Repainting Honda Dio - Metallic Black

[ss80]

Hi all,

This is my third scooter painting work so far and this time its a 1st Gen Honda Dio, it belongs to a friend and a TAI member as well.

The scooter is black in colour (solid colour) and is mechanically sound with no major issues. This client too was referred by Varun.

Here are a few pics of the moto-scooter

 

[linkin]

This time a blacky. Waiting for your updates.

 

[ss80]

 

[ss80]

 

[Varun560061]

How about painting the silencer, will it require any other type of paint since it heats up.

What color have you planed for the silencer cab / shield.

The last pic reminds me this..haha

 

[ss80]

Varun:

The end part of silencer in Dio does not get that hot when compared to bikes however the thin pipe area (that comes from the engine) is too hot and I dont have any special paint to apply. There are some imported cans available at J.C.Road which say "Heat Resistant" but I doubt if they would last.

The wheels will go black, the silencer shield too would go black (you can suggest anything different), the interior plastics are kind of matte black, the body will be Metallic black with Clear Coat.

Today I broke a small part of the plastic side panel (only the bolt fitting area) while I was trying to dismantle the complete rear part, will have to fix that as well. Also the exact opposite side was already broken (cracked may be long back).

The rains played spoilsport and half my day was wasted, later I put up a temporary tent on the roof and worked on the inner plastic areas. However for the main body painting I need bright sunny daylight for sure.

Yesterday itself I went to J.C.Road and purchased few new parts for the Dio. Here they are

New clear lens - Front & Rear indicator (glass only) - 65/- x 4Nos
Type2 Dio rear mud guard - 240/-
Orange bulbs - 4 nos - 48/-
24 size ring spanner for the rear wheel nut to be removed - 150/-

The rear most plastic parts of Dio is like a jigsaw puzzle, either you will crack it/ break it/ fingers damaged/ if lucky will open it without breaking after a long struggle.

Today also removed the speedometer frame and worked on that as well.

 

[shashikanth]

Hi ss80,
Please don't refix the broken panels if you do some tinkering on the mounting points they don't last longer.
I have seen at least three two four cases in my friend garage..

Regards,
Shashi

 

[freakdude]

I so wish you were in NCR buddy, would have got my Dad's Chetak and my YBX painted right away. Your dedication is commendable. Mind sharing approx. cost for such a complete paint job.

 

[AppU]

I know, to whom the Dio belongs to. The Owner name is there in the visor

BTW, Great going buddy

Waiting to see the final result

 

[ss80]

Inner Plastics and metal parts painted

I know, to whom the Dio b..

I was just waiting to see who notices the name first . Thank you Sir.

I so wish you were in NCR buddy, would have got my Dad's Chetak and my YBX painted right away. Your dedication is commendable. Mind sharing approx. cost for such a complete paint job.

Hi Freakdude,
Thanks a lot for the support. Glad to know that you have a Chetak!

The bill:
The total cost for this paint job is 3000/-
Paint and other consumable come roughly to 1500/- and the rest is my labor charges. Usually painters add compressor cost and fitting charges (about 2K extra), so a professional guy charges about 5K for a complete job. However he does a better job as he has more experience and space to do his job peacefully.

Since I am a newbie, I charge only for paint and manhours. So equipment maintenance, electricity etc are not charged for. In case I open a small garage, may be I too will have to start charging for the same.

Hi ss80,
Please don't refix the broken panels if you do some tinkering on the mounting points they don't last longer.
I have seen at least three two four cases in my friend garage..

I am trying to work out a different solution for this problem and will update once its done. Thanks for the suggestion, do continue to share your opinions and suggestions.
Regards,
Shashi

Today was another cloudy day with intermittent drizzles. I waited till afternoon and managed to paint the inner (rough plastics) plastic panels. After a long homework, I spoke to my painting guru and got a matte lacquer that should hold the paint on rough panels for a longer time. The lacquer costs a bit more than usual lacquer, I hope this works.

Also fixed back the front and bottom plastics (painted ones to the chassy) no space to keep them anywhere else. Also fixed the new type rear mudguard, swapped the reflector and number plate from old one to the new, just replaced the rusted screws.

Today removed both the wheels, sanded and painted them along with the front fork, brake levers, body guard, lady's foot rest, silencer, silencer guard.

2 minor setbacks:
1. The silencer has two heat shields, one of them is very small and is held in place by 2 8size bolts, one of them was too rusted (on inner side) and the mounting point gave away. So now it will be on one mount instead of two.

2. The lady's foot rest is too smooth (looks like aluminium) and does not take any new paint on it! The paint I have applied wont last for even 24hrs if someone uses it. So something needs to be done about that as well.

Today I was done with almost everything except wheels, when it again started to drizzle, so no time to mask the tyre completely. Applied old engine oil to the side walls of the tyre and painted the rims. The oil will be washed out tomorrow morning and also the tyres are quite old and cracked in a few places. The owner should consider replacing these anytime soon. They are already rock hard.

Applied a bit of putty to the main plastic panels and left them to dry so that tomorrow morning I can wet sand them and by afternoon, if no rain/drizzle, I plan to paint them Metallic.

I am still thinking whether to paint the silver panel behind the kicker. This one is too good in condition and also I doubt if new paint will stick to it. Making it dull using sandpaper might not work on this surface.

Few points to share:
1. Unlike other colours, Black specifically needs daytime to work on. Even the most brightest bulbs cant help you out. You are sure to miss out many areas as the shadow creates trouble.

2. Giving a good finish is difficult in black due to a few reasons and one of them is that you cannot easily judge the thickness of the paint layer. As a single coat itself looks as dark as 3 coats. So you might end up spraying very little in some areas and too much in some other area.

3. Over flow, if any cant be easily hidden as the lacquer will highlight every single detail (read mistake, dust etc).

4. Dust free space is a 100% requirement while doing lacquer, silver is the most painter friendly colour I have come across so far.

Time for pics :D
I dont have much pics of the plastic parts painted today as I was doing it alone and this mobile camera really cant capture the good or bad finish of the black colour.





























The late evening mess


I am sure that all these panels will have something missing which I will respray again tomorrow morning.

 

[ramankanythia]

Hi ss800 i m very surprized by painting job you have done its great

i am also getting a lml vespa scoter for paint from my friend plz suggest
that if u replace any part like head lamp or tail lam etc it is included in main budget you projected ? like you have asked 3000 for honda is it including glasses number plate etc or it is like 3000+ headlamp+glasses

what price i should quote for vespa

 

[ss80]

Hi Raman,

Glad to know your plans on Vespa, all the best.
The 3000 I have mentioned is for painting labor and material only. The spare parts replaced are extra, all old items removed from the bike goes back to the customer at the time of delivery, number plate is not painted or changed, as some times customer wants to customise the font etc on the number plate hence will skip that.

I feel you can first check with any paint seller on how much material cost would be, then decide upon labor and then quote total amount. Since you have compressor, gun etc I suggest you to charge 4000/- for the complete paint job (excluding spares and other accesories).

There are plenty of hidden expenses in old scooter restoration. The rusted bolts and nuts damage our tools and then you cant add that in bill, so keep such small things also in mind while quoting.


There are some things which can save you money and time while doing painting, once you start a thread I will surely support you with all info I can.

Here are somethings I did on the Zen:
There were a few areas where I felt, the quality was not satisfactory, hence I did not charge for the complete underbody, inner floor, door inner areas rubber coating. This way I dont let the customer feel he has overpaid for anything. In total I gave waved off about 900/- on the whole bill.

Usually I take 2/3rd of the quote as a advance and work is finished. In case the customer feels, its not worth it. I wont ask for the rest of the money, so labor is free. This creates a sense of immense responsibility on myself to deliver a neat job. Although no customer has under paid me so far, still its one way I can push myself to deliver something better everytime.

Today's update:

Took the wheels to the petrol bunk, filled air, came back home, cleaned break shoe outer areas and then fixed both the wheels. Done with all putty works and scrubbing also. Then brought the metallic paint and sprayed a few panels, tragedy struck here. One of the side panels started to show wrinkles and it continued to grow!

Here is a pic of the same.




then I rushed to the painting guru and he advised to wipe off everything on that panel and redo it. So started doing it, problem is the panel is too delicate, if you use thinner the plastic surface melts and kind of deep spots are formed, if you use putty blade, sharp scratches are left. So went back to him and he did it for me.


Came back home, checked other panels, none with major issues, so applied clear coat and created a small tent house to let it dry till tomorrow morning.




I just wish tomorrow morning there is no nasty surprise for me, I never know what might land on my house terrace and spoil all my work.

 

[ramankanythia]

Thanks for reply

local mechanics are charging 3000 for scoters here so need to keep this in mind while quoting
any rough idea that how much paint is required for a vespa? metallic and non metallic

 

[ss80]

About 200ml of body paint is required for any scooter, for bikes its much lesser.

The guru came down to my home and checked all panels, I am waiting for the drizzles to stop so that I can start work on all panels again!

 

[ss80]

Yesterday I did a lot of corrections on most of the panels, including some more putty work, removal of paint in some areas and applied fresh coat of a petrol based base coat and the final metallic colour as well.

Waited till today morning and appplied lacquer to every panel. Purposely this time I kept the lacquer coat very rough and will have to wet sand it tomorrow morning. I tried to give an extra coat of lacquer to the handle part and the lacquer started to shrink. Not sure how it will look tomorrow morning.

A few pics:






Below is the picture of a complete fresh coat of paint without lacquer (left side) and right side is the rough lacquer coat applied on that panel after 24hrs.


Some more pics to come in next fifteen mins