[ST] quick touch up technique

[Steve Bergman <steverayb@xxxxxxxxx>]

Well after finally getting out and putting some decent mileage on the ST this
summer it has taken some wear.  The biggest item being a low speed tip-over on
asphalt which resulted in some large white glaring scars on the right side
fairing.

I didn't want to lose a bunch of time dealing with it until the winter so I
tried something out that was easy and worked pretty well.  

I pulled the panel off and sanded out the deep scratches starting with 350 and
working up to 3000 grit wet sand.  I then used the Sapphire Blue touch-up
bottle and "primed" the white areas with the included brush and let it dry
about an hour.

The next step involves the use of a Preval (pronounced pree val) sprayer.  It's
a small bottle that threads onto a tiny aerosol type sprayer.  These are
available at most regular paint stores.

There is enough paint in the touch-up bottle to use with the preval sprayer. 
You have to tip it upside down and kind of help the paint out with a thin rod
of some kind.  I used a straight dental probe.  I also thinned it with a bit of
lacquer thinner but I don't think I really needed to.  The spray combined with
the brushed on "primer" covered completely in one coat. I let that dry under
some hot lamps for about an hour.

I then used the triumph touch-up lacquer (the same little bottle as the paint)
and sprayed that on with the Preval sprayer as well and that's where I had
problems. There was barely enough lacquer out of the bottle to work properly
and barely had enough to cover the three areas I worked on.  It was sufficient
though you'll never be able to blend the lacquer into the original finish so
you have to live with the cloudiness you get at the edge of the sprayed area. 
Maybe if I did some polishing and buffing it would clean up but I'll do all
that after the riding season.

The final results believe it or not look pretty good and under normal light or
even sunlight you can hardly tell.  If you look at it from a sharp angle
however, it's still pretty obvious.   It's a helluva lot better than nothing at
all or the touch-up brushed on.

If anyone would like to see pictures of the final results I'll be glad to post
some.

Steve Bergman

'01 Sprint ST

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End of st-digest V2002 #506
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