Refurbishing Plastic Bodywork

[NoDak]

I picked a bike with small rash and minor dings on my tail section which makes the bike look unloved. I would like to take it to a paint shop and give it a fresh coat of paint.

In the mean time are there any DIY products to remove road rash and scratches? Has anyone DIY paint experience? What's involved?

[nine16]

Yeah. DIY sandpaper, followed by DIY finer sandpaper.

[Everfly]

Is the paint shop support to do that? I dont think they gonna charge you much less if u DIY?

[Artistimo]

Yeah, in some cases it costs more b/c doing it yourself makes it worse. Just saying... Back in the day when I was young and dumb and accepted offers for "discounts" by letting them do prep themselves, I got all manner of shoddy prep jobs. I've seen people bring in NEW fairings to have new colors put on that were sanded with 80 grit paper down to bare plastic. I shit you not. Whoops...

If you're very handy and think you can handle it and the shop agrees, go for it. If you don't have proper materials and aren't sure, best to leave it to the professionals.

[trace33chargers]

How deep are the scratches? You may have to fill them if they are too deep. And by you fill them, I mean save money and time and pay a body shop to do that.

[BlueSteel]

You have to remember too that the paint work on a bike is not like your average car paint. It's a lot more flexible so it doesn't crack as easy due to the plastic fairings on your bike being flexible. Notice how much a fairing can bend around when you're removing it off your bike. I don't think these paints are on your regular DIY auto shop shelves. My opinion too is to leave it to the experts. The parts aren't that big so they are not going to cost you a lot.

Thanks to a track day smash, I had a few badly smashed fairings repaired by plastic welding and then repainted back to brand new and each fairing cost me $350 to get that done. A light paint touch up shouldn't cost anywhere near that.

[smokey999]

Coming from a guy who doesn't let anyone touch his stuff. I painted my 999 in my garage. I might also add I painted cars for a living in California and now do a little paint work on motorcycles on the side now. Some helpful tips for doing it yourself.

1. Don't be afraid. There is no voodoo magic to painting. Its really quite simple as long as your follow the first cardinal rule: Preparation is key. Don't skimp anywhere. Don't cut corners. Just don't. If you want to cut corners take it to an auto body shop and let them cut the corners so you can yell at them and not yourself.

2. When it comes to sanding. start off fine. Start off with a 320 if the sratches you can dig your finger nail into and lightly smooth them out. take your time and work on an area roughly 4 times the size of the scratch to get it evenly out.

3. Fill in where you need. make sure to purchase flexible plastic filler. Your local paint store should be able to put you in the right direction. And remember, your fingers can feel .002 in ridges so follow what your hand is telling you. after you have it filled back in. go over it with about a 500 increasing the area you are working a little bit to blend away sand scratches. don't leave deep ones. Also while you are sanding find a foam block to help keep it even. otherwise you could end up with finger ridges where you were putting all your pressure on your finger tips into the sand paper.

4. spray the bare minimum of primer. Another one that needs to be flexible. Make sure to mask off everything like you were painting a stripe. don't create more work for yourself because you have to sand off primer over spray. also don't paint to a tape line. Itll will leave a hard line that, even though you are going to sand out the primer itll be very hard to sand that smooth. blend all ends out in your newly sanded 500 grit area. then let this dry and then add 30 minutes. youll be all excited and wanting to shoot color you wont be able to see straight. Go call your wife or your girlfriend or both. just get away from it.

[smokey999]

5. come back to a very hard and easily sandable primer. use 800 grit. and water. Some people think im crazy for this but i feel it give a better finish for your base coat also you can then use the water to see your repair looks. does it look smooth as glass or is there hump. this is the time to fix it.

6. After you are happy with everything go ahead and sand the rest of the panel with 1000 grit. Hopefully you are able to the repair on either an upper half or what not. Just sand it smooth and even. we are just trying to smooth out the clear and scuff it up. Now go ahead and clean off all your dust and wipe it off with a prep clean to get rid of any oils.

7. Because we are going over a paint we don't need to add any adhesion promotor because paint loves to stick to paint. And since we took our time in the earlier prep to only go as far as we needed we dont need an extra step. Go over and mix up your Dupont Chromabase (you'll notice this is the only time i used a brand name and the reason is, this is the best you can get. Its not their top of the line brand, but it performs the best with very little mil thickness and very easy clean up) Spray only enough color to cover just a 1/2 past your primer area. Remember the less color coverage you do the less chance you will be painting near a seam. Which mean less chance the paint wont match.

8. After you covered your primer (which shoulda been easy if you used a color tinted primer) and the base color looks good an uniform. Spray the whole panel with clear making sure stay even and smooth. Spray your two coats and go clean your gun, and go to the bar. It don't matter a damn to stand there and stare at your run in the paint or the excessive orange peel. Both can be fixed later and easier when its dry. The more you mess with it while it is drying, the harder it will be down the road. So just leave it.

9. come back the next day and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

The big thing here is your DIY. Don't rush. Take your time. You'll actually find that your better paint shops and body shops, do the same thing. Just like in the movie Princess Bride, " you rush miracles, sometimes you get crummy ones"

Now that may seem easy to me but i've been doing it for 10 years.

[BlueSteel]

Originally Posted by smokey999

Now that may seem easy to me but i've been doing it for 10 years.

lol


To some this is like a doctor telling you how easy it is to do a brain transplant.

[ZDM]

This is what I've done on my 999 with excellent results. But it's tedious and takes patience.
Buy some Duplicolor paint prep wipes, filler/primer, the correct color you need and some 1200 grit or lighter wet/dry sand paper.
Prep the area with the prep wipe
Then fill the scratch with the primer using the pen tip. If it's a wide scratch, buy a quality super small touch-up brush at a Hobby store.
Lighty wet/sand the primer..blend...the light grit ensures you won't eff up the surrounding "good" paint. Apply primer until the scratch is almost filled-run your finger over it to get a feel for it.
Then after letting the primer dry-a day or so...fill the rest of the scratch with color. Let dry, wet sand, repeat the process.
Some colors require a clear coat, some just need polishing. I use Meguiars Sratch X to bring up the gloss. You can do it by hand or a polishing pad on a drill.
After some time and experimenting you get pretty good at filling scratches, but not "scrapes. Plus it's reversible if you screw up.
I'll get beat up by the painting pro's but it works pretty well.
I've also tried Dr Color Chip. They make Ducati specific colors. This sytem works great on the road rash that occurs at the leading edge of the fairing.