final primered surface a 400 grit wet sanding to smooth out the surface before I sprayed it. Here it is after one day of curing. Six more to go according to the spray can. The shine will come when it gets clear coated.


With the paint cured, I wet sanded the fender with 600 grit, let dry, wiped the surface clean, then sprayed several layers of clear coat. Here's the front fender no wax:

The clear coat is what gives the paint its depth, shine, and better coloration. Now, I must admit, this fender is less than perfect upclose. Two very fine and short cat hairs got into the clear and I can tell by the hair that they belonged to Spider! Well, that's what I get for rattle canning in the garage. Try as one might, it's just not a good painting environment. Here it is, the front fender after I wet sanded with 600, waxed and mounted:


False Tank
The false tank waiting for the paint to cure.


Here are the two flaps after the acrylic enamal dried. Not too shabby and this is BEFORE wax! The interesting part is that I coated them with the last of the Krylon Acrylic, let 'em dry, then I wet sanded them with 600. After drying them, they looked like crap and I panicked...I thought I would have to strip them and paint all over again. So I gave them a first coat of the new Dupli-Color Acrylic Enamel clear (I had to buy more paint and clear) and it looked great. So I put on a second and third coats and they turned out just fine - whew!! To be honest, I'm not going to do that again, especially on the larger false tank, but I think this acrylic enamal is brilliant (as the Brits would say). I may have to re-coat the prior parts with this good clear.

Two days after clear coating, here's the false tank (not waxed!):


I also re-cleared the side panels with the acrylic enamal...what a difference it made! Looks like I'll be doing the front fender as well but not for the time being. The winter weather conditions we're starting to get aren't very conducive to painting, especially in a garage.

Anyway, here she is right now (10_Oct_2007):





As you may have noticed, I didn't paint the rear fender. Yeah, well...when the bike eventually gets resprayed by a pro I'll let them do it!