So the TA was finished apart from it needed a seat, it came with a used rider condition shotgun 2 and after some thought I decided Id like to keep a shotgun on the bike as I've got the usual Kashi on my other bikes and wanted something different. I used to be in the car body repair trade and used to restore cars at home, I was able to come up with a way to repair dashboards in the first generation on Escort RS turbo's which included repainting them so I thought the seat would be easy to do
WRONG !!!!!! it wasn't that easy to do. I thought id add it here as many on Facebook have liked it and its something a little different here.
one scruffy used shotgun 2
It had the usual rash across the back with other marks here and there, these had to be filled with a two pack stopper
I mixed in some red 2k paint to tint the filler
flatted down with 800 as you dont want to lift the plastic as it will go hairy and show through the paint
With the filling done the next job to do was the rails. These were rubbed down as the coating was damaged and the rails rusty
All masked up it was paint time, I used VHT anno paint on the bare rails which didn't cover very well, so I sprayed a base silver over it and went over with the anno again
I found the best thing to do was keep the area warm and warm the paint tin up in some hot water, it helped thin the paint and it went on better.
Final prep on the top with a scotch pad and cleaned with panel wipe
rails masked ready for the plastic to be painted, I used plasticote satin red, it is red but the lighting makes it look orange. I will get an outside picture later. Again I found it better to warm the tin up in hot water. Not too hot just hand hot will do so the paint thins and the pressure increases in the tin.
Underneath first and let it dry
When painting you don't want this finish !!!! I removed the paint with thinners and started again. I started with a dust coat before I ended up with this finish to key the paint. I decided to continue painting with dust coats to get the correct finish
This is the finish I wanted, the paint is fresh on here even though it looks dry
ready to go now I've added some decals from Del
And a shot from underneath you can see its red here and not orange lol, there is a little glue on the rails from the masking tape. I will clean that off in a few weeks when the paint has fully hardened to avoid damage.
Now I know the seat looks different from a NOS shotgun as it has shiney areas between the grained sections and I know some of the colours are not exact. I could only use what's available in the shops and the finish is the best I could get from materials used, I'm happy with the results and I'm happy I've saved a seat and not gone NOS, it wont be for sale its going on a show bike so it will look fine and never wear off.
