The Cost of a Decent Paint Job

[Lucien Harpress]

Concerning vinyl- I worked as a graphics shop for a year, doing vehicle wraps (among other things). Not a bad idea, but I personally don't like them. True, the possibilities for colors and designs are endless, but it's an absolute pain to get on correctly, especially with multiple tight compound curves (like motorcycles have). If you get the shop to do it, it's almost as much as a normal paint job, and it's much less durable. Average life for vinyl that's laminated is about 5 years before it has to be replaced. If it gets nicked, the only way to fix it (without it looking like crud) is to re-do the entire panel. For some people it may be great, but call me old-school. I prefer paint.

[Sidecar Bob]

Yeah. Murray said it cost him about $250-300 per bike to have a few done. But on the other hand, it was very fast. He said he took one set of parts in ad 11AM and picked them up again at 2:30, ready to install.

[Lucien Harpress]

It all depends on how the vinyl feels that day. Some times it will go down like a dream and lay down quick and easy, while other times you're fighting it tooth and nail for every inch. It's a lot more forgiving than I expected it to be, but that doesn't mean it's a cakewalk, either.

[Whiskerfish]

Another idea, Neil's POW Themed bike was wrapped with Nauga's that had printing on them. It looked sharp and unique!!

[Mike-C]

Good Morning Folks;
That's a good idea for when I retire. I could raise organic naugas and go into the nauga-hide business.
Mike Coleman
'84 Wing-Lite (ex-Aspencade)
'84 un-Terstate
'84 Standard (as yet un-named)

[desertrefugee]

I did pretty good with a $200 paint job - this time. The guy is not a professional but has a nice setup at his house. Not a show paint job - by far - but hey, it was $200. I managed to keep my costs pretty low on this bike and it turned out to be a nice rider...

[wingrider]

Doesn't look bad at all for $200! Heck, round here, not sure if it would even have a reflection in it for that money.

[brokentoe]

If I remember right I paid $600. Mine has ghost flames on the three sides of the faux gas tank (shelter). The paint was put on 11 years ago and it still looks as good as the day it was done. One of the rear panels fell off and took a trip down the highway by itself. I had that redone along with another spare by a different painter. The nice thing about basic black is that it isn't too hard to match.

[Casper]

I went into two vinyl shops with my panels in hand. They both said it would difficult to get a really good wrap around some of the curves, and both recommended not doing it. So I think I am back to paint. I am not a real artistic sort of guy, so I think I will just have to look around at what some of the more talented NGW builders have done and then blatantly copy someone else's ideas.

[Sidecar Bob]

You're more than welcome to copy what I did, with or without the texture.


I started by finding these pics

1100 Interstate.JPG

1100 Standard.JPG

Then I put them together like this to make something close to what I have

gl1100 Bagger.JPG

I knew It was going to be mostly black so I messed around with my graphics software to turn it monochrome and darkened it up to make it black. After I added some blue I emailed it to my son for criticism and we emailed it back & forth for a few days until we came up with this

gl1100 Bagger black+blue.JPG

Edit: Pic hosted on Photobucket replaced

[Lucien Harpress]

You're more than welcome to copy what I did, with or without the texture.

While not necessarily the same pattern, I used these exact colors (black, blue [mine was metallic], with a chrome pinstripe between) on my very first bike, an XS1100.

Of course, I used rattle cans and kinda farkled it up, but it was, and still is, an awesome color combo. You photo made me stop when I saw it.

[Wingman Williams]

Counting the 2nd job on my bags, I am just under a grand, but I just completely redid the bags. I Frenched in tail lights. I paid more for the first paint job on my GL then I paid for the bike and parts bike. Wild! I am thinking I will shoot my 86 Aspencade myself this winter.


PS Admin, I enjoy the polls!

[desertrefugee]

Good info in this thread, both on paint costs and for paint in general. I'm glad I started it.

About my $200 job. Again, it's nice from a short distance, but a close inspection reveals that it is definitely not show quality. I'm OK with that, given the discount price.

But, I have a different question/issue. I realize that black is the worst color for showing fine scratches - especially if it hasn't cured. But, just how "soft" would you expect a freshly painted surface to be? I can't even breathe on this paint without putting very fine hairline scratches in it. Once it has finished outgasing and cured a bit more, I'll buff it out again and lay down a protectant...but is this unusual? It seems as if the newer paint formulations just don't have the "toughness" of those of the past.

Unless it's my $200 job coming back to haunt me...

[SnoBrdr]

Good info in this thread, both on paint costs and for paint in general. I'm glad I started it.

About my $200 job. Again, it's nice from a short distance, but a close inspection reveals that it is definitely not show quality. I'm OK with that, given the discount price.

But, I have a different question/issue. I realize that black is the worst color for showing fine scratches - especially if it hasn't cured. But, just how "soft" would you expect a freshly painted surface to be? I can't even breathe on this paint without putting very fine hairline scratches in it. Once it has finished outgasing and cured a bit more, I'll buff it out again and lay down a protectant...but is this unusual? It seems as if the newer paint formulations just don't have the "toughness" of those of the past.

Unless it's my $200 job coming back to haunt me...

It will dry to the touch in a few hours but you really should not wash it or do much to it for at least 30 days.

And that is if the person applying it did what they were supposed to.

[Casper]

I just got a new car, a 2015 Volvo, I was reading the owners manual, which is odd for me. I came across the 'washing your new car' section. It said for the first few months do not use automatic drive throughts or even hand operated high pressure sprays, just gentle hand washes with mild soaps and minimum rubbing. Actually I never use drive throughs that have brushes, I will use the touch-less ones however. Not sure what process they use but one would suspect it would be baked at the factory. But maybe not if they are using zero VOC water based paints?? My bikes are always pretty much just washed by hand with a bucket of hot soapy water and soft rags. If I am trying to clean up grease or oil I will use a mild solvent.