Note for those repainting their 1st gen bike...

[timgray]

The pin-striping that Yamaha installed 25 years ago... well it's glue penetrated the plastic and causes major issues when I sprayed a primer coat to smooth a bit better. I had to switch to a non reactive nasty cynocryalate based sealer to bury the mess that the pinstripes made in the plastic to make it go away.

 

The problem happened on every location on the bike where there was a pinstripe. IF you leave the pinstripes there and are fine with a bump under your new paint this will not be an issue, but I wanted it right so I razored off all pinstripes, sanded everything smooth and started the painting. ugly crinkles appeared, reappeared, reappeared until I found something that would not react and bury it. now the parts are as smooth as glass and ready for paint.

 

Oh another note: most of the emblems on the bike are there to hide major ugly casting marks when the bike parts were made. if you want everything smooth, you have to use flexible plastic filler to fill them and make them disappear.

[MikeM8560]

the clearcoat over my pinstripes is cracking a bit, not bad yet to need new paint. I do have some small cracks in the suspect areas of the trunk and side panels they dont show unless your real close, I was sondering if there was a way to repair then and not need paint other then just supporting them from the backside, like has anyone found a way to fill the crack and not expand it?

 

BTW were going to need pics of the new paint , in progress qwould be cool too

[Dragonslayer]

the clearcoat over my pinstripes is cracking a bit, not bad yet to need new paint. I do have some small cracks in the suspect areas of the trunk and side panels they dont show unless your real close, I was sondering if there was a way to repair then and not need paint other then just supporting them from the backside, like has anyone found a way to fill the crack and not expand it?

 

BTW were going to need pics of the new paint , in progress qwould be cool too

fill with superglue

[Guest mtruitt_1971]

try using fibergalss resin to fill the cracks or using some sort of marine epoxy to fill cracks, water proof and sandable and takes paint easily

 

haven't tried it yet but will let you know as soon as i do

[SilvrT]

When I redid my '87, I did not experience this problem...probably because I sanded right thru the original paint where the pinstriping was before I primered. I had to primer and sand at least 3 times before topcoating. I used a good automotive quality primer/surfacer and used 180 sandpaper on the first primer coat, then re-primered and used 220, then re-primered and used 320 sandpaper prior to a final coat followed by wet-sanding with 600 before the color.