Tri-coat questions

I'm using Spray Max rattle cans for painting the tank and fender on my KZ650. The instructions indicate that it's a tri-coat system, which I'm fine with. The problem is that I don't know what the first coat color is supposed to be. I've read on here that black and/or white is used, but not sure for the blue on my 1981 CSR. I got a kit from 66autocolor that's two cans, one says 1/2 and the other 2/2. I sprayed the first can directly on the beige primer not realizing that it's semi-transparent paint. When I stripped the tank, I didn't notice any particular color under the blue, so I'm at a loss as to what color the very first layer is supposed to have. I'm going to ask 66autocolor about this, but thought I could get some help here as well. I would think that a base coat of black would make the whole thing really dark. I guess I could go rogue and just go ahead and spray it on the beige epoxy primer since I already put a first color coat on the fender that way. This isn't a restoration so I don't need to be historically accurate. Any help is appreciated. 

Ideally you should have a coat of grey finish primer (don't lay the colour straight onto the "high build" filler coat) then you could try a couple of small test pieces one with white and one with black then decide which you prefer

Wookie58 wrote:

Ideally you should have a coat of grey finish primer (don't lay the colour straight onto the "high build" filler coat) then you could try a couple of small test pieces one with white and one with black then decide which you prefer

Ok, thanks. I've already started using beige epoxy primer. I found out that the color I'm using hides the color of the primer anyway, so it doesn't really matter. I did repaint the gas tank with epoxy, so it's all beige now also. I contacted the retailer for more details so I hope I have this handled. My only other question now is whether pin striping goes on top of, or under, the clear coat. I have to look that up. 

Under, just check with your decal supplier they can be clear coated over

Wookie58 wrote:

Under, just check with your decal supplier they can be clear coated over

Thanks but I'm painting the stripes myself using the Beuglar tool and House of Color urethane striping paint. I found the instructions online. So, no decals for me, anyway. I've already gone to the dark side on this bike... 

The Beugler is a handy tool but be advised - plan on a good bit of practice if you haven't used it before.  Just like brush striping, you'll have to develop a feel for getting uniform lines.

Some paint colors use silver or gold for a base coat 
But depends on paint system  and as you said not a true stock restoration 
Dave

Street Fighter LTD wrote:

Some paint colors use silver or gold for a base coat 
But depends on paint system  and as you said not a true stock restoration 
Dave

Beige epoxy seems to be fine for this process. I'm getting acceptable results from using that as the base. 

 
 

These are unpolished and unstriped. This is my first attempt at this fancy painting technique. The tank has some orange peel that I'll deal with later. 
Next step is to lightly sand the area where I want to put the pin stripes, apply them, and then clear coat over top all of it again with several coats. Since I'm using 2K clear, I have to use the whole can up at once on these projects since this stuff is expensive. 

If your using decals to pinstipe then put a couple of coats on before adding them then put a couple more on after adding them.
doing it that way allows you a adjust the decals without risk of damaging the colour coats should you need to.

A lot of 2K cans have a 24 hour window after pulling the pin so plenty of "flash off" time between coats

Warren3200gt wrote:

If your using decals to pinstipe then put a couple of coats on before adding them then put a couple more on after adding them.
doing it that way allows you a adjust the decals without risk of damaging the colour coats should you need to.

As I mentioned, I have the Brueglar pin striping tool. I read up on using it with 2K clear coat, and that's why I bought the urethane pin stripping paint. None of the decal providers I found recommended putting clear over the decal. I guess there are probably some out there that would work, but I'm going to paint them on myself.