After some advice, I’ve got the official Ducati track fairing kit and they come unpainted but sort of feel like they have some sort of coating. Can I prime straight onto them after a degrease or do I need to run them down before priming? I’m spraying with cans, but I’ve seen a lot of varied info, some even suggest you can just spray straight with top coat? Here’s some pics of them....
Clean dry environment. Scottish them up a bit. Panel wipe them. Prime. Spray. Lacquer. done. I’d be inclined to get someone half decent to do it with such expensive fairings personally, or atleast use a gun. It’s actually more difficult to get a decent finish with a rattle can than it is a gun and you’ll get through a fair few cans. You’re often not always saving much.
I have no idea why that says Scottish them up. It says S C O T C H in the comment but seems to be changing it. Hey Ho
thanks mate, I’m not even attempting to spray them this side of March because I really think from what I’m reading I need min 16degree ambient. By then I might decide to get someone to spray them. If not I’ve got some vinyl that I might just apply to the white ones, a nose vinyl and a tail vinyl mainly in red
If you are using a spray can, do as stated above. Lightly scratch the surfaces that require paint & seal over the bits that don't using painters tape & decent brown paper. You start spraying before going across the area in steady but swift movements like wiping windows clean side to side. The term used is overlapping' This technique means any large globules of paint tend to leave the cans nozzle before been laid down in the fine mist onto the surface. I would recommend trying & pracitising on a plastic object found in a skip. Take it home & clean it & Scottish the surface & re-clean then give it a go. How many layers of colour are required depends on your experience & 'eye' to the sheen left wet. Don't reuse Scottish pads on different objects as the particles will contaminate the next item. Effectively all this is doing is giving a key to bind the two layers together, much like painting rooms or plastering walls. You allow the paint to dry over night or a set period of time stated on the can. Then again do the same with the clear laquer layering. ps: Turn cans upside down & shake well before using them right-side up. This allows the ball bearing to smash about inside the can to loosen settled material. pps: Plenty of informative videos on spraying stuff by hand on y/t no doubt
If you use rattle cans for the colour coat it's worth clear coating over the top so you can polish it.
as above, if you feel you will develop the knack for it, then it will turn into a piece of cake and highly enjoyable. I understand you following the majority of thoughts here, but if std finish is already matt then I wouldn't even flat and if you manage to achieve a real gloss finish* when painting then I probably wouldn't lacquer either. If you are lacquering properly it can double the cost of materials. * it should be covered in some of the videos but I used to "overwet" panels to achieve this on plastic but obviously not enough to cause sags or runs. if the panel is horizontal when spraying you can get away with a heavier pass.
The only thing i can add to this is buy the paint from a proper paint shop, you know the ones that mix the rattle cans for you, they will advise on base and top coat, so much better than the Halfords watery rubbish. Jawel Aerosol Any Mixed Colour 400ML Aerosol Paint | Car Colours | RAL Colours [CUSTOM] - £12.83 : Jawel Paints
Aerosols are at least £13 each, rubbing down wet & dry paper, cleaning prep chemicals, all add up. Then there's fixing the problems in the finish of fairings... Spraying engines, maybe frames is easy enough, large flat surfaces not easy at all. Ideally find a wonderful (probably expensive) bike painter and go to town. More practical/ cost effective (similar price but twice as good result to rattle cans) will be to find a local car body shop to "blow 'em over".
Thanks for the comments. At the end of the day they are track fairings, so perfection isn’t required, but I do want them gloss and my issue is having done some spraying before the paint went really Matt, perhaps from cheap spray of trying to spray too quickly over the area, not sure. I might just use them white for this year and get them wrapped for next
Paint turning Matt is quite a problem when painting plastic, a professional explained it to me once. It’s to do with the paint setting too quickly, which can happen even if you are spraying at the right temperature, hence the over wetting which encourages it to set slower albeit at the risk of runs and sagging as said. If you’ve got an old fairing, you could try experimenting first? I don’t blame you for putting it on the back burner, the above varies even from plastic to plastic.
If you are spraying directly onto plastic, use a plastic primer. This will flex and fervent crazing and cracking of the topcoat.
It has something to do with the forum itself bud it won’t let you post Sco tch without auto correcting to Scottish. Must be something historic?
Must be something to do with the Scottish Play? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scottish_Play Though its the tinterweb so perhaps Shakespeare's play has something to do with substantial eggs eaten with beer?