paint finish question
 

Hi,

I brought a set of 998 fairings off ebay at the weekend.
It is obvious to me that these have been repainted, and in the process there are a few specs and hairs in either the paint or the clearcoat.

Without totally stripping them how can I get rid of these imperfections ?
I thought I might be able to use a cutting compound or something and re apply the clear coat, but having never done this before I thought I'd ask on here.

Any advice ?

Cheers,
John.

Unless you're very lucky and the hairs etc are right at the surface then cutting compound won't remove them.

You'll need to flat them back with wet and dry. With a bit of luck all the imperfections will be in the clear coat. You can tell where you've rubbed through the clear when the paper/water starts to show paint colour. Start off at 320 and work up to 800 before re-clearing.

1) Are they different than as advertised? You could get your money back.......

2) If you got them for a reasonable price you could take them to a paint shop and have them D/a'd then laquered. That wouldnt be too much cost, cash deal!;)

If you can see what the speck or the hair is, then it's in the lacquer, cos if it was in the paint it would just show up as a red lump of something.

If it's in the lacquer it's easy, just get some 1500 grade wet and dry, use it wet and just sand the affected areas untill the imperfection is out. You'll be able to tell when you're sanding lacquer because the water you're using to lubricate the wet and dry will be milky from the sanded particles. If you go through to the colour coat the water will go....red, funnily enough!

If the specks and hairs or whatever come out by sanding the lacquer coat that's fair enough. You'll now be left with a matt patch. Get yourself a can or lacquer from a paint factor or Halfords and just spray over the matt area with fresh lacquer, build it up with a light coat first, then a couple of heavier ones, blending the new lacquer across the old lacquer (you might decide that it's easier to just lacquer the whole panel).

Sounds more difficult than it is, just make sure that the panel is squeaky clean before you relacquer.

If the specks are in the paint, you'll need to get the right colour to match the existing paint. This can be a bugger because Ducati's paint codes don't always match when a paint factor makes up the colour. It's better to take a panel to the paint factors and have them match it for you. They'll make you up an aerosol (which should be enough for an area about the size of a car wing), but if you've got any more to do than that get all the aerosols you need at the same time to be sure of a good match.

Then simply do the same thing as for the lacquer procedure, you'll need to sand through the colour coat to get the imperfections out, so when that's done and the panel is squeaky clean, build up the paint in three layers, let it cure then start with the lacquer.

Leaveit about a week, the t-cut and polish it.

Sounds hard, but you don't have to be great at spraying...you just have to be patient sanding and flatting back.

cheers guys.

I brought both sides for £250.
Probably not a stunning price, but given the top lhs part alone is £253+vat new I thought it was okay.

The conditions quoted didn't say if they had been repainted and I forgot to ask (Doh !). It just said no cracks, scuffs, chips, which is true. I picked them up in person and inspected them before taking them away. I did tell the guy they looked like they had been repainted.

They aren't bad, but when I took them home first thing my missus said was "they have got bits in them" :rolleye:

I have a can of halfords clear coat at home, so just need to get some fine wet&dry. So, 320, 800, or 1500 ?? ;)

Cheers,
John.

I always flat to 800 (maybe 1000 occasionally) before clear coating. Any finer and I find that there is poor adhesion of the clear. After I've cleared I gently flat back again using 1200 then 1500 to remove any "orange peel" effect and then work progressively up through the grades of cutting fluids getting finer all the time.

Hope that helps, Neil

P.S. It's preferable if you don't apply any polish to the newly painted surface for at least 4 weeks. Aerosols take ages to fully cure.

P.P.S. Halfords stuff is especially poor, go to a vehicle paint supplier and buy an aerosol of good quality clear coat.