Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

I have heard people say (including on here) that custom paint jobs lessen your bikes value... Why is this?

I want to take my tiger painted 2002 ZX9r.. and nickel plate the frame,sub frame, swing arm and rearsets.. plus the wheels except the spokes... then I want to paint the bike and spokes of the wheels in House of Kolor Shimirin Passion pearl (Deep metalic Purple)... of course new dash would be in order and other little bits here and there..

so why will this lessen the overall value?

or is it just if you paint the fairing and don't do the bike up, it cheapens the bike as it looks like it's been crashed?

It cheapens the bike because:

a) - most punters think you are hiding accident damage, wether you are or not is irrelevant, they will think it anyway;

b) - Custom bikes *never* hold their value, or return any of the investment, if you decide to sell;

c) - If you want your bike to keep its value on the 2nd hand market, have a look at the ads which state * Original, immaculate condition* - these are the bikes that attract the highest dollars, becuase they are in original condition, not blinged-up attention whores;

d) - A good, stock example of a bike, which has a good service history, has been well-maintained, and is in generally really good nick overall, is simply the type of bike which appeals to 95% of punters in the market for a 2nd hand bike. You may always find the odd buyer, looking for a custom bike, but its unlikely that his ideas of what makes a 'good' custom bike, and your ideas, are going to be the same.

Thats what is great about building a custom bike - you get to do whatever you want, however you like. But thats where it stops - it will *never* match a good solid *original, unmarked* example of the same bike, no matter how many dollars you throw at it.

I hope that answers your question. If you want my advice, spend the dollars on bringing it up to really good, stock condition. It will be *way* easier to sell later on, if you decide to....

Thanks Gos.... I figured it was something along those lines... I do love a well done original bike and that is what i would look for if I was wanting a 2nd hand bike.
How ever i don't want to sell my 9... I sold my first one and have always regreted it.. it was a 1998 C model. I just tracked it down and am trying to buy it back...

But I would like to do a bling bike at some stage... just for shits and giggles.

then the best bet is to get another 9 for 'daily' use, and keep it pretty much stock - then go to town on the blinger ! That way you get the best of both worlds. I know people think its expensive to have more than 1 bike, I reckon its crap. You can just fit solid touring tyres to the 'daily hack', and give it normal basic maintenance. The other bike can just be done up over time.

If you haven't yet got one, invest in a good 1HP bench grinder - a big one - mount it on a pedestal in the shed, and fit some good buffing wheels to it. You can then polish every little part to your hearts content, its a really cheap way of adding more bling, and its always satisfying to do it yourself....

I think if you are serious about doing up a bike, its really hard to do this, and keep riding it on a daily basis as well. I know when I did a bit of basic blinging to the MFP12 last year, it was great to be able to ride another bike to work each day, while the 12 got its wheels stripped and painted, etc etc......

Thanks for the advice, i apprecite it.... now if I could just convince the war and finance office that it wasn't that expensive for 2 bikes, i'd be right....

Get a bench grinder and polish stuff.
Yeah it's that easy.
Seriously it is but be prepared to put in alot of blood, sweat, tears and frustration.
I'm going on a tangent from the original thread but.......
Polishing is a skill, an art, a passion. To get it right you really do need to spend alot of time developing this. I get infuriated when I see "polishing kits" sold through retail or on fleabay stating "you can achieve profesional results". Yes you can, but only if you have the determination and skillset to achieve this with inferior equipment.
I have seen many polishing jobs - they do attract my attention - and for the most part I consider 3/4 of them to be inferior crap that can be generated out of any back shed by any old hack. Yet these are jobs people have paid alot of money for and perceive to be schmik because they paid a profesional to do it. Polishing is more than just making things shiny.
Polished alloy should appear like chrome. There should be no ripples, scratches, gouges or irregularities. If there are you got ripped.

For those of the Handbag Carrying Schoolgirl Crowd some of you will have seen in the flesh the swingarm on Robracers trackbike. ( For those that haven't there is a picture below ) That thing took me over 30 hours to achieve and I still wasn't happy with the end result. I charge $30 an hour which is below market price for sure but I am pedantic about the details. It frustrates me to see people charging more but putting in less effort and presenting crap that people pay for just because it is shiny.

In short if you are going to get things nickel plated or polished learn to do it yourself. But aim for the best quality you can achieve. Believe me 2 hrs into any job and you begin to think to yourself "Why? Why? Why?" but when you can finally put the part on the bench, step back, see no flaws and admire yourself enjoying a hard earned it is all worth it. Beat that.

My partner rides a ho hoo hon ... I can't say it.... That has a custom paint job... custom becuase he binned it... Not extremely bad, but instead of going through insurance he decided to have it fixed himself, and add a few extra bits on in the process that insurance would not have, like flash new rear-sets etc etc... along the way he decided to get a custom air brush paint job coz he always wanted one. It will be harder to sell down the line if he see's the light and buys a Kawasaki but he is happy with it and has no intention of selling any time soon.

nice paint job on the CBR, yeah every time I see a custom job I think maybe its been dropped, crashed. Still with custom paint jobs they might look good but would like to ride the bike everyday? Take the CBR posted here it looks good but I personally wouldn't buy it over a stock bike why because the stock bike is just that stock and will always be better IMO, I'm also not a big fan of those painted colourful bikes.
If I was going to paint my bike I'd get another set of fairings that way I could just chuck the originals back on and sell the bike stock later on.

Slow and wobbly wrote: ....Get a bench grinder and polish stuff. ...Yeah it's that easy.....Seriously it is In short if you are going to get things nickel plated or polished learn to do it yourself......

How can they 'learn to do it yourself' if they don't get a bench grinder and start somewhere ?? Thats all I was suggesting.......

Polishing is a lot of work, I never said it wasn't. It took me 2 days of preparation, and about 6 hours per wheel, to do the rims on the MFP12 properly. All up about 25 hours work. It is possible to get professional results at home, you are living proof of this ! Other people should be encouraged to do the same....

I was also suggesting that getting started with some smaller parts of the 'blinger' 9 would bring the owner a lot of satisfaction, This is not as hard as all the *experts* would make out

Are you trying to convince old mate that he should send all his stuff to you to polish ??

Gosling1 wrote:

Slow and wobbly wrote: ....Get a bench grinder and polish stuff. ...Yeah it's that easy......

How can they 'learn to do it yourself' if they don't get a bench grinder and start somewhere ?? Thats all I was suggesting.......

Hell, I can't even get motivated enough to strap a wire wheel to the drill to do the outside edges of the rims on Elsie!! I certainly couldn't be bothered taking the wheel off the bike and holding it at a bench grinder for hours on end.

it was bloody hard yakka !! and dirty as well......at least I only had to use 2 buffers, a medium one to get the outer rim up to spec, and then a soft mop, to get the polish like a mirror.........

and after all this, the fuckin' rear rim still looks like shit most of the time, thanks to chain lube.....

Gosling1 wrote:
How can they 'learn to do it yourself' if they don't get a bench grinder and start somewhere ?? Thats all I was suggesting.......

Polishing is a lot of work, I never said it wasn't. It took me 2 days of preparation, and about 6 hours per wheel, to do the rims on the MFP12 properly. All up about 25 hours work. It is possible to get professional results at home, you are living proof of this ! Other people should be encouraged to do the same....

I was also suggesting that getting started with some smaller parts of the 'blinger' 9 would bring the owner a lot of satisfaction, This is not as hard as all the *experts* would make out

Are you trying to convince old mate that he should send all his stuff to you to polish ??

Not at all Gos. Just wanted to make it clear that a bench grinder and a mop alone will not give instant results.

Slow and wobbly wrote:
Get a bench grinder and polish stuff.
Yeah it's that easy.
Seriously it is but be prepared to put in alot of blood, sweat, tears and frustration.

custom bikes are usually a personal thing, some people just have bad taste

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh7BcRsQ0zM

i would like to polish my rims because it is cheaper than getting them chromed, any tips???