Project Yamaha SRX 250 3WP

Tank now has all the base coat done.
Stickers are on. Next step is multiple coats of clear.




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3 coats of clear now applied.
There is a bit of orange peel so I will see how it looks when fully dry in a few days. It is flattening of a little as it drys.
Worst case is a wet sand with 800 and then go higher till it’s flat and then polish.



Portable spray booth ( spray tent ) just fits in the shed.


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Well I am not real happy... seems like I have had a massive Clear Coat failure... it isnt curing.. well it wasnt yesterday. I havent been up there this morning to check it out.
If it hasnt hardened up it will mean basically stripping it all off (probably with thinners) and starting again from scratch.
It is still really glossy, just not going off. Not sure why... it was mixed at the right ration according to the TDS from DNA Paints. My only thought is that it has gone off... it is a couple of years old now, both containers were well sealed but...
Thankfully I still have 2 of the decals so other than the cost of the paint and time it isnt totally disasterous... just really annoying.
I might just leave it for a week and see if it hardens up at all... but I doubt it will

 

After packing up the spray tent and cleaning up and preparing to strip all the paint etc off the tank I have found the issue.
Rookie error on my part.
I forgot I had base coat reducer in my plastic tub of paints for the bike ( I use DNA Custom Paints ) and when checking to see how much spilt blood basecoat I had left I found a brand new 1 liter of Custom Clear in there.
Yes, I have mixed base oat reducer with medium speed hardener ( same bottle size as Custom Clear ). Considering I sprayed basecoat reducer on it has come up with great gloss. It just won’t dry lol.


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Tried using thinners on a section of the tank... shouldnt be too hard to get it all off... just annoying.
Dropped the tank onto the bike until I get around to stripping the paint off.
At least I know how it is going to look... pretty much as I expected so when it is finally done (properly) I will be happy.
NOTE TO SELF: Must order some more medium speed hardner and basecoat reducer.

 

Unfortunately no... what I thought was 2K Clear was in fact basecoat reducer with some hardner added. All it did was turn the Spilt Blood basecoat to almost a glossy gel finish.
I did try wiping a small section off with thinners and it comes off easy enough. It is just a pain to have to repaint the entire tank again. I wont make that mistake again.
I have a few other items that need painting as well so I will prep them all and do it all in one weekend.

 

Well the basecoat eventually hardened up and I thought initially I might be able to just wet sand out the Orange peel effect the extra reducer left. Unfortunately that wasnt the case and after several hours of sanding then wet sanding I ended up with nice smooth surfaces again.. but with some rub through in a few areas.
So off to get some rub through primer so I can start again

 

And it gets worse... I hit the sections where I had rub through with appropriate primer and discovered a little while later some fry up in those areas... more specificallywhere the primer was over existing base coat.
light sanding with 1200 grit to even out the fry up and then a light coat of the black basecoat should have respolved the issue.
But no... even more fry up of the black basecoat...
Decision made... take it right back to bare metal.
I am glad I did as it turns out that the extra reducer I hade sprayed has softened the other layers of paint... right down to the primer.
I found it pointless to use my Orbital with 120 grit as the paint is soft it just clogs the sanding disc immediately. So the little abraisive wheel brush is doing a good job. I will need to fix a few minor spots where I have existing filler.. just to be sure.
Then etch prime and the process starts again.





Lesson learned... always read the label when painting

 

Fully back to bare metal and first coat of 2K Epoxy Primer on board. 2nd coat in about 10 minutes and primer filler tomorrow morning.
After some minor filling.



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Lovely weekend for spray painting.... after 10am to make sure the Temp was nice.
First up was the tail fairing pieces.. done in a colour called Carbon Eclipse which is a dark metallic grey with lots of green pearl tinges while I was stirring it.
4 good coats so there is no mottling. I have used this colour in spray cans but much nicer to spray using my LVLP gun.



Then came the side covers and ground coat for the tank... DNA Pure Black. Again this went down really well. 3 good coats on everything and it drys so flat it is lovely... The side covers will be clear coated (hopefully next weekend)







Now onto the tank and the Spilt Blood Candy Basecoat... while not a true Candy it does give a Candy like finish.
First Coat




4th and final coat. This is a Drop Coat so I went a lot slower and made sure I had good overlap and plenty of paint going on.
Pretty happy with the finish. I just need to make sure I dont screw up the Clear Coat this time.



A couple of hours later and the safest place to store the tank and side covers is on the bike... so this gives a reasonable idea of how it will look eventually... .



No I just need to hope next weekend is as nice as this weekend was... so I can do all the clear coat.
Pleanty to do, Tank (with SRX decal, yes I had a spare set), side covers, tail section pieces, front guard, gauge cluster frames (one painted and one Carbon Fibre skinned).
I may even have the headlight bucket ready for paint as well... but it needs lots of work... PO had lots of bodgy filler and heaven only knows what paint was on it. so lots of minor filling, sanding, more filling and repeat... till I am happy with it.
Keeps me out of trouble I guess.

 

Today is Clear Coat day for the majority of pieces...
Starting with the tail pieces and front guard.
Clear is resting in its cans in the sink with warm water.. it is only getting to 19 today but in my little spray tent it will be a bit more.
YAMAHA woring on the tailpiece central part is done... on the Carbon Skinned one as well
It looks like the wording is in different positions but from the section nearest the seat (furthest away in the pic) they are the same distance.. the Carbon skinned one has a fair bit of resin over the end.

 

All done for the day, everything is drying off in the "craft room" out the back.
Everything came up well although I have a few small runs / sags on the tank as I probably went a little heavy trying to bury the decals.. so a week or so drying time and I will sand them out and might even give it another coat or 2 of clear.
At least this time it is drying and the finish is pretty good staight off the gun.
Apologies for all the pictures

Tail section












Then onto the tank


Side covers

 

The weather here on the border has not been the best to be doing much on the bike (or riding for that matter). Bits and pieces have been done, new main earth lead, fitted pads etc to the rear caliper ready for when I have a new rear brake line. Chain has been cut and fitted... all fiddly sort of stuff.
I decided I didnt like the dark charcaol grey for the top bridge, headlight and handlebars so they have all been cleaned up, primed and with much difficulty painted in a nice metallic silver.Temperature has been my enemy with the paint as it hasn' been above 11 degrees for 2 weeks now.
I finally put my fancy lettering on the the carbon skinned gauge cluster and I am pretty happy with it. It still needs to clear coated and I am undecided if it should be satin finish or gloss! I also need to polish the idiot light covers.


The top bridge, headlight bucket and handlebars look much better in silver.
My plan for this weekend is to keep these bits inside tonight and then in the morning I will crank up the AC (heating mode) in the "craft room". I can then mix up some gloss clear and paint the parts outside and quickly move them into the warm room for baking... well low temp baking anyway.
It all depends on it being dry...... not guaranteed at this stage






Lets see how the weekend goes...

 

Well today ended up being a lovely day... as long as you were in the sun and that was where the painting took place.
3 coats of gloss clear and the parts are now in the drying room... oops "craft room".






I am also laying down the base resin coat for some more Carbon Fibre skinning on the 2 rear fairing sides.. once finished I will have a painted set and a Carbon Fibre skinned set.
The skinning also helps strengther the repairs on this set.
More to come on this......................

 

And a few more pics.

The grey changes colour depending on the light.

The grey has a real greenish tinge at certain angles.
Side cover on as well, super deep gloss black, no polishing etc just good paint and great clear coat.



I will turn my attention to assembling the gauge cluster tomorrow I think.

I am actually pretty happy with the rear fairing as is so I am not going to continue with the Carbon Fibre skinned version... at least for now.
Maybe when the weather warms up enough I will revisit it as I had issues today with the resin, mostly temperature related I believe.

 

Today ended up wet and bleedin cold...Top temp was at 2.30pm 8.2 degrees... That is a 4 degree swing between 7 am and 2.30pm and I was stupid enough to be out in the shed with the roller door up??????
Anyway I assembled the gauge cluster, fitted the top bridge, handle bars etc and also dropped the tank onto the frame so it was safe. Still a little wet sanding to do on the RHS for some small runs but it can wait.

Not the best picture... but I am not going back out there today to take another...






And I think I may have saved the Carbon skinning of the rear Fairing.... another 2 coats of resin at least before some sanding.

 

I am going to be laid up for a few weeks after having a 3 hour back surgery yesterday to (hopefully) fix my sciatic pain so there won’t be too much done on the SRX.
I have sourced another rhs tail piece cheap so I can do the CF Skinning.
I love the painted ones but it would just be nice to have the option of the CF items.
I also sourced a correct speedo cable ( all from Japan Auctions) as the 51Y Speedo cable is about 150mm longer due to the different gauge positions.
This new (old) tail piece will be as much of an experiment in repair as it will be in appearance. There is a large crack that will be hot stapled and the CF skinning will add back strength.
At least that’s the plan.




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The caramel wheel will remove all traces of anything “tasty”
Cheers mate
I just need to find proof of the Mack truck that must of run me over.
Slow ( multi stop) trip back home from Melbourne today.


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