Belly pan painting and fitting

[Benjins]

Hi all,


I've bought a lovely belly pan off ebay to make my bike look even more awesome(?). It's come unpainted, which I expected, but I've now realised what a ballache setting up a painting area is going to be as it needs to be dry, warm and dust free. The missus isn't keen for me to do it in any of the rooms in the house so I'm relegated to the garage. Hoping a portable heater should get it up to temp.


Anyway, this thing is made of fibreglass and is white. My bike is black. So firstly, does anyone have any advice on the kind of paint I should be using to prime and paint this thing? Also, if anyone else has done this recently, did you paint the inside as well as the outside?


Probably silly questions but I'd rather measure twice and cut once than the other way round...


Cheers,


Ben

I can recommend the VHT brand paint which is available from usautomotive. Really good quality stuff and goes on really well. The heater will do the trick nicely, I custom paint smokers and have to do it all year round in my shed. Heating the room above 17c will be fine and will drop the humidity too. If the humidity is to high it will dry a white colour which isn't ideal!

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Buy the way I paint steel drums not plastic but have been on class for fairing painting and it's pretty much the same process. Key the surface area , apply dust cost followed by 2 heavier coats then 2 coats of clear coat

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[Trev B]

Suspended mine in a large cardboard box so I could spin it round while spraying,mine was the sv pearlised white(2 stage) got it made up by a motor factors nearby,very good match,sprayed inside as well !!!

[tom_e]

If you don't mind it looking matte then plasti dip.

I sprayed my gloss black hugger last June time with it and it still looks spot on 15k miles and all weathers later.

All I did was give the hugger a good wash to remove any grease and muck then a couple of coats of black plasti dip out in the back garden.

[Trev B]

Belly pan in white !!!

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by tom_e

If you don't mind it looking matte then plasti dip.

I sprayed my gloss black hugger last June time with it and it still looks spot on 15k miles and all weathers later.

All I did was give the hugger a good wash to remove any grease and muck then a couple of coats of black plasti dip out in the back garden.

I did the same, the back garden on a hot day made for a perfect spray booth!

As for paint, I checked out my local automotive paint supplier and got a great colour match for my bike wheels.

I am not sure how easy it is to find, but I have heard of water based auto paint. If you are going to spray inside, this might be an option to look into because I imagine that any fumes are going to be a lot less toxic that standard solvent based paint. I imagine that it will need a lot longer to dry though.

[Benjins]

Thanks all. Plenty to think about. The big box idea sounds ideal and I've got enough cardboard kicking around to do something like that.

Will look into the paint types mentioned. I was thinking about Plasti-dip but worry that I'll have to be touching it up a lot thanks the the unforgiving Manc roads.

Will get some pics up when I've done it though.

[tom_e]

Originally Posted by Benjins

Thanks all. Plenty to think about. The big box idea sounds ideal and I've got enough cardboard kicking around to do something like that.

Will look into the paint types mentioned. I was thinking about Plasti-dip but worry that I'll have to be touching it up a lot thanks the the unforgiving Manc roads.

Will get some pics up when I've done it though.

Due to the fact it's got some flex it in plasti dip is actually surprisingly hard wearing I've found.

[keith_d]

I've used 'Upol etch primer' when painting fibreglass in the past and got good adhesion on clean surfaces.

The biggest hassle is that manufacturers often use wax or silicone spray as mould release agents to separate the part easily from the mould. As you might expect paint doesn't adhere to them at all. So before you paint give it a thorough wash with detergent and hot water.

Just my thoughts,

Keith