This was my first time painting anything with a gun and compressor. My monster had the usually dents form the handlebars, scratched from use, and when I did my valve adjustment, like an idiot I didn't empty the tank and left it upside down long enough for the fuel to take a decent amount of paint off. ( I forgot it was upside down for a day or two   )


I had the body shop on the corner from me pull the dents out. The guy ended up doing it for free. He put some filler on it and I just had to sand it down.

After a bunch of sanding, a little glazing putty, I got the tank pretty smooth.

Ready for some 2k high build primer





Primer on and all sanded down



The first time I painted the tank I didn't have the gun adjusted correctly. I
went against my initial settings which I got from a great thread on DO The Ton ( http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=22811.msg241500#msg241500 ) and adjusted it with the trigger almost all the way in which a bunch of people said to do in a few websites and youtube videos I watched recently. I was wrong and it immediately started dripping from too much paint.  

I had to sand it down again and tried a second time. This time I had the gun set up pretty good but failed again because I had it too close to the tank on some spots so it started to run  . I didn't want to waste another day on this and mix more paint and clean the gun again. I wiped the while tank down with MEK and took off the paint I just sprayed on, washed it down, wet sanded,  Dried, etc.

So here it is finally done. Third times a charm.  





The tank came out pretty good and smooth. The waves and lines are you see is due to the plastic tarp I have hanging up it the light going through and the reflection of it in the tank. The gun I used was just a cheap HF gun the one with the kit for $49. The paint was a single stage flat metallic from TCP Global http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/ksflatz.aspx . I wasn't going to spend a ton of money on paint from Colorite which was $90 for a half pint. I got the paint and primer for that and I have more than half a quart left. The color is actually pretty close to the stock one I had. It is a little more metallic.  I also found out after I purchased it that that's one of the hardest paints to paint well  because you can't cut and buff the orange peel off. The metallic particles will end up getting ruined and the tank will have stripes in it. Somehow I always end up learning how to do something the hardest way possible.

I finally got the bike back together and put the decals on. I'm really happy with the tank and I think the bike looks great especially, for the first time I ever painted something with somewhat proper equipment.







.

Nice job.

Out of curiosity...

how much do you figure it cost you if you figure your time and supplies/equipment purchases?

This is absolutely a loaded question. 

Not bad,not bad...feels good ,don't it? 

Quote from: ducpainter on May 06, 2012, 04:40:58 PM
Nice job.

Out of curiosity...

how much do you figure it cost you if you figure your time and supplies/equipment purchases?

This is absolutely a loaded question. 

If I were to add all of that up It would of course be a lot less expensive to have a pro do it and probably would have came out a little better. I know what your getting at but I always wanted to paint stuff bikes, cars, etc. So it was a learning experience and I enjoyed it. I have enough paint and primer left over to paint my GSXR and track fairings so that will be next.

Quote from: ducpainter on May 06, 2012, 04:40:58 PM
Nice job.

Out of curiosity...

how much do you figure it cost you if you figure your time and supplies/equipment purchases?

This is absolutely a loaded question. 

Just out of curiosity,

How much does it cost for you to paint the tank, seat cowl, front fender, front fairing?

The tank has some dents and I should weld it too while I'm at it though.

It came out nice from the pics. Good job man!

Looks great!  Can't wait to see the GSXR with new paint at the track!! 

Looks great!  Can't even tell it was a DIY paint job from the pics!  Well done!

Looks good. Id be scared to do that but you just gotta man up lol

looks great.  I tried that painting thing myself once.  Got shower curtains, mask, borrowed sprayer and my compressor and did a hell of a..........shitty...........job.  I leave it for the professionals now. 

Props! Nice work. I think it looks pro. My attempt would've definitely come out poorly so color me impressed. (in flat black please) 

Nice job. I have painted a few tanks as well. It is rewarding work.

Looks great to me!  plus there is the added personal satisfaction of knowing you did it yourself 

Very clean job! nice