More specifically, has anyone used it to paint a track bike? Does it hold up ok? How hard was it to apply? Worth it?
easy to apply, wont hold up for sh*t with all the rubber tire pieces flying around tearing it up and peeling it, just dont do it
I put it on my rims. Looked good for a short time. Took 2 hours of peeling to get it off. Next time I'll use real paint.
I played with it on my track bodywork to see if I liked a scheme. If you get 4-5 good coats so it bonds well to itself it'll peel right off when you want it to. The trick is not getting it started when you DON'T want it to. It might last a while toward the back of the bike but I'm guessing with the little rock chips we get it wouldn't look nice for long toward the front. Once I figured out my scheme I had mine actually painted but did do black Plasti Dip on the back of the lowers. It lasted for a few months but decals won't stick well to it either. So re-did the black part on mine with actual paint.
Plasti-dip does have its place. I dipped the passenger pegs, silver radiator guards, and other shiny parts on my street machine and it is holding up well. I doubt that it would work on anything that gets hot, like side covers.
did my tank several years ago, peels right off the tank when you are moving around on the bike in leathers, not good for anything that makes contact with something else. But on a side note, the under tail on my bike is plasti dipped because the rocks literally knocked all the paint off. I put it on thick, usually lasts a year, during the winter I peel it off and do it again. But whats on it now is over a year old and still looks pretty good. I spray it with degreaser and clean it with a rag, still holding pretty good.
Thanks for the replies. I figured it wouldn't last on the tank due to all the rubbing and moving around. I have some Kawi green Chinese replacement fairings that I don't necessarily need to repaint but was contemplating painting/plasti dipping them before I put them on. The plasti dip might be an option just to test out a color since it's removable but it seems like it's not a long term option. Has anyone ever painted (i.e. spray paint) fairings or tanks themselves? I'd imagine it would look like shit but I don't know. I've never painted anything. I'm not ruling out getting a professional paint job, just weighing my options and trying to get some ideas from people with experience. My bike is a used 09' ZX6r. It's use is 99% track days but it's fully street legal. It's not trashed, but by no means pristine. I bought it with some cracked fairings so I decided to go the cheap Chinese fairing route, which came with a cheap Chinese paint job. It also has a dented tank. The more I think about it, I'll probably just save myself the headache and keep it green....
If you've never painted anything before, then I would really encourage spraying some scrap metal first and see what it looks like in a week. As for the tank/fairing, you WILL need to sand it down with sandpaper. Wood sandpaper won't work. Stop at your local hardware store and tell them the metal you are painting and they will point you at fine grit sandpaper. The easiest color is a matte black, cant really screw up black. But everyone will know its a rattle can job. Beyond that you want primer and several coats + clear coat. You can do it, youtube it and spend 3 hours watching. But I recommend finding scrap plastic/metal and trying out the process before you dive in blind. Oh! And wear a mask + well ventilated. Yes its only a short time but your lungs are pretty important and a 3m mask is $4. That's less than the price of a craft beer.
