I recently painted my SharkSkinz lower fairing, 3 coats of base paint, and a total of 3 coats of Clear... I did 2 "wet" coats of clear, then let it dry, then 1 additional...

Well... I did some winter riding this past week, and the loose gravel on the road absolutely was killing the front lower section of the fairing... All the **** the front tire was throwing back was digging the **** out of the new paint job...

Soooooooo... I wanted to give the bike a good cleaning today, so i removed the lower faring, and clean the **** out of the bike with S100 cleaners.... And since I had it off, I decided I would sand the front portion that was getting fucked up, add some paint, and re-clear it... But this go around, I was thinking I would do more layers of clear coat... I want to make it thicker, so that even if it gets beat up, its not showing the loss of paint...

Any experience here? How many coats of clear should i do?

 

I just painted my lower with truck bed liner from PepBoys. It looks great and I don't think I cound bend it in half and break it. You could also just do a portion of the fairing with this stuff for protection and the good paint everywhere else.

Pics to come.

 

I was standing in the parts store today, and looking at that stuff... they actually had some stuff that was clear, rubbery, and paintable... I strongly considered getting some, and stripping the lower completely down, doing the front, and lower section of it with that, then painting over it... But come to think of it... I bet if its clear, i could just add some over the top of it to create a protection for it... hmmmmmmmmmmm thanks

 

I think i'm gonna finish clearing it again, and then once done, i'll tape a section off, and use that clear rubbery stuff on it... unless somebody posts with experience and figures it to be a bad idea...

 

You want to end up with about 2 coats of clear after sanding. My suggestion would be to lay down 4 clear coats, 15 mins between coats. Wet sand the next day, then buff. Get the clear from a paint shop, not auto parts store. The duplicolor and others you can get from parts store don't cure out as hard so they scratch real easy. Use PPG or Dupont clear and a temp appropriate activator.
There is however, nothing you can do about rocks hitting it. You will get scratches. You can't get it to cure hard enough without baking at about 145 degrees F for an hour.

 

Try an extra bit of hardener. Also, you should look into getting some clear 3M adhesive sheet. Cut it to fit now that you know the areas that get hit and then don't worry about it anymore. Might want to keep a template of the original though since you might want to replace it once per year. The material I'm referring to is the same stuff that Tankslapper uses. www.thetankslapper.com

Oh, get the stuff that is NOT reusable. They sell both kinds. Not reusable can still be removed but not reapplied. It sticks better and conforms to curves better because it's thinner. The other stuff is thicker and can sometimes come off, especially in a highly abused area with rain, dirt, rocks, etc.

 

Thanks guys.... I am using a Dupont clear from a paint store...

Do you guy's think it would work to put some of that rubbery clear stuff they sell over top in that area... may help too... but i guess then its a pain to redo it, with the 3m stuff, i can just take it off, clean it up, and put more on...

hmmmm... looks like i got my answer

 

How much paint did it take you to do the lower ? I need to by the base, color, and clear so I can color match my sharkskinz red.

Thanks

 

+1 on the 3m stuff i just got mine out of the paint shop and am using it on the front of the lower and on the undertail. the stuff works wonders on anything you want to keep rock chips off of. check ebay they have lots of different sizes of it.