Sanding down plastics or paint?

[Peen]

Now then folks,

I hope all is well.

I have a 3aj with an interesting, but poor quality paint job, they have painted the side panels too and after 30 years, is cracked and scratched and looks a bit tatty. I have heard of people sanding down the plastics and using finer and finer grit, then polishing to get back to the the original finish, but have heard mixed reviews on the results.

Does anyone on here have any experience in doing this and getting decent results?

I would like to have them back to blue plastic with original decals as they were intended, but dont want to waste 1000 hours sanding just for it to look rubbish and need painting anyway. Also a bit worried about getting them painted and the paint cracking over time and wearing away with boot marks as you can see in the pics (hopefully).

Again, anyone have experience of long term durability of paint on the sidepanels with them flexing and boot rubbing off road?








Also, if anyone knows a decent paint shop that can do a decent job in the correct faraway blue, I would be very grateful.

Thanks

Peen

[Mezo]

You will never get a decent finish with sanding, it will always have a fur effect, paint is the only option.

You will need to use a plastic primer and possibly a plasticise to mix with the finish colour any paint guy can mix the RAL number for you (RAL 5005) there is no such code of Faraway blue its just the name Yamaha gave it.

Mezo.

[cadno]

I have tried the sanding... and sanding... and sanding route, it's ok ish for a working bike.
It takes forever, I started at 180 and always wet, through the grades and by the time I got to 1200 I'd lost the will to live.
I'll post a photo of a blue 1VJ.
Probably should have kept going to 2000 or 3000.
In the end I decided to get the other body kit sprayed. I'll post a photo of that when it comes back.
The mudguard has been through the grades to 1200 the headlight cowl hasn't been touched.

It just seems impossible to get a lustre back into it, That guard has also been cut with polishing compound.
I might be doing it wrong and would love to be enlightened in the correct procedure

[Mezo]

it's ok ish for a working bike. by the time I got to 1200 I'd lost the will to live

Better than my effort, i think i gave up at 800.

Mezo.

[cadno]

It looks better in the photos than it actually is.

[Spike]

An interesting topic !! I am half way thru giving this a go [ I'm up to 800 grit ]. A couple of the you tubers have finished off not with car polish but with a sheeps wool buffer, slowly so as not to burn. I am guessing that this warms the plastic enough to give it that shiny finish

[Peen]

Well, I guess paint it is then. Thanks for the heads up on the RAL number.

I remember reading about a company that specializes in restoring plastics like this, from what I gather, they just spend many many hours working on them with finer and finer sandpaper and and some sort of polish, but they charged a fortune for the service.

Spike, I'll be interested to see what kind of results you end up with if you persevere.

Thanks for the help

[scottieh]

I will chime in and say I did both sanding and painting and that the more work you put into the prep by sanding to as fine a grit as you can stand, the better the finish for the paint and clear coat. When I quit sanding at 800 on my hand guards and called it good, it can't compare to the 2000 wet sand i did for the side panels. The quality is in the prep.

[Peen]

now then,

Have gone down the painting route and just waiting impatiently to get the parts back now with some new decals waiting to go on.

I have a question for anyone here with a first gen 3aj with the original decals still on. Whats the spacing between the upper and lower part of the decal on the petrol tank, the bit with the speedblock looking bit and the yellow and blue solid lines?

Its a bit anal but I'd like to get it right and the decals I got had them all separate so no idea of spacing.

Thanks

[Mezo]

Go to my GRAPHIC section, download the one for 3AJ by right clicking on the link & "save as" that will save a PDF to your HD, print out the PDF & then you can measure exactly the gap between as a PDF is to scale.

Mezo.