Learning to paint

The Other PaulG

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I want to learn how to paint metal objects such as bike bits, minor car repairs etc.

I am a very mediocre home mechanic (at best), and have limited patience, so immediately this does not bode well... I just want to try to understand a bit more about it and perhaps become half competent.

It's not lost on me that my old mate Chris (Tunneruk) was the da Vinci of motorcycle paint, and I am quite sure he's up there with his head in his hands in despair watching my ham fisted attempts. Sorry buddy... but it kinda serves you right.

OK, onwards. So, firstly I need a bit of metal to paint. I am afraid that I am one of those people who could consider a well painted T140 tank as art, something I could hang on the wall and stare at, so it had to be a fuel tank. After trawling the Kempton Park jumble for a couple of hours, coming close to buying a couple of fugly bantam tanks, I saw this one. I was not sure what it was off (other than the distinctive pear-shaped badge recess suggesting BSA), but its elegant lines and the fact that it was remarkably solid really appealed to me and a deal was struck.

Once home with my as-yet useless bit of metal, I tried to find out what it actually was. The genius of Neil W informed me that it was in fact from a BSA M33. Even more remarkable was that most M33s had a painted badge - only a very limited few which were exported had the acrylic pear-shaped badges. Thank you Sherlock!

OK, so that gave me a bit more purpose. It also introduced a strange thing - whereas previously I wanted a bit of metal to experiment on with paints, I now felt like the custodian of a bit of British history and I needed to do a better job.
 

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Here's the bike that Neil W identified as the original home for tanks like this -
 

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I did not want to attempt something that was historically perfect, because if you get that 10mm out, the rivet counters will be all over you, but I did want to do something that was of-the-era.
 
Mistake no. 1

I thought that a nice green and gold scheme would be fitting, so off I popped to Halford to find a decent green. In the dim (my excuse) lights of Halfords in Bracknell I found my perfect colour, Rover British racing green. Perfect

Except... when I got home and looked more closely I saw that it was in fact a metallic colour. No way should I try a metallic colour on my first attempt. However, being a stupid and Yorkshire-bred person did I a) return it.. or maybe just sacrifice the £8 and get a more appropriate colour, or b) save the £8 and press on?

So now we're working with a metallic colour.
 
Good for you Paul, with limited hit n miss paint history I've just resprayed my Lambretta. Was in the balance on putting it in somewhere to be done esp. with Lechler paint @ £50 a litre but it's not come out to bad bit of flatting & polishing to do but glad I've done it.
 
On a brighter note, having washed the tank down and decided that its minor surface imperfections were so minor that any attempts to fill them would invariably just look worse, I started to apply the first of a few coats of etch primer. This bit went well - the primer stuck extremely well and with a few coats, covered quite consistently. Hurrah, at this stage we're winning.
 

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It was at this stage that I realised, that whilst my nirvana would have been perfection, the tank itself was far from perfect - right from production. It had a slightly cellulite-like texture on some of its curved surfaces (did they hammer these parts out on a dolly???) and when measured, it really wasn't symmetrical. No problem, but when it came to positioning pinstripes later, these inconsistencies would create challenges.
 
I forgot to mention, by the way, that the reason I'm posting this journey is to document my errors so that anyone else considering something similar hopefully won't fall into the pitfalls that I marched into. Also, hopefully we'll discover whether you really can achieve something decent with rattle cans and 2000 wet and dry.

All for now, good night.
 
Good for you Paul, with limited hit n miss paint history I've just resprayed my Lambretta. Was in the balance on putting it in somewhere to be done esp. with Lechler paint @ £50 a litre but it's not come out to bad bit of flatting & polishing to do but glad I've done it.

Any pics???
 
Excellent stuff Paul, keep it up.

Is it just me who has a wry smile when I see dear old Tunner’s name every time a new post goes on the “what have you done to your bike today” thread.
:eek:
 
I’m following with interest having tried a few rattle can projects with mixed results. It sounds like you have a 1 shot paint? I’ve generally used a base coat and lacquer approach in my rattle can attempts.
 
So, on with the colour.

I started to lay down coats of the metallic green. I was desperate not to get runs as I do know what a pain they can be to make good, so laid down many coats, rubbing with 2000 wet and dry between each and wiping with white spirit just before the next coat.

Things I learned -
1) white spirit's quite an effective solvent of this paint, even when dry, so after realising that I was taking the paint off again, I used the lightest amount possible. Obvious when I write it now...:rob
2) there is a critical distance between the spray can and the piece, that's not so far away that most of the paint mists away into your garage and not so close that the paint goes down too thick. As you can see I really struggled to find it!
 

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If I had been painting a 2nd generation Triumph Tiger I might have been happy with the tiger stripes.. but it wasn't what I was looking for.

So what to do?

There was a part under the tank where the paint was really way too think and the metallic green was almost black.

Hmmm... I rubbed it down as best I could with wet and dry to take some of the darkness out of it, and decided that rather than starting again I should just press on.
 
It turns out that it was the right decision - again after many light coats, focusing on the lighter areas, things started to fill in and I was back on track.

Interesting things -
Lighting - wow this makes a difference. I was painting in daylight but still the combination of the tank's curves and the metallic finish made it incredibly hard to see the 'real' colour and thus spot the imperfect bits. I had a breakthrough one night when I was locking up the shed and looked at the tank with just my LED torch - it was really revealing and a great way to spot the areas that needed more work.
Curves - spraying a flat surface is relatively easy, starting the spray before your sweep, keeping an even height, spraying beyond the piece etc. But a tank with a real curve at the front makes that method very hard to achieve and I ended up doing one sweep over the flat section, then moving around it to do the curve. Not ideal.
 

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So just when you think you're winning....

I remember a gem of wisdom from CT "if you get the piece nice and warm first, the solvent evaporates much more quickly and that's the key to good painting",

My shed is a sun trap and sure enough, most days the tank was nice and warm before painting it, which probably helped. So.. when I brought the spray can from my cold garage one morning, I thought it would be very clever to warm it in a glass of hot water, to assist with this quick evaporation theory.

It was actually pretty hot when I finally removed it to start painting.

All went well until the spray 'coughed' and sent spatter all over the side of the tank.

Being (clearly) a very slow learner, I shrugged it off and proceeded to the other side of the tank where exactly the same thing happened.

Bollocks.

I now had quite a few blobs on each side of the tank. What do you do? My attempt to wipe one off straight away, turning the blob into a substantial smudge, so I decided to leave it alone, and go and feel a bit sorry for myself for a while.

Once really dry and hard, I set to again with the 2000 grit and little by little the blobs disappeared, just leaving discolourations in the paint. 2 more light sprays and they disappeared.

OK, so let's not heat the paint too much....
 


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