My bike is now mechanically sound HURRAY! All thanks to this community. Now that the bike is safe and fun to ride I can focus on the cosmetic stuffs =).
At the moment the bikes fairings are PWC dull black. I purchased the cheepest fairings I could find. All were damaged so I repaired them and gave them a quick/ugly/free rattle-can paint job.
The frame is plain alumium
The front wheel is like metalic silverish / dark blackish oem painted and the rear wheel is alumium with the same middle to match.
I would like to powder coat the frame and swing arm (prolly black), however Ive yet to find a place that'll do it locally.
Currently I dont have a air compressor and I'm reluctant to rent one for this project. If I paint this thing myself it'll be done by rattle can.
My biggest debate is if I should repaint all the fairings, clear coat them, and put stickers on it... OR.. Buy a new full fairing set.
Ive been eye balling a few sets on ebay and there is only a few that come close to what I would like... But nothing is "perfect" Im very suprised to find that only about 3 of the complete sets listed there use a red 'R'. Only reason I havent boughten them is if Im going to spend nearly 600$ for peices of plastic... they should be worth the price.
Im confident I could do a nice job at painting the fairings any solid color with rattle can. I dont know where I can obtain the stickers or even a roll of some form of vinyl sheets to make cut outs. Plus, I suck with stencils.
Any advice/opinions/experiance or any input on this would be greatly appreciated!
And for the other stuff....
I think I will have to wait till I take photos to ask about the other stuffs
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2000 Srad 600 - Full Hindle, Yosh MJN kit (TY ccmhunt ) , Toby Side mount Dampner, Ohlins Rear
If you can get even coverage with a rattle can, it works. You won't ever be able to use a buffer or an abrasive style cleaner as there isn't a hardener in the paint. Get it clear coated with a professional paint for durability if you can.
I rattle canned and got my decals from www.downat70.com most people think it was done professionally and I've never even painted anything before. Good luck
Powder coating the frame is an UNnecessary expenditure and you could better use the $$$ in other places.
I have used, with great success (you're gonna laugh I know...) rustoleum satin black with a foam roller.
It leaves a nice textured finish and is quite durable overall.
Not powder coated durable but you are able to touch it up if need be time & time again.
The plastic you are viewing is most likely that chinese stuff.
While it looks like the real-deal, believe you-me...it is not!
Though the paint quality is quite nice the actual plastic it is painted on leaves much to be desired in both thickness and fitment.
If this is a bike you are going to put together and sell immediately then go with the chinese stuff.
If this is something you are going to keep & ride than only o.e.m. factory plastics will do.
Yes...of course I have a complete, freshly painted set available but that is not my purpose here.
Just some sound advice from someone who has been there and done that time & time again.
kevin.g ty for that link! I bet I could make something work from www.downat70.com. Unfortunately they dont have the srad big SUZUKI decal. But I bet the other types would look good if I put them along the bottom of the fairing. I have skimmed over your thread also. Can you tell me a bit about that ABS solution you mentioned quite often? I have never seen or used it before. Is it cheep, where can I get it?
I was considering painting the bike all white or white/blue and get a set of decals from moto-sticker.com bc it would be a cheep complete solution and appear completely OEM. But to be honest I am not too fond of that apperance. http://www.moto-sticker.com/web/suzu...on-sticker-set
Yep this bike will be kept not resold. Even if it is out grown it will be passed on to my wife (that reminds me, I need to find some way to lower the bike about 2-4inches for her). I think some day in the very very distant future I will purchase a better maintained 750 srad but Inno I really like/enjoy owning this bike =).
THE SRADIATOR, when you say rustoleum satin black via foam roller... do you mean rattle can? Or some type of bucket paint? I painted my fuel tank via rattle can with rustoleum dull black and matte clear coat(it looks awful and when fuel makes contact the rings wont go away). Also, why would "only O.E.M factory plastics do"? I dont have a complete set of the oem ones.. mine are quite honestly mix and match. Im guessing the chinese stuff is likely thinner than the oem stuff but should I avoid completely for other reasons? Do they make too much noise? Not line up correctly?
This is what I got atm.....
My sub frame fairings are OEM black plastics however two peices got slightly warped/caved in durring the decal removal. It's really only noticable on the middle connecting peice and should prolly be replaced.
My left side main fairing Is garbage honestly... One of the mount holes was ripped off at some point and I did a fairly decent job at refabricating that hole but its not perfect... That fairing had ruffly 5 layers of different color paint jobs I had to sand off.. It is a black oem fairing I believe but I am not 100% positive.
The right side main fairing is in decent condition... The only issue with it is the visable front bottom lip of it where it is supposed to line up with the left side fairing is bent downwards a bit.. I was going to attempt to heat gun the lip and try to bring it back upwards for proper alignment. The forward most tab that goes into the left side fairing is broken off aswell. This fairing had the same paint job of one of the ebay fairing sets I saw so I guess it is prolly a cheep chinese fairing.
The fairing that connects the left and right fairings under the mid pipe is in excellent condition and is a OEM fairing.
The front fairing that mounts the headlights and windscreen is fiber glass. It was boughten new never used and not painted... The only issues with it is on the bottom rear tabs that connect to the left and right fairings and the bottom edge where the left and right fairings connect and their inner fairings line up at. The cut out was done a bit too short on thouse areas. Its not noticable unless your looking directly at them. I could round them out but it would make a noticable gap.
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2000 Srad 600 - Full Hindle, Yosh MJN kit (TY ccmhunt ) , Toby Side mount Dampner, Ohlins Rear
So I guess I wont be getting the chinese fairings from these guys. Dunno what place in colorado they refered to there so Inno. It looks like im rattle canning.
what sradiator is referring to is (i believe) aiming the spray to into a paint tray until it pools up with liquid paint. use your foam roller (what's used to paint houses, furniture, etc.) to saturate and apply evenly. One caveat, the paint will like to dry quickly, so make sure to apply it quickly
so sradiator, contrary to your suggestions, why did you get your own set of auctmarts fairings?
Yeah, I had a good experience with rustoleum. It also comes in buckets, not just rattle cans, no?
The ABS solution is very easy and inexpensive, supposing you have or can acquire a junk piece of ABS plastic. All you need is a mason jar or something of the sort, an empty spaghetti sauce jar will do, your piece of scrap plastic and a jug of acetone. Take some 40 or 80 grit sandpaper to the scrap plastic and remove as much paint as possible. When you've got it sufficiently stripped of paint, get some diagonal cutters (or something) and cut it up into little pieces, the smaller the better. Put em in the jar and pour acetone over them, until they are just barely covered, like you'd pour milk over cereal. Stir every 12 hours or so, mine took about three days to fully dissolve. I'd say I had about three or four inches up a quart sized mason jar and it was more than enough to patch all the fairings. You can slather it on with a butter knife or a spoon, that's what I did. Let it sit until it's completely dry. The amount of time it's going to take just depends on how thick you have to put it on and how thin you made the solution. Play it by ear. If you rush it and try to sand it too soon it won't sand properly, you'll have chunks coming out and shit... ask me how I know. Anyhow, smooth it out to 400 grit (or whatever you go up to) and primer. Voila... your fairings are beautiful again!
You might be able to buy something similar that is pre-made, but I don't know anything about that and couldn't testify to it's effectiveness
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20th Anniversary GSX-R750
"If you fantasize about being shot from a cannon, we'd recommend riding a literbike as a marginally safer alternative."
williamhbonney, I really appreciate it! But I must apologize, my location was not up to date I will update it now. I PCS'd to Ft Gordon a few weeks ago. I'm in Grovetown,GA (1 block away from city limits of augusta,ga) for the next 6 months.
Spook155, I've had mixed experiances with rattle can rustoleum. Used it on my fuel tank a few months back and whenever a bit of fuel makes contact the paint it still makes the discoloration rings and shows where it was exposed.
On the other hand, I have had good experiance with it on a set of david clarks I painted. They've been in contact with isopropyl/JP8 fuel/diesel/hydraulic fluid/grease/oils, and they allways whipe off cleanly with no residue or discoloration at all.
The only difference between the two expriances is the tank was painted with dull/flat black and clear coat, and the david clarks were painted with gloss black and clear coat.
I might paint the bikes fairings this weekend with the gloss types. I have to take most of them off tommarow anyway. If it turns out ok I will just purchase some decals to throw on it.
These look like my best option for this. If gloss black is a winner I'll prolly buy one of these sets in Reflective Red/black or reflective blue/red or something reflective. http://www.tapeworks.com/SUZUKI%20Lo...96_99GSXR.html
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2000 Srad 600 - Full Hindle, Yosh MJN kit (TY ccmhunt ) , Toby Side mount Dampner, Ohlins Rear
kevin.g, sounds good I might play with that stuff and attempt to make a few tabs that are broken.
And as far as ft gordon is concerned... it sure as hell beats ft bliss in every way imaginable. Im only here for reclass into 25S, I got pushed out of 15R with the jan cut-off.
Tommarow I will start to repaint my fairings to a gloss black and see how it turns out.
) , Toby Side mount Dampner, Ohlins Rear
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