TOPIC:

Before dealing with a vendor/professional, I educate myself as much as possible so I dont get swindled.  I say this to say, tomorrow I am taking my tank and rear fairing to be repainted at a highly regarded auto body shop here in NYC. Their work is great...on cars.

They color match and mix paint on the premises. As stated, I want to go into this process with knowledge. I have some questions:

1. Whats the best way to fill dents or scrapes?  I want to ask the painter how he plans to deal with this and want to get your opinions on it. I have a slight dent in the front of the tank, and a very minor dent near where the seat meets the tank.
2. How many base coats go on? I dont want a "Maaco" paint job.
2b. What kind of paint? Poly Urethane? Enamel? Acrylic?
3. How many coats of clear should go on?
3b: The original LUMINOUS GREEN was green over silver flake. Im going to ask the guy to add metal flake to get similar results. Is this wise? Is there a better way to go about it? That is, to make the green LUMINIOUS as i dont think hes going to spray silver first. I dont want a FLAT green. I want a VIBRANT green!
4. This guy says he puts the pinstripes OVER the clear, but consensus on KZ says under. Should i fight for the pinstriping to go over? I mean, they arent that expensive so if they get messed up, they can get peeled off and put back on rather easily.
5. Is there anything else I should be asking?
6. Dude is charging me like $600, but like I said, they have an EXCELLENT rep.
 

1. It is best if the metal is in good shape, not dented.
I will fill two small dings beyond that time for new parts.
Let them do whatever they want.

2. Typical is two primer coats, two base coats, two mid coats, two clear coats.
Painters may have a formula that works best for them.

2b. Most three stage systems are urethane, there may be others.

3. Usually two.

3b: Kawasaki used three stage systems, base, mid, clear, you need three stages to get anywhere close to factory paint.

4. I prefer all paint under clear, some painters may add stripes on top of clear coat.

5. Hiring someone to paint a car or motorcycle is like gambling in vegas
Unless you have dealt with this person before anything is possible.

6. $600 is peanuts for a nice three stage paint job.
 

73z1 wrote:

1. It is best if the metal is in good shape, not dented.
I will fill two small dings beyond that time for new parts.
Let them do whatever they want.

2. Typical is two primer coats, two base coats, two mid coats, two clear coats.
Painters may have a formula that works best for them.

2b. Most three stage systems are urethane, there may be others.

3. Usually two.

3b: Kawasaki used three stage systems, base, mid, clear, you need three stages to get anywhere close to factory paint.

4. I prefer all paint under clear, some painters may add stripes on top of clear coat.

5. Hiring someone to paint a car or motorcycle is like gambling in vegas
Unless you have dealt with this person before anything is possible.

6. $600 is peanuts for a nice three stage paint job.

 

This is all very useful. Thanks so much for your time.
The painter has a fantastic rep for painting cars here in NYC. I hope his skill set extends to Kawa Tanks.
Yep, only two small dings on my tank. Not bad at all.
 

$600 is a good price.  A good friend of mine who painted my bike when I first got it told me to repaint it again he would charge me $1000.  After my divorce I remarried and my wife's brother is a painter, cost me $200 for a flawless one color (black) paint job.  Sometimes it's all in who you know.

Well I dropped off the tank and fairing. Apparently it will be ready by Thursday!

This shop does EVERYTHING. They mix the paint on premises, have high tech paint booths, etc. They are so good they have government contracts to paint, planes, trains, and automobiles.

So. they will use two stage urethane. I wanted three stage, but for $600 Im not going to argue.

I was SHOCKED that they pulled from their color palette option, the EXACT emerald green of 1977.
You can see it below.

BTW, like Nessism and SO many others tried to tell me (im hard headed and obnoxious and for that I apologize) they are going to put the pinstriping UNDER the clear, not over.

Below is a photo (a poor one) of their color match with flake/pearl and when I dropped off the tank:

 

Confuses say he who has hard head and realizes it,may have soft spot. Lol

ronnieV wrote:

Confuses say he who has hard head and realizes it,may have soft spot. Lol
 

Yeah i read back some of my responses and I was like "Ive been terrible" lol. So yeah, I plan to approach posting in this forum very differently.

Good guys here. 

ronnieV wrote:

Good guys here.

 

maybe

You're not going to paint the side cover?

In the interest of accuracy.

luminous green is a 1978 Z1000a2 colour.

Candy emerald Green is a 1977 Z650b1 colour.

Sorry Bill! 

SWest wrote:

You're not going to paint the side cover?

 

Both side covers are in absolute pristine condition. So no, not going to paint them.