Side panels, stickers and new paint.

After my unplanned test ride a couple of weeks ago I found that although the Halfords satin black paint looked great, without a lacquer to protect it, the finish wasn't durable enough to be on a motorbike.

After much googling around I came across a product that promised a satin black finish that cured to a chip and scratch resistant finish. Simoniz Tough Black spray, lots of positive reviews so I thought I'd best give it a go.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simoniz-Tough-Paint-500ml-Black/dp/B004R95MXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407741800&sr=8-1&keywords=Simoniz+Tough+Paint+500ml+-+Black+Satin

A couple of cans were ordered and the side panels were chosen to get the first samples.







I'm not sure how easy it is to see the finish from the above photos but its pretty good, not quite as even as the halfords satin paint, but I think I may have held the can a little too close to the panel at one point. After a couple of days, the paint, as promised, had cured rock solid.

The finishing touch for the panels were to be gloss black Yamaha stickers on the satin black panels. It sounded like a good idea but having never tried it before, I couldn't be sure of the outcome.



The stickers required a backing plate to be removed then placed onto the panels and pressed down using a cloth.



It took about 5 mins per sticker to make sure they adhered to the panel.



The final result was certainly worth the effort in my opinion, subdued, subtle and looks like it was done in the factory. Not a bad result!

Rubbish fasteners

Now then all, just a quick update on the bike painting progress.

I've not done an update for a while as the real world has been getting in the way...

Last weekend, when attempting to remove the exhaust heat shields for painting, I came across an issue that is proving quite common on the XT, the mounting bolts were seized!

I tried to use the time old technique of penetrating oil and smacking it with an impact driver, but with no success. I just rounded off the nut.

So, out with the dremel and turn a hex bolt into something that could be opened with a flat blade screwdriver, and would you believe it, my bodge worked!

Mudguard Painting on the XT660

I've finally got round to painting the plastics on my XT660 (and writing stuff in this blog!)

The plastics weren't in particularly bad condition, I just wasn't overly enamoured with the colour. Also, my friend kept referring to the bike as purple rather than blue, so I had to change it!

I'm still deciding on the final colour but it will be somewhere between a satin and a gloss black.



As you can see, the mudguard has a few deep scratches in it. In order to get rid of these, I sanded the affected area with varying grades of sand paper.

100 grit to remove the surrounding material down so the scratch depth, 400 grit to blend the 100 grit area back in and 800 grit to give a smooth finish for the primer to key to. I went over the entire mudguard with 800 grit prior to painting to dull down the shiny finish and allow the primer to stick to the plastic.

Once this was done, I balanced the mudguard on a bottle of thinner and started to give thin even coats of primer.

This is where the first disaster stuck, the force of the spray can knocked the mudguard onto the floor covering the wet primer in dust and grit. The finish was ruined!

I had to sand everything back down and start again. This time I left the mudguard on the floor! I'll have to be careful to get the edges covered with primer, but its much more stable than spinning around on top of a bottle of thinners!


After much faffing, the final result is below!



I have noticed that there is a hint of the original scratch I tried to remove, but I think I may just use a little body filler/putty on this rather than sanding back down again.

I've still got the nose fairing, left and right tank panels and tail section to prime but I've learnt from my mistakes!