We would like to thank the person who went to all this work to help others out

This is a step by step guide on how to paint the bodywork on your YSR. It includes before and after photos to show you the results. I hope the photos will help you decide if you will want do it yourself or let someone take your beloved racing dollars away.

When I first got my new bodywork for my YSR, I was debating if I should take it to a shop and have it done professionally. Called around and the average price was $400. Finally, I asked myself, "what could I do with $400"? Well, I could do many things, such as buy new pistons, have the engine rebuilt, buy new bodywork, get racing shocks, etc...

Let's get started. Remember, I do not guarantee that you will get good results. You have to be patient. A little experience with a spray paint can would definitely improve your results. If you are not too sure before spraying the fairing, practice on cardboard first. Also, if you are using your garage as a work space, make sure it is well ventilated. 1-2 electric fans should do the trick. Sniffing paint is not good for your health. You will also need a lot of newspaper to cover the walls and floor. If possible try to make a stand to hold your bodywork. I used a  rope attached to a ceiling beam to hang my bodywork. This made it easy to rotate as I painted it.

Step 1: Preparing the Bodywork
Before doing any kind of painting, you must sand the area that is to be painted. Sanding it will make it porous and aid with the adhesion of the paint. Imagine painting a smooth surface, the paint will drip and not stick. A good sanding job will give you a nice even finish. When sanding make sure you evenly sand the whole thing. This is the most important part because a bad job will result in paint dripping and running off as you spray the fairing. Remember take your time. Did I mention that you should have the fans turned on by now?! Unless, of course, you want to breath resin powder as you sand. Set up your fan by placing it at the opening of your garage. Make sure your fan is sucking the air out of the room. Turn it on full blast, and work behind the fan. This will suck all the invisible flying debris and blow it outside of the garage. Also, wear a mask. I do not know if long term exposure will be hazardous to your health later on.
 

Once you are done with the sanding, you are ready to paint, YEAHHHH...

Step 2: Material and Paint Check
Firstly, you must come up with a paint scheme that you want on your bodywork. Unless you are going to replicate a factory scheme, you will need to decide how you are going to paint it and what color you are going to paint it. This was the hardest part for me because I did not want my bike to look like a down-sized Noriyuki Haga R7 superbike. And I did not want to spend a whole week painting the thing and then crash the weekend afterwards, regretting the long hours put into the esthetics. Remember we are budget racers, if we were rich we could hire someone to do it. So in a few words, try to keep it simple. I chose a single color plus white for the number plates.
 

Materials that You Will Need:

Depending on what you will need the whole cost of the materials should be around $75.
All of these items can be obtained from your local auto shop. I went to Kraken, and they had a good selection. But for the paint I went to my local moto shop, they had some OEM Yamaha Blue lacquer. I would, however, recommend the DUPLI-COLOR lacquer because of the better nozzle. DUPLI-COLOR has a very nice spray can and it comes with a patented nozzle which delivers constant pressure. It will give you more control while you are painting.
Make sure you have all that you are going to need, because running back and forth from your house to the auto shop is very tiring and time consuming. I learned the the hard way.

Step 3: Getting the Painting Area Ready
The only way to be sure that you have protected your painting area is to cover the whole garage with newspaper, including the floor. This means you will have to park that bike outside with the car. Get the stand ready and place it in a position so that you can walk around it freely without having anything in your way. Leave the fans where they were during sanding. Make sure it is not too humid when you do this, because the result will not be as good. Just read the instructions on the can. Once again, do not position the fans so that they will blow into you when you paint, think about it and you will see. The fans are there to remove the paint dust particles. Also, do not use it to dry your work.

Step 4: Priming
Before priming, get a rag and clean your bodywork with the lacquer thinner. It will remove all of the dust and ease the primer adhesion. This is VERY IMPORTANT.
Once you are ready with all the preparation, put the fairing on its stand or hang it from your ceiling. Now you are ready to prime it. If you have never used a spray can before I suggest you try it on the newspaper or a piece of cardboard before attacking your bodywork.

The steps are as follow:
Priming is not hard. You are allowed mistakes, because you can sand it if you over spray or get runoff.
- Shake the can very well to mix the paint.
- Hold at a perpendicular angle to the painting surface at about 6-9 inches away.
- Start from left to right then move right to left holding a steady pace so that the paint will spread evenly. If runoff occurs just increase your speed as you go across that area, do not stop in the middle of the paint surface area.
- Make sure that you do not spray directly on the painting area when you first depress the nozzle. Start your spray beside the painting surface and move onto the bodywork as you are spraying. Work your way across, go past the bodywork again, and then go back. Another words, never start or stop spraying directly on the painting area as it will leave runoff.
- Go from top to bottom, as you spray across. Do not spray more than two layers on a horizontal pass. This will create a build up of wet paint and in turn will runoff. The first layer will not render your fairing all white. This is good because you want multiple thin layers. It will prevent runoff. Once the first coat is finished, let it dry. This  usually only takes five minutes. Then start your second coat, then third, etc... Until the whole painting area is solid white. This usually occurs on the third coat.
- Once you are done with priming wait about 20 minutes, move it to a clean location, and start working on the next piece until you are done with all the pieces. Let them all stand for at least one hour.
- If you have some area with runoff, sand it with fine grit sanding paper.

Step 4: Masking Off Different Color Areas
Try to buy the more expensive masking tape. It is the easiest to use and will prevent paint from bleeding into the other color. It will also remove nicely without ripping the paint off.
The areas that you are going to mask off are the areas with the secondary colors. Those are the small areas. You could just paint the whole thing with the base color then mask it for the secondary color but this will create a heavy coat on the secondary color, and render it un-smooth at the edges.
- Unless you are doing something like mine, you will need to mask off all the areas that are in different color. Small areas such as lines and small details need to be finished with an airbrush and requires a lot of work and time. I do not recommend them if you are not very good with an airbrush. When masking make sure that the tape is tight so that you do not get paint running under it. The way to do it is to press the dividing edge with a round end object.
- Masking is not very hard. The hard part is figuring out the where the edges are, and trying to get a straight line. You will need to cut a lot of small pieces of tape for curves or trim them to shape. Remember that the more complicated your scheme is the harder the masking will be. That is why most budget racers do not have more than three different colors on their bikes. They also keep the designs large and simple. Unless, of course, you have time.
- You will need an exacto knife. A very sharp one to cut off excess tape. It can also be used for your round edge, and as tweezers unless you have long nails. When cutting be careful not to cut the fairing but just the tape, small cuts are okay though, they seem to disappear once the paint covers over it.

Scheme was easy just two tone, blue and white for the number. Masking this was easy and fast.

Step 5: Painting
Once everything is masked, you are ready to do some serious damage. Just kidding, but maybe...
- Start with the base color.
- Spray a thin coat using the same techniques as when you were priming. If you are not too sure, practice on something else beforehand.
Note(1): If you somehow over spray an area, try to avoid spraying it again, or speed up as you go across it because you will get runoff. Also, when depressing the nozzle, keep steady pressure on it. Remember do not stop in the middle of the the painting area. This is very crucial.
Note(2): If an area is very light, forget about it. Let the current coat dry first then go over it again. Concentrating on one spot will create paint runoff on the adjacent area. If you achieved some runoff, do not try to wipe it off, that will make it worse. Just let it dry. It might become unnoticeable.
- When you have a solid color with no faded area, let it dry for at least 2-3 hours.
- Now you are ready to spray the clear overcoat. Again, spray with the same techniques, but only with a total of two coats. Do not over spray, it will dissolve the paint and create runoff.
- Once done let it sit overnight. This is a must, do not touch it at all.
- Next day, remove the masking tape by peeling slowly and evenly so as to not rip off any paint. Then start masking the previously painted area. Now you are ready to paint the second color. If the base color area is large, mask the edges first, then use a plastic bag with no holes to cover the rest leaving only the area that you are going to paint. Use the masking tape to stick it on the fairing. I found it easier than taping the whole thing. Just be creative.
- Same procedure again applies for the second color. If you have more than two colors, do not remove the area that you already masked for the third color, and so on...
This is the whole process. One color for each day. I had two different colors so it took two days, if you have three then three days, and so on...

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