Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Hey is it a normal thing for resprayed fairings to be prone to stone chips, when original paint hardly ever chipped at all???

My new paint is chipping and scratching really easily and I don't know if its the paint or the painter or something else.

Its breaking my heart

Could depend a lot on the type of paint they used, what prep they did, whether the paint has cured properly...

I found this, as I think did Dan.

My theory is that paint shops cheapskate on the paint and use fewer layers that the manufacturers. Also, you can add hardener to the top layer to prelong the surface - as a cost saving device some paint shops may not do this. Combine these and you get thin, weak paint.

I'm presently teaching myself to paint for when my race glass turns up. I'm using more layers, hardener in the top two coats and then a clear layer. Hopefully if I drop it at the track it will just bounce

I have heard that two-pack paints are really hard and chip rather than flex when hit by stones. Apparently acrylic paint is softer and maybe more chip resistant. The bikes I have painted are done in acrylic.

I have no idea whether its two pack or acrylic, but I do know that its a candy colour, if that makes any difference. It has a silver base coat followed by thin layers of the actual colour until they achieve the depth of colour required. Apparently its a pain in the ass to match because of that.

photomike666 wrote:I found this, as I think did Dan.

My theory is that paint shops cheapskate on the paint and use fewer layers that the manufacturers. Also, you can add hardener to the top layer to prelong the surface - as a cost saving device some paint shops may not do this. Combine these and you get thin, weak paint.

I'm presently teaching myself to paint for when my race glass turns up. I'm using more layers, hardener in the top two coats and then a clear layer. Hopefully if I drop it at the track it will just bounce

Lots of clear coat Mike. Even with small chips/scratches most will polish out. Also the paint looks awsome, realy deep(just make sure it has cured eg. oven. Corvette at Summernts in glitter had 26 layers of clear(just to get a level surface). Problem was it was 18mths old and still hadn't fully cured.


As for the hardest paint, that winner is 2 pak, problem it 2 pak is a pain in the ass to use. I have done 2 pak at home in the garage but the over spray sticks to anything and everything. The worst part is it does not cure like acrylic, it will go tacky and this includes anything it comes in contact with.
2 pac tends to be a pain to touch up. But also looks great out of the gun without the rub back/cut/polish.

burkys_ninja wrote:

photomike666 wrote:I found this, as I think did Dan.

My theory is that paint shops cheapskate on the paint and use fewer layers that the manufacturers. Also, you can add hardener to the top layer to prelong the surface - as a cost saving device some paint shops may not do this. Combine these and you get thin, weak paint.

I'm presently teaching myself to paint for when my race glass turns up. I'm using more layers, hardener in the top two coats and then a clear layer. Hopefully if I drop it at the track it will just bounce

Lots of clear coat Mike. Even with small chips/scratches most will polish out. Also the paint looks awsome, realy deep(just make sure it has cured eg. oven. Corvette at Summernts in glitter had 26 layers of clear(just to get a level surface). Problem was it was 18mths old and still hadn't fully cured.


As for the hardest paint, that winner is 2 pak, problem it 2 pak is a pain in the ass to use. I have done 2 pak at home in the garage but the over spray sticks to anything and everything. The worst part is it does not cure like acrylic, it will go tacky and this includes anything it comes in contact with.
2 pac tends to be a pain to touch up. But also looks great out of the gun without the rub back/cut/polish.

I don't have an oven available as I'm doing this in the shed (dust is an issue ). I'm using Acrylic paints. Have done 2 layers of Etch Primer, and 3 coats of main colour. Once that is cured and sanded back I'll do another 2 coats of top colour with hardener and 1 or 2 of clear dependand on coverage. Afterall this is raceglass, so no point going too over the top with it

It will be a 2 pack paint. Paint shops dont use acrylics unless you request it, as its harder to spray with i am to believe. And to answer your question, yes resprays seem to chip easier than original paintwork. As said could be prep not spot on, paint not as good, (well like the manufactures use good paint anyway) Who knows, but had a car repainted on the front bar once cause it had a few chips, well worst thing i could have done, as before too long looked worst than ever..

i think the prep work is not always 100% and the less coats ur spray the more paint u save, the less paint they use means the more bikes they can do with a certain amount of money.

Equals profits in the end.

Every respray has a driveway warrenty.

They minute its in the spray shop driveway, warrenty is over.

Its softer then OEM has they have to push the jobs through with $$$ being the bigger picture.
Buy some paint protector sheeting from Supercheap & take your Time watching Mal fit it up Karen. I think he'll need a runner for beer though.

Poor Yappa's "Ten goes to get it right paint job" on "the Firecracka" got a 20cent piece size stone chip beside the headlight first ride after he finnally accepted the repair. We all sat in a big circled & howled for 15 minutes.

Watched a forensics show last week, and they mentioned that one way to tell if a car had been resprayed or touched up was to check the paint thickness. Factory paint is usually thicker and much more even that hand spraying...interesting, I thought...

Pontikat wrote:Its softer then OEM has they have to push the jobs through with $$$ being the bigger picture.
Buy some paint protector sheeting from Supercheap & take your Time watching Mal fit it up Karen. I think he'll need a runner for beer though.

Poor Yappa's "Ten goes to get it right paint job" on "the Firecracka" got a 20cent piece size stone chip beside the headlight first ride after he finnally accepted the repair. We all sat in a big circled & howled for 15 minutes.

did he finally get it back??

i woulda just demanded a full re-spray...