Crappy gloss black paint dealt with, differently

[whodat]

So my bike was only available in black which is fine. The paint is apparently made of black toothpaste, which is not. Scratches super easily, and not resistant to any chemicals that I tried. Brake cleaner, goof-off, etc. I looked at the kits from wrapmyspyder, but I don't want my bike to be covered with flowers, skulls, or lightning bolts. Plus, if all you want is paint protection, they seem very pricey to me. Nothing against them, if they had a clear or black set for reasonable money I'd have bought it. So I figured I'd try something a bit different. Vinyl wrap from rvinyl.com. 3M 1080 and 2080. I bought sample sizes of a few different colors, decided which I liked then bought more of what I wanted. Under a hundred bucks total. Let me start by saying I will not win any awards for vinyl wrapping. It's simply not a skill I have yet, nor do I plan to do enough to develop this skill to my satisfaction.
Vinyl wrap however, is a fairly easy, inexpensive way to change the color/protect the paint on your vehicle. It's 100% reversible at any time. It's supposed to last for a few years depending on how it's taken care of. I figure I'll let it sit for a while, then if I decide I like the color change I'll have the parts painted professionally at a later date. Seriously, it's only 8 pieces for the whole bike so it shouldn't be that expensive. On to the show:

Top Panel, with under 500 miles on the bike.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

After: This is chameleon satin vinyl. This is a video btw, click on it and you can see the color change.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Using a piece of fishing braided line to saw the emblems off:

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

One side finished. The remainder of the adhesive wiped off with finger pressure, then I followed that with some clay bar followed by a good wipedown with alcohol.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Back on the bike. I layed down some blue painters tape, then put some thicker clear tape on that to make a ledge. I cut new pieces of 3M trim adhesive to go on the back of the letters. I put the first letter on, then used a drill bit to hold spacing between the letters.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

Completed-ish. I covered the panels shown plus the mirror fronts with the chameleon, and the panels the mirrors attach to plus the nose with metalflake black. Nearly invisible compared to the rest of the bike. I still have to do the tank cover, and I have enough of either color to do it. However, that's a pain in the cunning linguals so I'll put that off till later. I'll take better pics once the sun comes out; the chameleon presents as dark gray in the shade but turns a vivid color change in the sunlight.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

[DLewis]

Looks really good! As long as you're satisfied, why worry what others think. Congrats on a DIY project!

[Yeochips]

Beautiful Job. Has a custom look! very nice.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

....I love another DIY'er .... plus you have the pic posting thing as Perfect as I have ever seen it ...... mpost pics are way to small even after you click on them ...... Mike

[jiffy]

Excellent Job. Looks very well done.

[carsong]

Wow! That's just awesome! Great job!

[RICZ]

Long ago, I learned to wipe, dust, wash, polish and wax fore and aft - the way the wind blows across a surface. No round and round action. Especially windshields, which are done with up and down strokes. I have had bikes and cars for decades that had finishes like new because of that, with no swirl marks.

[blacklightning]

Great job! I might be trying that before long. I did a ceramic coat on my spyder about a year ago, and the finish is as good as new, so no need for a wrap right now.

[whodat]

Forgot to show the mirrors: I did them mostly because I had small pieces left over and needed practice doing strongly curved pieces.

Untitled by Uncle Grr!, on Flickr

[Darren111]

Amazing job you have done on your Spyder. I have my Austin mini vinyl wrapped to look like Mr Bean mini (it is blue underneath wrap), I will be getting service panels vinyl wrapped on my F3-S Special Series (similar to what you have done). Well done to you

[RICZ]

Darren's post reminds me of the 1960 Morris Mini I used to have. A lot of fun came in the tiny package!

[Catalyst105]

Great job as always. Especially for your first wrap job. Curves and edges are a pain in the ass. Also, look into plasti dip. It’s a rubberized paint coating that can be applied with spray cans or spray gun. They have metallics, pearls, color changing, basic matte, and can be covered with clear. Mine was orange which wasn’t my favorite color so I sprayed mine with the aerosol cans in blue. The paint can be peeled off if you don’t like it or want to change colors. Dipyourcar.com has a ton of videos as well as tutorials. I did mine for under $100 as well.