RZ350 Hybrid

[JonW]

Cool, I'll have a read ta Phil.

blow by blow, were on this journey with you m8!

[phil1rowe4]

Two coats of white basecoat have been applied yesterday & today and worked well on everything except the fairing. Despite using prepsol before every coat I somehow managed to have some faults in the paint on the fairing.
Here's a pic before the second coat going on, with some sanding on the fairing where I was trying to get rid of the oil/grease spots.


The Pearl has been applied to everything except the fairing and I mounted them on the bike to have a play. I think I'll apply a coat of clear to protect the pearl and base coast before doing the masking for the other colours. Unfortunately the clear takes 8 hours to cure at room temps, so that will slow me down a bit.

[JonW]

Nice work Phil!

I like the weight on the panel in the pic, Im always surprised at how much they move when blasted with paint cos of the pressure.

[phil1rowe4]

Thanks Jon,

Hanging space is limited in the booth, especially allowing room to walk/spray around each piece, so I've ended up hanging one side piece underneath the other and then the weights under that. It seems to hold them all better and means that I can do the painting in two batches; top fairing alone and then everything else.

I finally fixed the problem with the fairing after 2 goes at it, so the fairing now has its base, pearl and clear coats on. Problems with the gun not supplying enough paint means that it's not a great clear coat job, but it's only a protective layer for the masking and I'll sand it flat before the other colours and final clear coats. I'm using a different clear than last time and it doesn't seem to flow through the gun as nicely. The fact that its been raining for the last 2 days probably doesn't help either!

Anyway, here's some pictures from this afternoon.
Tank and seat now clear coated and bolted to the bike, ready to start the masking. Fairing only mocked up at that point to give me inspiration for the final look. Different lighting brings out the pearl effect.

[gman]

looking good phill. nearly forget it's an rz.

[phil1rowe4]

Thanks,

There's actually not a lot of RZ350 left, just tank, frame and engine.

[OzzyElsie]

Thanks,

There's actually not a lot of RZ350 left, just tank, frame and engine.

.......and there will be the NOISE

Excellent work

[Ozhammer]

That is going to be one stunning bike Phil, I call first dibs if you ever decide to sell it!

[JonW]

looking good Phil!

[phil1rowe4]

Thanks guys for the positive comments,

You know in every task there's always one problem child; one bolt that doesn't want to come out, one spring that goes flying across the garage etc. Well for this project it's been the fairing!
Over the etch primer I used a high build primer that I made sure wasn't for Acrylic, but just to make sure I covered that with a 2 pak primer surfacer. The primer surfacer had to be rubbed back and in a few places it got a bit thin or uncovered the high build primer. I was debating doing a second coat of 2 pak primer but decided to give it a go and the white basecoat and pearl went on fine, so I thought all was good. Unfortunately when the clear coat went on, the patches of thin primer surfacer and uncovered high build primer went orange! The thinners from the clear must have reacted with the paint two or three layers down.

So I rubbed back the clear and using that as a sealer had to reapply the white, pearl and clear again. No more orange so problems solved.

Anyway, after spending most of Saturday masking up the bike, Today was red and black colours day. All goes very well with the red coats, remask for the black coats and all goes well again except the fairing which has gone crazed in the black sections !!
Same paint, same prep, same conditions, same technique as the other pieces in the booth, but the f@*king fairing has screwed up, so the black will have to be sanded back again and redone.

It's now getting doubtful now that I'll have the bike ready for the Laverda show, which is a shame.

Anyway here's some shots of the masking being done. Builders laser worked fairly well to keep things lined up.

[phil1rowe4]

Here's some pics as it currently sits.

[JonW]

gutting to hear of the paint issues, Ive been suffering those myself with an RZ tank I painted a few years back and only just completed the base white pearl yet again. Im leaving it to go off as long as possible before i clear it with a clear that Im sure wont like the solvents in the white, we'll see...

Looks good tho Phil, worth the effort and the fighting...

[phil1rowe4]

>Bit like having a welder in one hand and grinder in the other while learning to weld, spray gun in one hand and sanding block in the other hand!

LOL, weve all done that!

[phil1rowe4]

Wow, not sure what happen with the last message. Think I took too long to write it and the system chopped it in half!

[JonW]

Ahh... I think it was me Phil... somehow I accidentally edited your message thinking I was quoting it, Im really sorry mate.

As a mod I have extra buttons on my screen and must have clicked the wrong one with my fat fingers, never happened before, oops... I'll be more careful in the future