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R75/5 Tail Light Paint?

& HL bucket-which I might ad is a pain to mask up

not as much of a PITA as disassembling the whole thing ... which I what I did.
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+1 with Kent........they are just plastic with the finish treatment and color produced in the mold......God bless............Dennis
 
+1 with Kent........they are just plastic with the finish treatment and color produced in the mold......God bless............Dennis

Right!,...mine has gouges from many years of stuff strapped to a package rack digging into it. It appears to be "made that way" as Dennis and Kent explain. Apart from finding N.O.S. or a pristine replacement, what is a person to do to replicate the appearance?

BTW, I'd never touch the one on my bike, which is original and un-restored.
 
I took my 2 of my 3 tail lights apart today towards refinishing & to decide which had best lens,plastic housing,reflector,etc.. I also have a tail light on a part/dead bike that I left on it as I'm trying to avoid robbing that one so it can be sold higher. 2 tail lights are black plastic and hard to say if they ever shined but certainly not anymore. The other appears to be made of nylon as it is a buff/pale yellow plastic with black glossy but old paint over primer. All are identical shape & Hella with same model # imprinted inside. FWIW, I wanted to remove all the old paint from the painted one as some was gone and the rest bad tried paint remover(tried one kind & it didn't bother the paint or the plastic),lacquer thinner & acetone proof too!
As the painted one had no deformation where the 2 fender holes are located I sanded it clean and it gets the same paint as the fenders,etc..
On another painting note I found a body shop in KY that does stripes by hand of any kind.Bob's House Of Color-Bob Taylor, Lou.,KY. Talked to him on the phone , gave him some specs for another guys fenders(same guy on ADV thread gave me the contact) that the stripes were painted over & he was getting ready to do them right then & had a few questions. See airheads current "paint stripe thread" there for pics of before & after on the other guys bike-green /5. I just might use him but undecided on stripe tank or not.
 
not as much of a PITA as disassembling the whole thing ... which I what I did.
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I had the switch,yellow lt, rubber grommets, speedo & cable & lens,etc. out but taped down into bucket on cables then rolled them and propped them apart with dowel rods so they don't contact the holes & front main hole I taped off from inside out . Wires are mostly in place and covered. Of my 3 headlight buckets-inside they all look like an "activity center for previous owners"! fairings/electronic ignition ,etc.:laugh
 
Right!,...mine has gouges from many years of stuff strapped to a package rack digging into it. It appears to be "made that way" as Dennis and Kent explain. Apart from finding N.O.S. or a pristine replacement, what is a person to do to replicate the appearance?

BTW, I'd never touch the one on my bike, which is original and un-restored.

Well as you now you know they are sometimes painted some times not.
Me & lots ( as in thousands) of other people paint plastic all the time. As for using stuff, as in strapping stuff on as you say- that's another subject from refinishing it? Why should I waste money on NOS or pristine when I have the part? Plastic gets painted on cars that cost far more than our bikes!!! The finish on many OEM plastics, now & in the past is painted or chromed. Gauge surround on my 1150R is painted as is other stuff on that bike.
There's nothing really hard about painting plastic. Good way to either improve appearance or change colors. Flexing makes for use of certain paints or flex agents & you need proper binding of the finish chemically (& mechanically sometimes) but in the case of these tail light shrouds they are rigid plastic. I often use a product called Bullseye(there are others) and body shops simply use what they usually call "jamber" which is a commonly used spray to promote adhesion in the door jamb area on vehicles where its hard to sand/scrub up the old finish. There are also rattle can paints for plastic but I'm not using rattle cans on my /5! There are a few better than others. Lots of AB people use the rattle can etch primers for easy weld spray. The one Lowes sell in Rustoleum can be covered with regular base/clears so a handy primer for some parts.
 
Well as you now you know they are sometimes painted some times not.
Me & lots ( as in thousands) of other people paint plastic all the time. As for using stuff, as in strapping stuff on as you say- that's another subject from refinishing it? Why should I waste money on NOS or pristine when I have the part? Plastic gets painted on cars that cost far more than our bikes!!! The finish on many OEM plastics, now & in the past is painted or chromed. Gauge surround on my 1150R is painted as is other stuff on that bike.
There's nothing really hard about painting plastic. Good way to either improve appearance or change colors. Flexing makes for use of certain paints or flex agents & you need proper binding of the finish chemically (& mechanically sometimes) but in the case of these tail light shrouds they are rigid plastic. I often use a product called Bullseye(there are others) and body shops simply use what they usually call "jamber" which is a commonly used spray to promote adhesion in the door jamb area on vehicles where its hard to sand/scrub up the old finish. There are also rattle can paints for plastic but I'm not using rattle cans on my /5! There are a few better than others. Lots of AB people use the rattle can etch primers for easy weld spray. The one Lowes sell in Rustoleum can be covered with regular base/clears so a handy primer for some parts.

Right On!.... that's what I was getting at. When doing a restoration, you want; 1) NOS,...2) pristene original,...3) apart from that, you want to make it look as right as possible. You are on the right track, my friend.
 
As an aside, back when I was a modeler and did cars, planes, ships, etc., whenever a paint job didn't turn out just right, we'd strip it using Easy-Off oven cleaner. Put the parts ofer a plastic trash bag, spray the stuff on, wait about 15 minutes, then use a Scotch-brite pad under running water in the kitchen sink. Repeat as necessary. One could scrape little nooks and crannies with a sharp pick and knife. The use of the Scotch-brite pad would also give a bit of "tooth" to the surface to facilitate paint adhesion. I used that procedure a few years ago when I stripped the fairing on my ?6 prior to subsequent bodywork.
 
Thanks for the affirmation and my only point was to encourage others to do such work themselves & not rely on part switchouts to regain their bikes "shine".:thumb
 
Have seen some tail lights matt black, some apparently smooth plastic right out of the mould. The change to matt black may have come with the late /6 series. I have an early /6 and it's a smooth finish. Two cents
 
Forgot to add that my 12/72 build date "1973" LWB R75/5 had a glossy finish tail light housing.

Will also confirm that the interior of it is a "natural" tan-ish nylon-like color. For what it's worth, "co-molding" one color of plastic over another was not available in 1973, so it must have been painted.
 
Finishing the tail light housing

Right!,...mine has gouges from many years of stuff strapped to a package rack digging into it. It appears to be "made that way" as Dennis and Kent explain. Apart from finding N.O.S. or a pristine replacement, what is a person to do to replicate the appearance?

BTW, I'd never touch the one on my bike, which is original and un-restored.

Let me tell you what I did with mine.

Mine was't too bad, mostly just old looking - the plastic doesn't weather well!

I sanded it with 240 wet or dry, and then dried it thoroughly by putting in over a heating floor vent and letting it set there for several hours. Mine originally was a sort of black matt finish, so I went to my local hardware and purchased a can of Krylon Satin black spray - had a built in primer. I also, for those little nicks in the plastic, I filled with good fresh bondo, and then resanded. Then I put the plastic body on a stick, and then painted with a decent coat. I then let it dry for a day, near the heating floor vent. Then, I resanded - this time with 400 wet or dry - doing it wet with warm water. Let it dry as before for several hours, and repainted.

I am telling you - it looks brand new, and the satin actually looks better than the original matt finish. I did my turn signal housings as well.
 
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