Painting over the Mona Lisa...

Well, here it is. Paint stripped off the front fender with Aircraft stripper, part sanded with 400 grit sandpaper (a bit harsh, but it worked) and washed. If you are thinking of painting your own parts, be sure to wash them quickly. The rust started forming right away, and although I have read that this is not harmful, all I could think of was huge rust bubbles breaking the surface of my paint job.





Ok, let me start off by saying this is my 2nd attempt. What happened to the first, you ask? Well, I had gotten to the clear coat part, everything looked pretty good except for a couple of small spots where the bracket sits when the unthinkable happened... the part rolled over on the bracer I had it sitting on! Perhaps it was the wind, perhaps it was bad luck... whatever the cause, my beautiful part was marred beyond repair! (scratched it right down to the metal beneath, although how this is possible is beyond me... the base coat was dry!) Anyhow, I waited for it to dry then tried sanding it out. No luck. It looked like crap. GrrrRR!! &%#@@!! I was so pissed. I wanted the first trial to come out perfect.
Well, as fate would have it, I'm glad I re-did the part. Even without the gouges in it, there were a few spots that looked like indentations.
Held here by the support screw, you can see how smooth the surface turned out. Not a mar to be seen anywhere. I made sure to primer coat the underside as well. I was handling the part with kid gloves, but it seemed every bug in the universe wanted to land on the wet paint.






Here it is, ready for painting. Having learned my lesson, I hung the part back on the wall and sprayed away. I decided to use Garnet Red, the closest to burgundy I could find... why don't they make burgundy? I don't know. The results are below:

Finally! Painted! Egads! What is that?!? A small scratch between the holes in the middle! ARGH! Yes, I bumped it taking it off the wall. At first, I didn't think it would matter because the support goes across the top anyway, so no one would ever see it, right? Wrong. I can just imagine the start of my rust problem right where no one can see it. I waited til it was dry, buffed it out a bit with sandpaper (2000grit) and finally came out with this:





Ahhh.. smooth as glass and shiny as the dickens. For my first (sic) paint job, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. I learned from my mistakes fo sho, and know what not to do the next time. This gleam is pre-rubbing, so I can't wait to see how it looks after I am all done.

I used nearly half a can of spray paint ( about 4 coats) and 3 layers of clear coat. The directions tell me to use 2000grit sandpaper on the finish, making it all hazy. I'm scared. I like the way it looks, but many have gone before me and their paint jobs turned out like mirrors. Yeah, I know it's just the front bumper, but hey, if you worked on your bike, wouldn't you want it to be the best it could be?

I spent a large part of the day ticked off, unnecessarily. I hope that I don't make the same mistakes the next time. I plan on doing the rear bumper next, and finally finishing off with the gas tank this winter. That is going to be a trick and a half. Hell, just getting the tank off proved to be fruitless. But, it's just going to take some manipulation and good intentions and the bike will be gleaming in time for next spring. Part of me wanted to get the whole thing done by the time I go to Canada, but that doesn't look likely.

Thanks for reading (if you are).