| Author | Message | ||
     Marcodesade |
I went to the Cafe Desmo event this weekend and was lucky enough to have Erik Buell autograph my frame (OK, OK, luck had nothing to do with it. He signed anything that stood still --- including at least a few Ducatis!). What can I do to protect the signature? He signed the frame, near the steering head, with what seemed to be a Sharpie. Because of the heat, I'm disinclined to use laminate because I'm afraid it'll degrade into a crappy mess. But I also worry about any kind of spray clearcoat possibly dissolving and smearing some of the ink. Any ideas? | ||
| Zacks |
The carrier in the clear coat is what would dissolve the ink. I've had good luck with some Sherwin Williams Ultra Base Urethane on some metal flake stuff I was doing a while back. Anything else would cause the flake to drift. A couple of real thin coats to get started worked. I'd get some scrap metal and a Sharpie and do some test runs. | ||
| S21125r |
Back in 96 I had Erik sign my tail section of my 95 T-Bolt. Had the same concern as you and ended up doing nothing for fear of screwing it up. In the end, I stayed away from the signature with wax/cleaners/etc and it's still intact to this day. | ||
| Court |
>>>it's still intact to this day. Good news . . . so is Erik. | ||
| Kozy |
I used 1 semi-heavy coat of just basic clear coat on mine. No smearing no effecting the signature. Looks great, you just don't want to do it too much otherwise that spot won't match any other of the frame. | ||
| Marcodesade |
Great advice everyone, thanks. I do like the idea of practicing on scrap. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm not at all concerned about matching the rest of the frame. Assuming the clearcoat doesn't peel, discolor, etc., I'm OK if it's just a little "shinier" than the surrounding area . . . | ||
| Duff24 |
Clear vinyl decal. | ||
| Bearracing |
+1 Duff24 | ||
| Marcodesade |
Yeah, that was my initial thought too. But then I thought of the long run. When I considered the heat of the engine (CT regularly approaches and often exceeds 200 F), combined with the ambient So. Cal. temperatures (currently over 100, expected to climb), it's not hard for me to imagine any "clear vinyl decal" yellowing, peeling, removing potions of the signature, and leaving behind a gooey mess on the frame. Let me know if you had a different vision of my future . . . | ||
| Froggy |
I've never seen anyone have any issues with the clear vinyl. | ||
| Marcodesade |
OK, so now I'm back on the fence. I did go to a couple auto supply stores as well as a hardware store, and everyone looked very dubious about the suitability of their respective products when I told them my plan. None carried the Sherwin Williams product Zacks spoke of (but I should be able to find that if I look a little harder). Also, none carried "clear vinyl decal;" the closest I got there was window tint film. For those of you who recommended vinyl: do you have a particular brand name and/or supplier you'd recommend? And can you describe in a little more detail exactly what I'm looking for? Thanks! | ||
| Zacks |
Not an auto parts store. Find the guy that supplies the paint to the body shops in town. He'll have the pro quality stuff you're looking for. | ||
| Slaughter |
What Zacks said! (Yellow Pages still work) NOT a parts store but look up an AUTO PAINTS store selling DuPont, PPG paints. | ||
| Marcodesade |
That's what I needed to know. Thanks! | ||
| 09_1125r |
Stick some clear laminate over it and you're good to go to ride in rain, abrasions or whatever. | ||
| Motorhead102482 |
I would talk to a body shop I've seen shows like on discovery channel where they clearcoated a whole gas tank with tons of signatures on it, so it can't be impossible to do. (Message edited by motorhead102482 on August 25, 2010) | ||
| Ratbuell |
He autographed my S2 at the 26th...I had a buddy who runs a custom paint shop shoot it with clear. He asked me "what exactly did he sign with?" and Kim T told me it was a silver Sharpie paint pen. My guy cleared the part for me, and it only produced minimal 'fuzzing' of the edges. Still a clear signature, but the edges aren't as crisp. But...it's in there forever now, which is exactly what I wanted! | ||
| Dannybuell |
If the painter uses very light mid coats and slowly builds it up, the bleeding edges will be minimized. All paint's & clear's are solvent based. Lighter coats, almost 'dry fall' should minimize the solvent bleed. The down side to this is being in a hurry. | ||
| Xb12s_streetdemon |
i covered mine with a piece of clear vinyl i got from HD of Danbury, it was a clear protective sticker for the rear fender seat for a sportster i think. been on for 5 years and 20,000 mi. just as clear and scratch free as the day i put it on.you can see it in the bottom of the pic next to the vin  | ||
| Marcodesade |
I continue to investigate. Today I called a couple paint shops. Two didn't even want to talk about it; the one that did said to make the clear coat stick he would have to scuff up the area with Scotchbrite. I wasn't thrilled about that, but to top it off he estimated the price at $200. Bah. Did those of you who sprayed it on yourselves do any surface prep (beyond simple cleaning)? It didn't even occur to me, though it should have. Next call: Skip Fordyce HD. | ||
| Tdiddy |
Clear dirt bike number plate background. Super thick, I think it would work good for this. I took a bunch of pictures of Erik autographing my bike this last weekend and I can see the paint marker really well. I might go buy one to see what cleaners attack the paint. | ||
| Zacks |
Marc, Skip the paint shops. Apparently, business is good and they can afford to turn away business. Find the Auto paint supplier and get a rattle can. Worked fine for me on that metallic I mentioned. Just a mist coat - pssst and walk away for an hour or two. May take about 5 coats like that to get something on it. Mask off the surrounding area to give a 'frame' to the sig. If Tdiddy is right and Erik was using a paint marker...well, you need to find a sample of that. Look at the marker for ingredients. Toluene, Xylene, MEK etc are carriers/reducers. If they are present in the paint marker, anything to clear coat with those will redissolve the signature. You need to find something that doesn't match. CA has outlawed most everything that smells good, so you may be looking at a water based solution. There's some good stuff out there as well that's water. All the auto OEM's are using a 3 part paint with clear being the final and they went to water years ago. Any paint shop that caters to the body shops should have Dupont products that'll match car OEMs, so they should have the clear. | ||
| Marcodesade |
Zacks, did you scuff the powdercoat, or prep it in any other way besides wiping it clean? Although I watched Erik use what appeared to be a paint pen on some other bikes, on mine the ink looks like a simple black Sharpie. There's not really any raised texture or material over the powdercoat. The color is more translucent, like ink rather than paint. I actually would have preferred something with a little more contrast; black ink on blue powdercoat is a little more subtle than I would have chosen. Still, I feel honored and thrilled to have gotten to shake the man's hand and gotten his autograph at all. I can't imagine getting close enough to Mr. Honda or Yamaha (or whatever their names are) to even ask. In hindsight, I just wish I had been a little less tongue-tied so I could have told him what a life-changing experience owning a Buell motorcycle has been for me. But I'm guessing he knows . . . | ||
| Nightripper |
You could get a tatoo artist to do a tracing of it and then, put it on your favorite body part. Just kidding I almost bought a used buell 2 years ago that the guy went crazy on the tank to preserve the autograph and screwed up the finish on the tank. To be honest with you I don't thinks buells autograph is going to increase the value of your bike etc. If you had one of his personal bikes or one that he set up for factory racing it would be a different story. Its going to be along time before any buell autograph is worth anything and its going to achieve the value or status that a steve mc queen owned or road and autographed bike would etc. So in my case if I bought a bike with a buell autograph, I would remove it first chance I got. | ||
| Zacks |
If you're set on preserving it, I'd still recommend testing any process on something else. I was painting a tank (Ninja 250) which has some pewter metallic details and red pins for accents. All fresh paint that needed clear over the red. No powdercoat. There should be no need to scuff it, just make sure that there's no wax or anything by using some detergent soap to clean it. Again, test on something else. Powdercoat is a cured process that's a lot tougher to get to lift with solvents, so I wouldn't worry about that at all if you mist on some clear. | ||
| Zac4mac |
I got Erik to sign my Uly at Homecoming this year. The Sharpie he used was almost dry, so it's a little faint. I just put a piece of laminate on it, holding up just fine next to the VIN. Zack |
