HOR Custom Paint Option - Input Needed

[RickW]

We are working with HOR right now on a new F6B Deluxe with Custom Painting. We are pretty sure that it is going to be Kandy Apple Red. After the painting is done and before the parts are re-installed they will be shipped to our Painter, Mike Lamborne of MountainMan Art.
He has a design figured out for the bike and Teresa has a graphic design to be air brushed inside of the design. We will have HOR put it all back together when the panels are all air brushed and cleared.
HOR appears to be very easy to work with, we have a lot of customers that have purchased bikes from them over the years.
Should be able to have it all complete by Mid Spring sometime.
Rick

[Cruiser]

I looked at a couple of HOR custom painted Wings at Wing Ding last summer (in their booth) and thought the paint jobs looked pretty bad. Hopefully, that is not indicative of their work. Lots of orange peel and frankly, a dull finish. Pretty colors, but the quality just did not look that great. $1,895 for a custom paint job is cheap considering all of the parts on a Goldwing that have to be painted. I had a 1975 CL360 painted which consisted of a gas tank and two side covers and it was close to $1,000. But, it looked better than ANY paint job coming from Honda.

[Retired Army]

Can any poster comment on why a water based clear coat could not be applied over the factory finish?

[1951vbs]

Can any poster comment on why a water based clear coat could not be applied over the factory finish?

It would not have to be a water based clear-coat. If the factory finish was cleaned and free of wax, then sanded, a standard urethane or other clear-coat could be applied over it. Disassembly, reassembly, prep and clear drive the cost. IMO, if you are going to go through the work you might as well get a unique color and I also don't know why you don't add some graphics, flames, hydro-graphics at the same time as they do not add greatly to the cost. I have had many of my bikes custom painted and when I can figure out what I will ride for a few weeks while I get my F6B painted I'll show you what I mean.

[mtcgun]

Did I miss a step here? Is HOR just farming out the painting to a trike shop? If so, why not just cut out the middle man and negotiate
with the trike shop?

[Elin in So. Cal.]

It would not have to be a water based clear-coat. If the factory finish was cleaned and free of wax, then sanded, a standard urethane or other clear-coat could be applied over it. Disassembly, reassembly, prep and clear drive the cost. IMO, if you are going to go through the work you might as well get a unique color and I also don't know why you don't add some graphics, flames, hydro-graphics at the same time as they do not add greatly to the cost. I have had many of my bikes custom painted and when I can figure out what I will ride for a few weeks while I get my F6B painted I'll show you what I mean.

I'll let you know how it goes. I've been doing some research, and it looks like Rust-oleum Ultra Cover, Gloss Clear (water based) is the recommended final clear coat finish. It can be sprayed, diluted with water and water cleanup.

I'm going to do a couple helmets first.

[Scotrod]

Did I miss a step here? Is HOR just farming out the painting to a trike shop? If so, why not just cut out the middle man and negotiate
with the trike shop?

HOR does not have a paint booth or painters on site. The shop that does their Trike Conversions does their paint.

You are more than welcome to ask the trike shop for a price, but due to the sheer volume of business HOR does with them, It's doubtful you would get any better price 'direct' than through HOR. (The trike shop isn't going to take business away from it's #1 Customer,,,)

Even if we could have 10 're-paint' bikes at the trike shop over a period of 3 months,,, (which is doubtful, IMHO,) Eh,,, that isn't near enough volume to expect the trike shop to risk alienating HOR.

[Scotrod]

I looked at a couple of HOR custom painted Wings at Wing Ding last summer (in their booth) and thought the paint jobs looked pretty bad.

My Illusion Blue paint job is not 'defect free',,,

Got a couple spots where it looked like they were in a hurry,,, Not bad enough for me to pitch a bitch, but not 'show-bike' quality by any means.

[jkelley]

My Illusion Blue paint job is not 'defect free',,,

Got a couple spots where it looked like they were in a hurry,,, Not bad enough for me to pitch a bitch, but not 'show-bike' quality by any means.

You get what you pay for. A truly defect free paint job would be very expensive. All things considered I have seen very few defect free paint jobs done. Many look good but if you look closely you can always find something.
There are many variables, even a dust particle can stick out like a sore thumb. I had to paint my dash 4 times to get what I wanted and was about ready to trash it. buy another and leave it stock.
I once painted a Z-28 got all done and finishing up the hood and forgot to set the timer on the heaters in the booth. Went back in and a damn fly got in the door, walked down the hood ruining the paint job, took two days to redo it.

[1951vbs]

I'll let you know how it goes. I've been doing some research, and it looks like Rust-oleum Ultra Cover, Gloss Clear (water based) is the recommended final clear coat finish. It can be sprayed, diluted with water and water cleanup.

I'm going to do a couple helmets first.

Elin,
It will be interesting to get your evaluation of the "water-based" clear as compared to a urethane clear. I worry that instead of having black paint that srcatches easy you with have clear coat that scatches easy.