Over the past few days I’ve gone back and forth in my mind about how I want to tackle painting the bike. There are essentially three options in descending order of cost:

1. Once the scoot is stripped, send the parts to a local body shop for a professional respray.
2. Rent a spray gun and compressor, purchase bulk paint and do it myself.
3. Rattle-can it! Use widely available aerosol cans to attempt as best a finish as I can.

I did a lot of reading online both in favor of and against using rattle-cans. Some scooterists have suggested that with careful preparation and patience, a professional finish is possible with spray cans. JPM, whose guide I followed for the prep work so far used cans. Richard Hoar, a scooter restorer who I admire very much however has, along with many others, sworn against the rattle-can.

I’ve also gone back and forth on whether to wait until I’ve addressed all the rust and dents on the bike and do the paint job in one go, or do it piece-meal removing and painting sections of the bike as I go.

Last session I reassembled the turn-signal harnesses on the cowls thinking I was going to put them back on the bike primed but unpainted but the amount of care that’s been needed to degrease the cowls and keep them clean while I’ve been preparing them for primer convinced me that while they are off the bike I might as well give painting them a try now before I invest further in the scoot as a whole.

Time to paint
This decision pretty much led me back to the rattle-can approach. It’s unrealistic to rent and set up a spray gun for more than one session, and likewise unrealistic to send pieces out to a professional sprayer piecemeal.

A short trip to AutoZone on Atlantic Avenue bagged me a can of Dupli-color General Motors Bright Red which I eye-balled as a close match to the original color of the scoot. I had given other colors thought, but I’ve started to fall in love with the red of the scoot as it is now, and I figured covering red with red (even by way of gray primer) would be more straightforward than trying a different color.

In retrospect, the bike’s original color is more of a cherry red than the fire-engine red I have now but I’m not trying to be a purist about the original color. After reading a number of forums Dupli-color came up as the most recommended spray paint, in part because the cans are fitted with a nice nozzle that, like a paint gun, can be twisted to be either a horizontal or vertical spray allowing for a more even finish.

More prep work
At the end of last session’s priming I uncovered some pretty inconsistent filler work on the engine-side cowl. This session I started by going back to this with some pretty aggressive sanding, starting with 80 grit coarse paper and making my way through three grades of paper to 600 grit wet and dry fine finish paper. This extra work made a huge difference and corrected my previous mistakes. Like they say this is 99% preparation, 1% perspiration.

A couple of coats of the Rust-oleum primer went on quickly and evenly and I was left with a nice surface for color. While this was drying I turned my attention to the other cowl as the first candidate for paint color.

Problems
The battery-side cowl preparation had been a much easier task, with much less initial rust, pitting and denting than the opposite side so I had assumed that painting color would go smoothly. After thoroughly shaking the can on Dupli-color I set to work. This immediately led to problems:

My first mistake was removing the fine spray gate from the tip of the spray can in error thinking it was a temporary stopper that needed to be removed before use – wrong. Without it the paint began to sputter all over the cowl dripping everywhere. I immediately realized my mistake, put the plastic gate back on the nozzle and proceeded – much better.

After waiting fifteen minutes for the first coat of color to dry I realized I’d need to correct the drips I’d caused before proceeding with more color. This led to the discovery of a second problem:

In a couple of areas, some gentle wet-and-dry sanding over the drips began to lift not just the color off the cowl but also the gray primer. It became clear that the primer had not adhered properly to these areas even though it had had several days to dry. Clearly I had not degreased these areas of the cowl sufficiently. Given that this cowl had required a lot less prep work than the other side this made sense. I had obviously not been methodical about cleaning thoroughly before priming.

The worst part of this mistake was that where the paint had come up it left clearly-visible uneven depth areas in what had previously been a nice even primed coat. I spent the rest of the evening working back with a combination of wet-and-dry sanding and additional coats of primer to even these areas out. My first attempt at painting color on this cowl therefore had to be abandoned.

Instead, I turned my attention back to the engine-side cowl. At this point the primer had had over an hour to dry which according to the Dupli-color can was more than enough time. I washed the primed surface down one last time, dried it and tack clothed it in preparation and set about painting.

This time things went much more smoothly. With the spray nozzle correctly set I was able to apply even coats of the color. Between each light coat I waited then minutes. In total it took four coats to get a deep even color.

Even color?
Well no. After waiting an hour after the last coat of color I reinspected the cowl to see clear areas where the paint had not covered evenly. Depending on whether there had been filler, bare metal or the original paint under the primer,even though the primer had covered evenly the color was picking up on all of this showing up blotches that caught in the light. Was this because I had only waited an hour after the final coat of primer before painting?

I gave the color coat a gentle sand with wet 1000 grit super-fine paper in the hope that this would even out the color. It didn’t but wetting the cowl certainly helped even the appearance of the color. With this in mind, figuring I would take the experiment of painting this cowl to its logical conclusion I decided to move forward into the clear top coat. Figuring the worst case scenario being that if nothing else I had effectively covered the rust and considerably cleaned up the cowl for some future coat of paint.

Top coat
At AutoZone, alongside the Dupli-color bright red spray I had also bought a can of their matching clear acrylic top-coat. This sprays on easy enough and is touch-dry after ten minutes. I gave the cowl three coats. As the photo below shows the camera flash revealed two problems: one, even before the clear coat, it looks like the cowl needed one more coat of color. Two the color that is there is showing up every single imperfection of my filling, priming and finger prints.

The conclusion? Cleaning every step of the way with some form of soapy water or degreaser is an absolute must. Even the simplest finger prints will show. I had grown impatient and prior to painting I had sprayed the cowl down with water, but had not used the Comet cleanser. Second, light is your friend. I’m trying to do this in my basement with less than ideal lighting conditions. If you can periodically take your paint job out into the sunlight for inspection before proceeding.

Finishing up
Somewhat frustrated, after leaving the top-coat to dry for an hour I resigned myself to the fact that I had reached my original goal of addressing the rust, but not the secondary goal of a pro-paint finish. Instead I reassembled the turn-signal housing on the painted cowl and re-applied the original rubber trim. In doing so I gouged a small scratch into my paint job down to the primer by resting the cowl paint down on a dusty surface. Another lesson learned. Re-assemble against soft, dust-free cloths or towels.

After some time away from the job I still feel that a solid paint job is still possible. At least now I have a much better substrate from which to move forward.

Work accomplished:

• Painted and top-coated the engine-side cowl. The color is not even, but it’s a damn sight better than the rust I had before and while it’s not the finish I had hoped for it will provide a nice base for a future paint job.
• Corrected my degreasing misses on the battery-side cowl. Fine sanded the cowl down to a much  smoother finish that the engine-side.

Materials used:

• Various sandpapers all the way to 1000 grit super-fine wet-and-dry paper
• Rust-oleum primer
• Dupli-color Truck & SUV Bright Red spray paint
• Dupli-color clear acrylic top-coat.
• Lots of water, lots of drying, lots of patience

Lessons learned:

• To get a completely professional job you need to get the primer coat glassy smooth and imperfection free with very fine wet-and-dry sanding and careful filling and painting beforehand. The color shows up every imperfection in its undercoat and no amount of additional color is going to hide this.
• The plastic tab attached to the spray nozzle is supposed to be there. Don’t remove it.
• Clean, clean, clean. The slightest grease (even from fingerprints) will stop primer and paint adhering.
• You need even light and lots of it. Ideally daylight.
• Handle carefully after painting. Use soft towels to cushion the new paint job.

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