Painting Windshield & Plastic Trim Pieces

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Painting Windshield & Plastic Trim Pieces

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Painting Windshield & Plastic Trim Pieces - 4/21/2008 9:09:09 PM

OsinO

Posts: 30
Joined: 4/2/2008
Status: offline

Obviously these aren't new idea's but I thought I'd post my experiance and pictures of the results, the more information there is out there for others the better. I got most of my info and ideas from some of the others on this forum: http://www.cbrforum.com/m_484838/tm.htm & http://www.cbrforum.com/m_380358/tm.htm. My windshield was failry scratched and I didn't like the look of the greyish plastic trim that runs along the side of my tank and under the handlebars in my '01 CBR600F4i. Picture links are at the bottom and I will post a pic of the parts on the bike in a week or so :) This is a fairly simple how to so I am simply going to put it in the format of what I did exactly to acheive my results:

Remove parts to be painted (both windshield and trim pieces are usually quite easy to remove. If your not sure download a service manual for your bike and follow the instructions: http://www.cbrforum.com/m_358809/tm.htm
I prepped the parts simply by wiping them down with some goo gone and then water to make sure there weren't any fingerprints/dirt etc... on the parts. You don't have to use Goo Gone I just happened to have it handy. Wipe the parts down and make sure you are not leaving behind a lot of lint, etc... I considered sanding down the trim pieces to make them smooth but I decided that would be too much work and would come out looking worse if I didn't do it proportionately. If I had an extra pair of trim pieces I'd probably give it a go.
I went to the local Canadian Tire and picked up three cans of spraypaint. Motomaster Grey Primer, Motomaster Gloss Black and Motomaster Clear Coat. Nothing too fancy, this brand was slightly cheaper then Duplicolor and I am happy with how they came out.
You have to make sure you have a good setup for painting the pieces. Unfortunately I had to spray mine outside instead of in a garage or basement where there is less wind, and crap flying around. I would place each item in a box, making sure I didn't touch or nothing had fallen onto the painting surface. After spraying I would immediately cover/close the box it was in to prevent any airborn crap to land on the fresh paint. Be careful when your stepping around the pieces while painting as you can easily kick grass, dust, etc.. onto the surface. Also be careful not to touch the wet paint of the piece with the bottom of the can as you are spraying different areas.
I did the following proceedure with both the primer, paint and clearcoat but all on seperate days. I did a very light initial coat that barely covered the plastic spraying from side to side in layers from one end of the piece to the other. Do not start or stop spraying on the actual piece.. start before and move all the way across till you are off the piece. I then waited 10-20minutes and did a second slightly heavier coat making sure this time the entire piece was covered and none of the original colour was showing through. I then waited again for a 10-20minutes and did a final coat similar to the second one. Be careful how thick you are laying it on as you are risking running the paint which will screw you over. If you have time on your side you are better off doing several light coats then 2 heavy ones for example. Do the primer, black and clear coats on seperate day s- each colour needs to dry completeyl before the next one goes on top of it.

Some additional points:

To a certain extent it's simple luck, you can't completely prevent that random hair/bug/piece of grass from blowing onto your paint just as you've finished spraying. If this happens don't panic, resist the urge to try and pick

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< Message edited by OsinO -- 4/21/2008 9:20:16 PM >