what color to paint it?

[Underdog]

Another body guy here. I've had my own shop since 1978. I"ve been useing all PPG products for many years now. One of my closest friends owns the parts store where I deal. Just thought I'd mention that PPG has an economy line they call Omni that's a lot cheaper. I tend to stay with the premium stuff though since to me, the labor involved isn't worth taking a risk of a bad result from poor material. One exception though is thier epoxy primer. The Omni stuff is the exact same material but about half the money only it doesn't come in colors, just gray. BTW, for any young guys out there, bang'n car fenders is a hard way to make a living! Stay in school. hahaha!

[Bikeboy]

Repainting

Hello again Randy, not sure what happened to my picture, it shows up for me. About Dupli Color, you say you painted 2 bikes with it and had no problems with gas staining or melting the finish. Well I don't know what to say, I used the auto spray,did not try the truck spray. Which one did you use. Anyway like I said when I called them they told me it was not gas resistant. I called 1 800-247-3270 thats their hot line,call them for yourself, see if they tell you the same thing. Anyway I'am glad yours turned out good ,mine sure didn't.

[randy]

Well, Chris I did wait about a month before installing the tanks and each one got a thorough simonizing (with a real paste wax)followed by a liquid glaze. I guess that helped. And, I am very careful about gas spills.

The top coat that I use is the Duplicolor SUV product, supposed to be tougher and more chip resistant than the regular stuff. But then I never took it off-road!

I've heard good things about the two-part urethane clear coats as to their gas resistance, but I have niether the facilities or the expertise with those products. Frankly, I wouldn't even know where to buy them.

I'll keep you posted on the results this time around. The two previous bikes were a '76 Kawa 400 and a 72 Honda CB 450, both done in '82.

Randy

[randy]

Okay,

I contacted Duplicolor Engineering, and after a lengthy e-mail exchange, this should finally put to bed the controversy about fuel resistant paint alternatives.

They do make a clear coat that is fuel and heat resistant, #DE 1636. Theior regular clear coat,#T125 is not fuel resistant.

Those of us who do not want to spend hundreds of dollars on custom paint jobs should be able to do a fairly good job on our own, for WAY less than $100. Here's the answer from Duplicolor. Note that the reference to GM 380 is my base coat color, also a Duplicolor product.

HTH, Randy




Randy.

The DE 1636 can be used over the GM380 and is gas resistant. You must let the GM380 cure out before clear coating it. The cure out time on the that product is 24 hours. I hope this clears things up. I would not recommend using the DE 1636 over the T125.

Sincerely,
Ray

To: <Duplicolor@sherwin.com>
cc:

Subject: RE: rj

I hate to drag this out, but.. so I can apply DE1636 over any of your color lacquers, (GM380 is the one I'm using), but not over T125?

Randy Rago
Advanced Electronic Solutions
http://www.nyaes.com
office 718-461-2600 ext 108
pager 917-390-0230
cellular 570-982-1472

[Bikeboy]

I should have told you....

Randy, I have already tried that. What I mean to say is, I first painted my bike with DS100 (BLACK) then top coated it with the T125 (CLEAR) they say to use over that paint, got this info off their web site. That is what I did the first time, and this finish was not gas resistant like I told you. So I went back to their web site to see if they had any paint that was gas resistant and I found their DE 1636 ENGINE ENAMEL (CLEAR) was. When I painted my new front fender, fairing & airscoop I used their De1636 (CLEAR) over the DS100 (BLACK) that means I used a black lacquer base coat and a engine enamel clear over the top, you can put enamel over lacquer but not lacquer over enamel. This finish has been on for about 4 Weeks, have not tried to see if it is gas resistant yet. I will let you know what my findings are when I test it out.

[randy]

Sounds like a good plan, Chris. I'm going to do the same thing. But, like before, I'm going to wax and glaze the %$@* out of it before exposing it to gas. Let's compare notes later.

Randy

[80elevenspecial]

finally painted it

well i finally painted my gas tank. im going to put black tribal flames on the tank and "xs 11" in tribal flames on the side covers...the side covers are painted as well!!
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[sidecarKev]

I painted my bike and sidecar with Dupli-color truck and SUV paint also. I'll have to check on which clearcoat I used. I have been very careful not to get gas on it though, don't want to take any chances. 3 coats of color, dry one hour then 3 coats of clear dry a week. Wet sand with 2000 and then bring the shine back with 3M rubbing compound. Then a coat of wax. Been working good fof me.