| Author | Message | ||
     Al_lighton |
So after getting punted off the track on my 1125R track bike weekend before last, I'm looking at options for the rashed track bike bodywork. I was considering doing a plain murder job on it with just flat black rattle can paint. But as I was filing and smoothing the rashed bodywork, I started thinking of some other options. 1) Rhino lining or similar...I'm sure it's been done by someone already, anyone have any experience with it? Does it stick to the plastic? Is it brutally heavy? Expensive? Anyone have any pictures? Seems like I've seen it here before. 2) Media blasting the plastic...has anyone done this? If I smooth out the rashing, and then blast the whole part, do you think I can get an even looking matte texture in the plastic? Has anyone tried this? 3) Any other interesting plastic treatment options? I'm really impressed with the Buell Surlyn bodywork. If you crash a japanese bike with ABS plastics, it cracks and shatters into useless plastic that is mostly suitable for the trash can. After sliding from 85MPH across the track and into the desert dirt and rocks, the plastic on my track 11225R is rashed, but not even halfway through the thickness. No cracks at all anywhere. It's still perfectly usable, but obviously not very pretty. With 15 minuts of filing, it isn't hideous at all now, just not shiny and smooth. I watched Erik at homecoming a number of years ago hold an XB front fender by the "arms", pull it against his chest until those arms were stretched out 90 degrees to their starting position. He released it, they went 90% of the way back to their original positions, and were restored to their original positions with some reverse bending. Any other plastic would have shattered or at least had big white creases where it was folded. That fender could have been mounted back on a bike, hardly worse for wear. It was impressive. | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
i like the idea of media blasting | ||
| Glitch |
Charlie (New12r) did the media blasting on his Uly flyscreen. It looks really nice! I want to do all my plastics that way. | ||
| Sifo |
When my wife dumped her Street Triple some of the textured plastic was all scraped up. I filled the deep scratches with body filler and sanded smooth. Then I got a quart of truck liner (don't remember what brand) and ran it through a strainer to get rid of the big chunks. It came out close to the factory finish, but the color was a bit off. The big problem was that after a season of riding a layer flaked off. I think that had to do with not buying the UV protectant coating. So I wound up shooting a coat of rattle can semi-flat black over it. It looks great now, but if you compare the left and right side parts side by side you can see they don't match. When they are on the bike you would never notice though. I fixed the engine case with filler and the same rattle can finish while still on the bike. I taped it off right at the "body line" and just sprayed the center area. It's very difficult to see that it was repaired. For a track bike these repairs would be great. For a show bike I wouldn't be quite satisfied. | ||
| 2734 |
I have used Dupli Color spray can bed liner in Jeep fender flares and it looks pretty good. It's not near as wrinkly as the roll on stuff. | ||
| Hootowl |
Whatever you end up doing, you may want to add some of that bumper paint additive to help the paint stay flexible. Will paint stick to surlin? | ||
| Syonyk |
I've got a Rhino Liner covered bike. It came this way, so I don't know anything about the process, but I quite like how it looks. I've also got some absolutely beautiful metallic green pieces for it, but I just keep the rhino liner... less to worry about.    I'd recommend it. | ||
| 86129squids |
Al- once again, in matters of paint and car/bike finishes, do contact Vern (Etennuly)- he's got a pretty good handle on Buell cosmetics and such. If you've not seen a pic of his wife's "Blastuly", have him send you one... Good luck, and post before/after pics! | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
surlyn in certain forms is actually used as an adhesion promoter. so i'd say yes depending on what polymer the surlyn was added to. | ||
| Hootowl |
That bike looks great. | ||
| Ustorque |
Al, what about the vinyl wrap? I know there have been some threads up here on badweb. In fact There was a thread some ways back of an 1125 done completely in a carbon pattern wrap that looked damn good. Worth a look and your choices in color or pattern should be near endless. | ||
| J2blue |
Hey Al, sorry to hear she got scratched up. What about a vinyl wrap job? | ||
| Sifo |
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who had had hydro-printing done. Looks like fantastic stuff. I have no idea on pricing though. http://www.hydro-dip.com/all_patterns.htm | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
there's a place here in jax that does it but i like black so i'm good for now... | ||
| Nik |
I've blasted ABS with glass bead, very carefully, and got a nice smooth matte finish. Might be worth a shot. But I'd think you'd basically have to sand the scratches out to point where you could also just buff it back to a shine. | ||
| Buellathebuzzer |
I saw a bike at Bike Nite in Minneapolis a few weeks ago (First Thursday for the locals). I saws this bike.   At a distant it looks kind of cool, but it's pretty damn gloppy up close. Not a fan of these graphics either. Syonyk's looks better from the perspective of these photos. I'm not sure if this is Rhino Liner or Line-X too. | ||
| Buellathebuzzer |
I can't get that Hydro-Drip painting out of my mind. What about that one of those burled paints on the fender, fly screen, tank and tail of an M2? | ||
| Sifo |
The hydro printing is a pretty amazing process. It should save a ton on labor costs creating a very cool image. I'd like to know what the cost would be to have something dipped and cleared. Of course you need a nice clean base coat to start with too. I really like some of the colored carbon images. The potential of this is incredible. | ||
| Etennuly |
All of the above ideas will work on the surlyn parts. I have not tried the media blast finish though. When I use paint on the parts I use the paint manufacturers entire process as they recommend. Plastic cleaner, plastic adhesion promoter, flex agents in the base and the clear. The surlyn colors are difficult to reproduce because it is kind of like a clear gel with color pigment added, not unlike Jello, just keep adding color until you cannot see through it for a given thickness. This adds a special depth to it almost like a candy color in a clear coat, but not quite the same. Most are too expensive to get into for a race bike. If it were mine I would price the wrap deal. You can buy a large roll of 2mil vinyl in what ever color you want. It could cover the bike many times for what it may cost to paint it properly once. Try a decal shop, see if they have any left over rolls that are getting old or dirty from sitting around. Some times they will let that stuff go cheap.....and it can be spray painted easily and changed rapidly. | ||
| Pnw_uly |
Line-X here . . . Applied over two years ago, still looks good, don't wash it much, but it cleans up real nice. Think you could most likely get the pods, air box cover, and rear section shot for about $250 or less - - they "seal" each piece with all-over coverage; no guess on the weight, but if you are cutting grams for track use, then rattle can will definitely weigh (and cost) less.   The bike photos from Buellatthebuzzer looks like "Herculiner", or other self-applied bed liner that I'd recommend against - - too "chunky" and fade quite quickly. YMMV | ||
| Ourdee |
Could you spread on the epoxy then wrap it in carbon fiber, spread on some more epoxy, then vacumn bag it? | ||
| 86129squids |
Fun thread! Post all relevant pics, phleeze! | ||
| Pwnzor |
Al... A friend of mine has created a smooth, durable coating of Rhino Liner by actually straining it first to get all the chunky bits out. He put the strained liquid into a pneumatic paint sprayer and applied it. He did this for his rollcage, bumpers and steel rims on his mini monster truck. Looks great and it's tough as nails. | ||
| Rageonthedl |
When i was talking to a guy about doing line-x on my frame he said that line-x goes on smooth and its the mist/over spray that makes the texture. So i could do as much or as little texture that I wanted. | ||
| Nillaice |
i painted my plastics with roll-on truck bed liner stuff. it adds some weight to the plastics, but the texture and thickness fill-in and hide scratches well i'd rather not sand, buff and polish | ||
| Slaughter |
I am wondering... I had more fun on my SV running it as a ratbike after about 10 get-offs and frame changes. Zip ties, duct tape, fiberglass patches, dents in the fuel tank all contributed to the "theme." It was fun to pass kids on their pretty litrebikes on the ratbike. | ||
| 86129squids |
 "patina" as on an original unrestored barn bride is one thing. "cosmetic/reconstructive" surgery is another, equally fun, for more modern bikes that get thrashed properly and remain straight and true. If the zip-ties hold, GAS IT!  | ||
| Al_lighton |
The bike sat for the summer months, since I don't do track days in the summer here (all the tracks are in the desert). But I have a track day coming up so I needed to get the body work done. I sanded out the scratches and took the shiny-in-some spots, sanded-in-other spots plastics to the media blast booth at the machine shop. The blast booth had a fine black sand grit (not aggressive) loaded, I just used what was in there. I'm MORE THAN PLEASED with how the body work came out. The radiator pods were essentially as-new, the tail section was rashed pretty good. I couldn't get the deepest of the grooves out of the plastic without removing too much, so I left a few of the deepest gouges. I blasted all the parts in the booth for a while. I was worried at first I'd blow holes right through it if I wasn't careful, but there was no need to be worried. The plastic is pretty tough, I think you'd need to blast a single spot for HOURS to get through it. After the parts came out of the booth, I washed off the dust and sprayed some SC-1 Silicone "clear coat" spray on them. The parts looked a little bit greyish at first, but the silicone spray brought the blackness back. I just sprayed it on and wiped it off. The fairing is an Airtech fiberglass fairing, rattle canned with flat black paint. It's amazing how close the plastics match the flat black paint. It's virtually identical. I like the look, it's a lot like the flat black "denim" finished harleys. Some pictures:      | ||
| Reepicheep |
That turned out great! Nice option. Let us know how it wears over time. Nice that it can be easily refreshed, I'm curious to see how easily it mars. |
