I've just finished this bodywork for a customer of mine ........
1976 Z1000
The panels had been painted pretty poorly at some point, christ knows what would lay beneath!
Time to dig in and make a start!
The underside of the tank was a bit scabby so I suited up and took it into the blast room to show it who was boss...
As it turns out the tank was in perfect condition under the awful paint, I removed any surface rust but stopped at that.
(Note the legacy of a past owners style choice)
There was a fair bit of prep to do on the plastics
Then followed 2x coats of 2k primer .......
Once prepped it was ready for 2x coats of base coat in white (no photo's taken as it looks just like the primer!)
Then the masking for the first stripes.
Once this was done the whole panel set was ready for it's second colour coat - Metalic orange! ...... 3 coats please!
I must mention at this point that the budget for the build of this bike was fairly modest so I was asked to only do as much as was absolutely needed in order to keep the cost down. Ideally I'd have spent a bit of time preparing the area behind the tank badges but as they won't be seen I was asked to save the time (and in effect, money)
Then on to the masking of the second colour stripes .....
Time for the final base coats to go on ...
Underside of the panels first
Then flipped them over and lavished 5x coats of the final base colour
After doing a job like this with hours of work sitting beneath the fine line tape it's always a bit tense as the masking starts to come off and you see what you're left with ...... There's no going back now!!
There were a few bits of bleed here and there which is almost inevitable but they were easily enough repaired being flat base coat.
Lee (my customer) had asked for the top stripes to be as close as possible to the white stripe. Having de masked everything I decided that it didn't look right so set about putting that right.
Once the base and stripes were all tip top it was time for the clear ...
4x coats of HS Crystal lacquer, each wet sanded with 600 before the best coat. The idea being that the stripes won't be pronounced when the panel is felt.
Great success!
1976 Z1000
The panels had been painted pretty poorly at some point, christ knows what would lay beneath!
Time to dig in and make a start!
The underside of the tank was a bit scabby so I suited up and took it into the blast room to show it who was boss...
As it turns out the tank was in perfect condition under the awful paint, I removed any surface rust but stopped at that.
(Note the legacy of a past owners style choice)
There was a fair bit of prep to do on the plastics
Then followed 2x coats of 2k primer .......
Once prepped it was ready for 2x coats of base coat in white (no photo's taken as it looks just like the primer!)
Then the masking for the first stripes.
Once this was done the whole panel set was ready for it's second colour coat - Metalic orange! ...... 3 coats please!
I must mention at this point that the budget for the build of this bike was fairly modest so I was asked to only do as much as was absolutely needed in order to keep the cost down. Ideally I'd have spent a bit of time preparing the area behind the tank badges but as they won't be seen I was asked to save the time (and in effect, money)
Then on to the masking of the second colour stripes .....
Time for the final base coats to go on ...
Underside of the panels first
Then flipped them over and lavished 5x coats of the final base colour
After doing a job like this with hours of work sitting beneath the fine line tape it's always a bit tense as the masking starts to come off and you see what you're left with ...... There's no going back now!!
There were a few bits of bleed here and there which is almost inevitable but they were easily enough repaired being flat base coat.
Lee (my customer) had asked for the top stripes to be as close as possible to the white stripe. Having de masked everything I decided that it didn't look right so set about putting that right.
Once the base and stripes were all tip top it was time for the clear ...
4x coats of HS Crystal lacquer, each wet sanded with 600 before the best coat. The idea being that the stripes won't be pronounced when the panel is felt.
Great success!
