MC Painting
This week finds me in beautiful downtown Bridgewater, Massachusetts, home to Dave Perewtiz and his merry band of talented misfits. The project is paint, more specifically custom paint, applied for the camera and soon to be part of the custom painting book pictured nearby.
The main focus of Dave’s attention this week is a brand new ‘08 Bagger from Boston Harley-Davidson, and as David explains, “we thought we’d just buy a complete tank and fenders from Russ Wernimont, paint the new sheet metal, clean the bike up a little and be done. But then we discovered that the ‘08s are all different. The tank has a whole new shape, and they changed the frame so much that there’s no way to use an earlier tank. The mounts are different, the dash is different, they changed everything.”
Welding: Big Ron welds on the tank
extensions.
In The Raw: Ron’s handiwork before
molding and paint.
The changes to the ‘08 tanks meant that Big Ron, metal man at Perewitz Inc, had to fabricate tank tails. Normally making tails is a fairly simple proposition for an experiences metal man. In this case, however, the job was made somewhat more difficult because of the unusual shape of the tank, it’s almost like the top is flat and the shape is in the bottom.
By first creating paper templates to help him find a good shape, Ron was able to create extensions that arch gracefully down to flow into the side covers. After installing and molding the tank tails, the process of painting the tank and all the assorted sheet metal began in earnest.
Painting a Bagger is a lot of work, if for no other reason than because there are more pieces and they are all physically bigger, than the sheet metal on your basic custom or Softail.
The painting starts with primer, which is a sandable product. When the first three coats of primer dry, resident body-man Jay block sands everything with 80 grit, applies another three coats and goes through the whole process again, only the second time he block sands it with 360 grit. Next comes a single coat of sealer, followed by basecoat and then liquid metal, which is similar to the old silver basecoats often used under traditional candy paints.
After two coats of PPG liquid metal base, David applied six coats of Hot Wheels watermelon red, part of PPG’s Vibrance line of custom paints.
Anyone who wonders why custom paint jobs cost so much should consider that after stretching the tanks, and getting to the part where the red candy is applied and the job is “finished,” another whole round of design and layout begins.
We were luck this week to have Paul Stoll, a trainer from PPG, in the shop to help. So whenever Dave was called to the phone (like every five minutes), Paul could step in and help with the taping or mixing or whatever was needed at that point. Paul is a guy who knows more about paint that nearly anyone alive, yet never makes you feel like a dummy for asking a dumb question.
The design that Paul and David put on the tank and sheet metal is a set of gently curved scallops. You might call them scallops with a lot of motion. After sanding the watermelon the scallop design was taped out on the tank, bags, fairing and the fenders. With everything but the scallops masked off, the true custom painting begins.
Improved: The new-improved tank goes
from watermelon to . . .
. . .: a taped-out tank ready for paint. . .
First comes the gold base, followed by gold metal flake followed by light coats of yellow candy followed by a little orange used to darken the tips. No scallop job is complete without pinstripes, which must be laid down on clear, which means everything must be buried in four coats of clear, then sanded and delivered to Keith Hanson for a double pinstripe (one of which is actually made from gold leaf). Then it’s back to the shop for three more coats of clear, more sanding, more clear and more sanding and finally buffing.
. . .to scalloped with metal flake.
And finally scalloped with pinstripes, still to
be clearcoated.
If all this sounds like we had a busy week, we did. It helps that David’s team is willing to kick in the afterburners when necessary to get a job done. On Thursday for example, David, Paul and I worked in the shop until 1:00 AM. When we came in the next morning, Jay had already wet sanded the clear, so we could throw the parts into the truck and run them over to Keith’s shop. Keith did the pinstriping on Friday and Jay recleared all the parts at 6:00 AM on Saturday, so when I showed up at 10:00 AM on Saturday there were “finished” parts in the booth to photograph.
Finished Tank
Tim at work
Which means I achieved my goals for the week and photographed another start-to-finish paint job for the new Dave Perewitz custom painting book. All I need now is a couple of days to catch up on my sleep.
