1978flh03

1978 FLH BUILD, PAGE 3

The concept for the paint scheme was mostly traditional MOCO design elements blended together with a subtle twist to attain a factory look with a custom flair. The stripe on the fenders is actually a shape from an older Harley tank graphic that I simplified, repeated, mirrored the repeat and combined the two pieces to make something that I haven't seen before but has a comfortable feeling of familiarity. The tanks are very close to factory paint design.

I used Limco basecoat/clearcoat through a SATA digital HVLP spray gun. The first coat once I got in the spray booth was a sealer to smooth up the texture of the primer and give the final colors a good base to adhere to. Next came two coats of white. I really like to paint everything white before laying any colors. After the white dried overnight I knocked it down with a 3M scotchbrite pad and applied the mask for the designs.

Then came two coats of orange. I used a pure orange color that was so bright you could almost call it a fluorescent color. The next step was another mask so that I could shoot the black for the H-D logo on the tourpak. I let everything sit overnight again and the next morning I wet sanded all of the parts with 1,000 grit sandpaper. The topcoat was an orange pearl that I just kept laying on until I was happy with the color. The pearl toned down a lot of the starkness of the bright orange base.

After the pearl dried it was time to start wet sanding all over again. First with 800 grit, then 1,000 grit and finally 1,500. After the sanding I buffed all of the tins with 3M Perfect-it 3 and followed that with the swirl remover. I had wanted to put another coat of clear on top of the pearl but time was getting away from me and the sheet metal was holding up the assembly process.

LAYING DOWN SOME PAINT