Painting my bike

[RavenHawk]

I am going to take apart the SRX I just bought and repaint the frame, fuel tank, and rear upper cowl.
Does anyone have any advice on stripping the paint off those parts before re-priming and re-painting?
Any painting advice in general?
Thanks.

[catch2otwo]

cleanliness is the key.

[RavenHawk]

I figured that, I guess I'm more curious if I should really finely sand off all of the old paint or something like that.

[jeffsv]

Know anybody that could sand/media blast it? Might be easier and quicker.
Is this an srx600 single? Those are cool, i've always wanted one....

[catch2otwo]

im no paint expert but i would say it depends on how many times its been painted, how the paint is condition wise etc. it would be a shame to lay down a few nice coats only to have the orig. paint below it come off and ruin your paint job. if your going to have stuff off the bike, get some chemical stripper and just take it down to metal. it wont really be causing you too much more work and itll assure that old paint wont be a culprit in ruining your new paint.

[greenmonster]

Maybe this will help...you may have to register, etc. to access the posts, but it's worth a shot.

Auto and Motorcycle Painting - Custom Paint Forum

[RavenHawk]

Know anybody that could sand/media blast it? Might be easier and quicker.
Is this an srx600 single? Those are cool, i've always wanted one....

I know some guys with a machine shop with a sandblaster, but that's for small parts, so I don't think that would work here.

It's an SRX250 single, but I want to give it a look more like the 600s have (sort of cafe racer style).

[RavenHawk]

im no paint expert but i would say it depends on how many times its been painted, how the paint is condition wise etc. it would be a shame to lay down a few nice coats only to have the orig. paint below it come off and ruin your paint job. if your going to have stuff off the bike, get some chemical stripper and just take it down to metal. it wont really be causing you too much more work and itll assure that old paint wont be a culprit in ruining your new paint.

It's never been painted before, everyone on there is exactly as it came fresh from Yamaha, minus the damages that it got under the ownership of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles.

I'll look into the chemical stripper. I'm not familiar with that.

[RavenHawk]

Maybe this will help...you may have to register, etc. to access the posts, but it's worth a shot.

Auto and Motorcycle Painting - Custom Paint Forum

Cool, thank you.
Looks like I have a lot of reading ahead of me.

[SSearchVT]

Have you though about powder coating the frame? A friend of mine did his full suspension mountain bike for about $225 including the stripping. For the tank and sheet metal chemical stripping seems to be the way to go.

[RavenHawk]

I've thought about it. I've had to send stuff out to get anodized before (for work), but have no experience with powder coating.

I bought the bike for $470, and was hoping to get it all done for like $500-$600 more. Maybe that's not realistic.

So you're suggesting powdercoating for the frame, then chemical stripping for the tank and other metal bits, with paint to follow. Maybe powdercoating for the rear pegs too?
Any thoughts on the plastic upper rear fairing?