How to restore the paint on your motorcycle frame ?

Many motorcycle owners want to personalize or refurbish their beloved machines. Can you redo your motorcycle paintwork if you're not a professional painter and don't have the right equipment? Painting the motorcycle frame  isn't as easy as painting a fairing, but defects are more tolerable. Here we explain how to prepare the motorcycle frame for painting, which paint to choose and some tips for the technical side of spray painting.

Clearly, the job can't be done without complete dismantling. Matt or glossy paint, as well as primers or varnishes, must cover all tubular surfaces. You must be able to access all areas with your spray gun.

After dismantling, and before suspending the various parts from wires at a sufficient height to facilitate work and turn the parts effortlessly, the parts must have been meticulously prepared: particular care must be taken to prepare the substrate, with the steps we detail below.

How to apply paint to the frame of your motorcycle ?

The perfect preparation consists of:

Meticulous sanding of the old paint, to create good adhesion, with 500 grit sandpaper (dry or wet). No, there's no point in going to the trouble of stripping the old paint if it hasn't rusted or peeled off.
If the base is too bad to be kept, then sandblast it down to the metal, using fine grain. In this case, it's essential to re-prime with an anti-corrosion primer.
After sanding, the surface is cleaned with a degreaser, dusted and dried to ensure a healthy surface that won't create defects.

The application of paint, whether 1K or 2K, is special because painting a fairing requires great wrist flexibility. If using a spray gun, make sure to adjust the spray pattern to a "narrow stream" to avoid wasting two-thirds of the paint, especially if you have invested in a beautiful and expensive frame paint!

If you've chosen to repaint your motorcycle frame with a multi-coat effect paint, it's really advisable to do all the steps “one after the other”, i.e. “wet on wet”, to create perfect cohesion between the coats, and also to save time and labor incidentally!

Preparing a motorcycle frame properly

A metal surface needs a special primer, not only to ensure  adhesion of the paint to the substrate (there are primers for aluminium, primers for carbon, primers for steel...) but also to ensure that the paint will adhere properly to the surface. Be careful to choose the right product, or you're guaranteed to come unstuck in the short or long term!)
This primer also has another function: to stop and prevent the development of rust.
No primer is needed on old coats of paint.

Our advice for choosing motorcycle frame paint

There are many solutions, but let's just say that if you're looking for a simple, classic paint, like a glossy black color for example, we recommend the choice of a 2K paint.
Commonly referred to as "2K paint” or “2K”, these are finishes that achieve high levels of gloss and resistance, and save time. Whether polyester, polyurethane or epoxy, they also offer excellent thickness and flexibility, enabling them to withstand the impacts to which motorcycle frames are subjected.

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Which motorcycle paint to repaint the fairings of your motorcycle ?
How much motorcycle paint to paint your motorcycle ?

How to paint your motorcycle ?