Paint Procedure - Kustom Paint Shop

Home Terms & Conditions Paint Procedures Contact Us

Here at the Kustom Paint Shop, we strive on producing professional custom painting for your Harley Davidson or other brand of motorcycle. We use only quality, top notch House of Kolor paints and 3M products.

1. Remove all pinstriping and decals, sand down sheet metal and prime with HOK (House of Kolor) Direct to metal primer. Primer is then color sanded for a smooth base coat. This prepping and priming step can take 6-8 hours alone on a tank & 2 fenders.

2. Sheet metal is then sealed with HOK sealer to insure a good color base for the base coat and adhesion. Sheet metal is then sprayed with at least 3-4 coats of the base color including the underside of the tank and sprayed into the fenders. This is then followed with clear coat.

3. The cleared sheet metal is sanded and the airbrushing, graphics, etc.... are then applied and sprayed. This is followed by 3-4 coats of clear and after cured, wet sanded again.

4. If additional graphics, airbrushing or pinstriping is needed they are applied and then followed up with 3-4 coats of clear again to bury the pinstriping or graphics, this procedure continues until ready for the final clear. Here at the Kustom Paint Shop, we hand stripe all our graphics.

5. After the last set of graphics or pinstriping has been buried in 4 coats of clear, it is then wet sanded down again nice and flat and smooth, ready for the final clear coat session. This is where many competitors stop. Instead of sanding for a final clear session, they sand down the set smooth and buff it. This leaves a thinner layer of clear over the high spots were the pinstriping or graphics are. Many do offer the extra clear sessions, but charge up to $250 for it, at KPS (Kustom Paint Shop), we do it automatically.

6. Now that the clear to bury the graphics are sanded down smooth, we spray a final clear coat session of 3-4 coats of clear. This is then cured and wet sanded and buffed to a wet glossy shine.

7. Gas tanks that have open tops with gaskets or above sheet metal gas openings get the paint edge sealed with clear to help minimize lifting and bubbles. This is not a cure all solution, but helps a lot. Many competitors don't offer this or charge extra for it. We do it for free. There is no cure-all for paint lifting on this type of opening. We do take every step possible to keep this from happening, but it still can occasionally lift. We recommend beauty rings on this style of tank to keep any gas or fumes from contacting the edge..

8. The day before your set is to be shipped, it is polished to a show winning shine, photographed for our records and inspected one last time. It is then carefully wrapped and packaged for a safe return home to your the client.

9. We use HOK UC35 clear, which is high building, glossy and recommended by HOK for motorcycles due to its resistance to gasoline.