Springtime means scooter improvements!

I haven't had time to keep everyone, (anyone reading this) on the work I've been doing to Sleek Black Beauty. But it is almost time to be riding scooters instead of working on them so I have been busy trying to get Beauty put back together.

Yes, I've taken the new scooter apart... Big surprise.

In the first place, she is getting a shiny new set of wheels! The stock wheel color was just a plain, boring grey color. They weren't shiny or distinctive and they just didn't do the scooter any justice. I tried some "chrome" paint but that stuff rubbed off with just a paper towel and there was no way it would work on wheels.

So, the wheels are being powdercoated. A shiny, bright silver color is going on first, followed by a transparent red color. That's right, the wheels are going to be deep, bright red, which should look really good under Beauty's black bodywork.

And its that bodywork that I've working on while waiting for the wheels to get done at the powdercoaters. In the first place, I wanted to remove a warning decal from the gas filler door, paint it black and install one of the remaining pinstripe decals in the center of the door. I had to take most of the plastic bodywork off the scooter to get the door removed and then I spent several days sanding the course, plastic surface smooth before painting it black. This week I got the pinstripe installed and the paint polished up and it looks terrific.

The scooter had a couple scratches in its shiny black paint when I bought it and I wanted to fix those while all the bodywork was sitting on the benches. I bought the most expensive can of color-matched spray paint I've ever purchased and all the other tedious requirements for paint touch-up; 600 & 1000 grit sandpaper, some prep solvent and some high-fill primer. I've been filling and sanding for a few days now and today was painting day. Hurray, painting day!

I painted one panel immediately after wiping it down with Prepsol and then a tack rag. And as quickly as I put the paint on, the results looked like I had tossed a handful of gravel and dryer lint on it! Grr! It looks terrible. The bigger panel seemed to paint up pretty nicely, right up until the paint began to run and sag! Hooverdamm! With that, I gave up for the night and tomorrow night I guess I'll be back to the 1000 grit sandpaper, making everything nice and smooth again.

What a pain...

UPDATE: Monday night: I got both parts sanded tonight and 1 of the pieces painted and this time it doesn't look like I had the shop vac blowing dust around like yesterday's work. Tomorrow night I'll clearcoat that piece and paint the 2nd piece.