The Honda Pan project: DIY re-spray.

Evening all.

The time has come to think about tackling the once-candy-apple-red paintwork on my recently acquired budget Pan European. It is completely knackered: sun-faded to pink in parts, with the remains of several clumsy DIY re-sprays clearly visible. Some of these have been applied over decals and other stickers, and the paint has also been blown over exposed frame parts. It's a mess.

My first plan was to remove all the panels and send them up the road to be professionally re-sprayed, but then I thought that for considerably less money I could buy a decent compressor and have a crack at it myself. Frankly even if I turn out to be a complete cack-hand I can't make it much worse than it already is, and the cost of a professional job seems a bit OTT on a bike that cost less than £2K. Also, as I'll need to spray the Dalek model I'm about to start building with my eldest son I thought I may as well get to grips with spraying now. A compressor would also come in handy for other things around the workshop too.

Anyway, having scoured the internet for literally minutes, I have the outline of a plan.

1. Paint stripper (plastic-safe-stuff for fairings, ordinary stuff for tank).

2. Clean / sand / degrease.

3. Primer / base paint.

4. Colour coats.

5. Stick decals back on.

6. Lacquer.

According to RS Bike Paint, the ST1300 uses a two-stage paint that needs a base paint, a colour coat and a lacquer. I'm not fussed about reproducing the exact Honda colour, so any candy apple red will do if anyone has better or cheaper suggestions. And if anyone has any suggestions for suitable paint strippers for the metal and plastic bits that would be great, and any other advice on tarting the old girl up would also be much appreciated.

I also have an eBay bargain top box, which is in mint condition but silver. I'm guessing the only way to re-spray it is going to be to strip the existing paint off first, which is going to feel like vandalism.

I would use Halfords red primer

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints ... -red-500ml

and one of their many bright red car paints. I have been repaiting the frame on one of my bikes. One tip I found from doing that is to spray in little bursts and don't worry if there is a run. The frame being round means most of the runs have disappeared as the paint worked its way round the metal.

I did not srip off the old paint, I just sanded it, cleaned it and then used stuff I cannot remember the name of to degrease and do a final clean (it for paint preparation in a can) and then spent ages with tissue and masking tape masking off the parts I did not want to paint.

I used grey primer and then stain black. I have used 1 x 500ml can of primer to do one coat and 1 and a half 500ml cans to do three coats of black, the last coat being a light spray over. I have used one 300ml can of laquer to do two coats.

Why bother stripping the old paint off. Just rub it down and spray over it.

Why bother stripping the old paint off. Just rub it down and spray over it.

Sounds good to me - I'm all for taking the easy route!

The decals are all under several coats of original lacquer, and in some cases also a thickness of DIY rattle-can re-sprays, so I reckoned the only way to get a decent finish would be to strip it all off and start again. From what I've heard elsewhere the only chance I stand of successfully re-spraying the top box will be to start from scratch, so I guess I may as well do the lot.

A hairdryer to warm the decals up, a razor blade to cut in under an edge and peal off should hopefully do it.