For those who love Triumph motorcycles and have been riding with the same bike for quite a long time and don’t know how to paint your beloved two wheel companion, eventually the time will come to repair because of the sunburn, road dust or some fall damage, the paintwork of the motorcycle, which would need a makeover. In order to paint a motorcycle properly we would like to tell you several tips towards a repair at home by yourself. Obviously the finish won’t be the same as the one you could get by hiring a professional paintshop but, this entry would prevent you from making terrible mistakes and from the painting task to end up as a catastrophe.
How to paint a motorcycle : Step 1
First thing to do is disassemble the part in order to be fully independent so you can deal with it without any problem away from the bike. Then, you should sand it down in order to improve the attachement of the new paint coat, erasing as well any scratch, dents or rusty parts. We recommend to do it with a machine in order to get the task all over the part with the same width, but make sure that the caliber of the sand paper installed on the machine does not exceeds the 350 caliber. In case that the part to paint is made of metal, it’s very important to remove all the coats until you reach the steel finish part, and if it’s made of plastic, the same procedure until you reach the plastic core.
How to paint a motorcycle : Step 2
Once the part is done of the previous step, we have to get it ready for the paint coats. In order to do that properly, we must clean thoroughly the surface of the part with an special alcohol or degrease product, since even a tiny bit of dust, a fabric fiber ( even our own finger prints) could mess with a proper attachement and finish of the paint coat to apply.
How to paint a motorcycle : Step 3
Before the paint coat, it’s always very positive in order to get a good result to apply 2 or 3 thin coats of priming, which could ease up the attachment and would greatly extend the lifespan of the paint.
How to paint a motorcycle : Step 4
If you’re going to paint with pistol, we recomment to keep constant the movement speed as well as the distance between the gun and the surface. It’s also necessary to apply several coats in order to ensure a constant tone colour around the area to paint. Key to sucess is to always check the part before the next step, specially after sanding the part down, and after painting.
How to paint a motorcycle : Step 5
Finally, in order to give it the desired finish ( gloss or matt ) and improve on how the paint is preserved against the weather, you may need a good varnish. Same way as the paint coat, check carefully that you’ve applied all the product on all the visible surface of the part you’re working with.
How to paint a motorcycle : Step 6
To conclude, make sure that the place where the part is being dried there’s no wind or dust in the aire, since because you probably don’t have a paint chamber, there’s a risk for tiny bits of duts or other particles to be trapped forever at the part, specially if the part is still wet.
