How to bedazzle a Buell

My Grassroots guide to painting wheels (and adding rhinestones to key areas). OK, so it's not really a guide. Just a picture show. It's my brother's girlfriend's bike by the way . . .

Here is what the wheels looked like before we started. Sorry, no complete "before" shot. Didn't remember to take pics until about this point.

They chose key lime green. Yeah, that's the REAR wheel. Huge, I know.

There it is drying after a couple coats of primer, paint, and clear coat. The key to doing this right is cleaning the wheel and then priming it. Man, they were disgusting before we got the primer on.

Here's the rear wheel going back together.

I cut myself trying to get my Miata's HVAC fan working again while John was painting the wheel. I was, well, doing the usual Miata fix (hitting it) and my wrist caught a piece of trim. Cheap, easy bandage.

Almost there!

Got the wheels done. But she said she wanted to put rhinestones on it. (She might have been joking)

But we did it anyway.

Pretty.

Here she is all done!

We did the gauge too.

Here's the stable (for now).

Nice.

I've actually had significantly better luck painting just about everything instead of powdercoating. I did a pair of wheels and forks years ago, and they have nary a chip. Meantime, I've had parts re-powdered several times in the same span.

Yeah, Krylon spray paint is a wonderful thing. I was afraid of the color they chose at first, but when I saw it go onto the wheels I changed my mind.

alex wrote: Nice. I've actually had significantly better luck painting just about everything instead of powdercoating. I did a pair of wheels and forks years ago, and they have nary a chip. Meantime, I've had parts re-powdered several times in the same span.

That is totally not my experience. Powder coating has held up very well. Even on a race bike that has had dozens of tires put on the rims, the coating was just about perfect. I had factory painted wheels that looked like crap after a few changes. I have seen spray bombed paint that I can scratch with my fingernails.

Nice! Till you try and remove that blood/paper towel composite bandage.

Oh, and that Blast is 1991 gnarly, dude!

Rusnak_322 wrote:

alex wrote: Nice. I've actually had significantly better luck painting just about everything instead of powdercoating. I did a pair of wheels and forks years ago, and they have nary a chip. Meantime, I've had parts re-powdered several times in the same span.

That is totally not my experience. Powder coating has held up very well. Even on a race bike that has had dozens of tires put on the rims, the coating was just about perfect. I had factory painted wheels that looked like crap after a few changes. I have seen spray bombed paint that I can scratch with my fingernails.

I guess it's all in the application. When I paint parts, I prep like it's my obsession, lay multiple coats of self-etching primer, and at least six thin coats of paint. I don't think my powder guy was quite as anal.

Bedazzling the gauge was a bit over the top, don't you think?

I'm kidding! I think that is awesome! I love the limey wheels. I wonder if they make a limey green Blast logo sticker.