My Monster 600 Project

[Dukedesmo]

Originally Posted by Darkness

Why do you think it has LEDs?

Because I have one of those very mudguard/light thingys on my bike and it has LED bulbs that are sealed into the 'repeaters'.

I know this because one of them packed up due to the ultra thin wire into it snapping off right at the base of the sealed holder where it connected to the load resistor and I had to cut it all apart and then reseal it afterwards.

Mine was only bought 3-4 years ago as a new (old stock?) part although I have no idea how old it actually is, it is always possible that there were several versions though?

On mine it is definitely not possible to replace the bulb without doing some 'surgery'.

One of the receipts that come with the bikes documents was for side repeaters for a Honda Accord, they were nice LED ones, but were tinted and absolutely bloody useless. I replaced them with bulbs but will be going back with LED eventually I think.

[Darkness]

All becomes clearer.

[Darren69]

If you fit Japanese parts to your Ducati, there's a very high likelyhood that they will fail! There's an alarming pattern emerging here that I've observed.

E.g. Shindengen reg/recs, Nippon Denso HT coil sticks and Yuasa batteries. All Jap crap and your bike will not be happy and they will break. Don't do it people!

Originally Posted by Darren69

If you fit Japanese parts to your Ducati, there's a very high likelyhood that they will fail! There's an alarming pattern emerging here that I've observed.

E.g. Shindengen reg/recs, Nippon Denso HT coil sticks and Yuasa batteries. All Jap crap and your bike will not be happy and they will break. Don't do it people!

The only issue I've had with mine so far is the carbs ... which just happen to be Japanese.

Well what was originally going to be a quick tidy up has moved onto something much bigger.

I noticed a cracked weld on the steering stop of my Monster, and was having a look at what it'd cost me to have it welded, then strip & paint the frame. As it's a matt finish it isn't easy to do a small spot repair (especially with the paint being over 20 years old and in poor condition).

After getting some quotes, I was on eBay late one night and found a full frame for sale, with a nice Private reg that came with the frame, I quickly got it bought, It was delivered thursday and I've dropped it off at my shot blasters to be blasted.

After browsing through some threads on here, I was going to get my frame powder coated, I've had frames in the past done and have been really happy with the finish and colour, however I know how hard it is to get the original bronze/gold colour matched for powder, so I opted to paint the frame myself.

Once the frame gets back from the blasters, I'm going to have one of the panel beaters at work reinforce some of the original factory welds (mainly around where the steering stop is that cracked on my original frame) with some Mig Braze. I'll then get it sanded down and into primer.

I've dropped off a sample of the frame colour to be matched at a local supplier, and once I get that back I'll do some spray out cards to check the colour, and the gloss level of the clearcoat. It can be difficult to match the OEM level of gloss in the clear, So i'll have a few spray out cards with different mixtures of matt/satin clearcoat to try and get as close to the original gloss levels.

While I'm waiting for the frame back from the blasters, I decided to repair the front mudguard.



It had some scratches in from the oil cooler sitting on it, I sanded the scratches out with 320 grit paper on an orbital sander, and followed it up with 500 grit. I grey scotched the rest of the mudguard. I then panel wiped/tacked it off and applied two coats of primer.



I guidecoated the primer and knocked it down using a superfine sponge pad.



The colour looks too orange due to the poor lighting, however the colour is spot on.


I seem to be doing more and more paintwork at my unit, and would like to start doing more stuff for other people, so am going to spend the next week or so gutting my unit, cleaning it out and installing a small spray room/booth. I'm going to paint the place and upgrade all the lighting so I can paint a lot easier, and with better results.

Well I haven't been active on the forum in a while, mainly due to work and other things happening that's made me lose interest in the Ducati.

I had the new frame I purchased for the Ducati blasted with fine grit, and set about prepping it for primer.

I asked my blaster to finish the frame in the finest grit he had, and to not prime it himself.

I used 180 grit on my 3" DA sander where I could, to refine the finish left by blasting, I used 180 by hand in places where I couldn't get the sander in.

I then applied a coat of etch primer, followed by 3 coats of a Wet-on-wet primer (This primer is designed to provide a perfect surface to go straight over with basecoat, and is mainly used in one process, where you would prime, allow to flash off for 15-20 minutes and then paint straight over. However I used the wet on wet primer rather than a high build purely because I didn't want to have to flat the surface, having wet-on-wet it, it only needed keying with a superfine sponge sanding pad prior to basecoat.



I left that to cure, then gave it a quick keying up and applied my basecoat & lacquer.



A rather poor picture, but it shows the end result. I'm still torn whether to leave it gloss, or whether to give it a coat of matt/satin lacquer, to make it more original.

Meanwhile I've dropped the engine out of the old frame, and will start prepping it for paint tomorrow.

[SteveG]

Very good thread Stephen... the big question, it's clear you are a paint-pro...with talents.. did you get the exact colour match to the original frame you were after?

[Albie]

Originally Posted by SteveG

Very good thread Stephen... the big question, it's clear you are a paint-pro...with talents.. did you get the exact colour match to the original frame you were after?

I got mine matched today one leg is painted over with new paint so guess if you want but I am sure its obvious as chip on other side

Originally Posted by SteveG

Very good thread Stephen... the big question, it's clear you are a paint-pro...with talents.. did you get the exact colour match to the original frame you were after?

Thanks for the kind words.

I did get the colour matched locally, but wasn't 100% happy with the match. I did send a sample to Albie below, I don't think he got it though ?.

His colour match looks better than mine, so if you need the paint I'd ring his supplier and order through them.

Anyway update on the Monster...

I've got the swingarm sanded down, and in wet-on-wet primer. It had been powder coated rather poorly, and there was some corrosion coming through, I also wasn't quite happy with the colour as it was more of a industrial grey than a nice silver. I'm still not 100% happy with the colour of the swingarm and may end up repainting it in the future, but it does look better.

I've had the tires removed from the wheels in preparation for their refurb, I was originally just going to key them and wet-on-wet them, however lots of corrosion is coming through from a poor powder coat job, so I've decided to bare metal them with some paint stripper. I would've prefered to have them shot blasted, but paint stripping them saves me £40.