Complete makeover (many pics)

[A7xschecter6661]

Hey there, we just painted my moms bike! We started off with a 1998 Ninja 250 which was very dirty and looked like it hadn't been washed since the day it was brought off the sales floor. It came with a twin parts bike. Some of the plastics were useful but was missing the front upper fairing.

The main bikes front upper fairing was cracked- so we got a used one which was "good condition" but ended up having a crack too....
The tail piece had some good scratches in it
The bottom needed repair at the bolt hole
The tank needed 2 paint chips filled and sanded

Here is what We started with







Got everything prepped and ready





Started spraying with a friends gun but it decided to leak everywhere and messed up the tail piece, gotta go back and finish this eventually but its no big deal. We used a GM white single stage paint so it was glossy without needing to be cleared. And we can just get a touch up pen for it.







Moms job is to detail the bike underneath all of the plastics.
The paint is dry but I wan't to give it some time before we throw it back together to fully cure

I think it will look good all pure white!

[leed]

Looks pretty darn good! I'm excited to see it all on the bike now

[A7xschecter6661]

Not bad for my 3rd time spraying, couple little mistakes but they are all wet sandable and can be touched up.

But hey, $80 paint job vs. $800 paint job, I think it turned out great for the savings.

Now to figure out the color scheme.
She wants white, purple and silver but still being decided on.
I think white would look great with just black decals but she wants it to be slightly girly

[leed]

Women.

Haha, actually, a deep dark purple will look good against white. So for your mom!

[A7xschecter6661]

the thing with the purple is if we paint the rims, when we put the tires back on you scratch the paint off.
So we would like to leave them purple, but the new tires we are putting on is making us scuff up the rims even with something there between tools and the rim.

We would like to keep it purple, but my other suggestion was a nice coat of truck bed coating. Nice and tough and black, that shouldn't scratch off too easy :P

Then wheel tape won't stick to it though!

[choneofakind]

How would you like a nice, shiney, clean set of Green/purple plastics (with about 3 light nicks/scratches total) for that lovely white set there??? sounds like a fair trade to me

[Snake]

Looks great so far. Cant wait to see it all back on the bike.

[A7xschecter6661]

Send me your plastics, paint and $50 and ill spray them

Going back on the bike tonight!

[A7xschecter6661]

Here it is! Came out awesome!
black and silver decals on the way. Rims will get painted black too.
I have spare front clear lenses for my mom to use and she just ordered rear ones so that will match it better than the amber



How does it look guys?

[AeroXtasy]

That looks amazing. At $80, you have a bike that looks great without hurting the wallet.

[A7xschecter6661]

Originally Posted by ducducgooseit

I declare that does look good. Hey, give us a close up of the right front turn signal area where you had to fix the fix.

We got a new fairing (the yellow one)
which had a slight crack in it, I just filled it, sanded it and primed it and you can't tell on the outside.
I left a little extra filler on the inside (didn't feather it perfectly) but I wanted a little extra for more support.

You still couldn't tell on the inside unless I pointed it out

Black rims or white rims? Hmmm

[AeroXtasy]

I say to white the rims. Would look good IMO.
Do the levers while you're at it!
(Might be a bit overboard)

[TheMojoRider]

I've done a little work on bike plastics and say, "bravo to you good sir!" Well done!

[Nemesis]

Robotech rite 'ere!

I sorta miss my pre-gen. Luv'd that thing. Best commuter...hands down. I think I was getting like 48-55 MPG.

[A7xschecter6661]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Robotech rite 'ere!

I sorta miss my pre-gen. Luv'd that thing. Best commuter...hands down. I think I was getting like 48-55 MPG.

Mines getting 63 and I'm whomping on it
90% highway though

[Mocha Man]

Whoah! I'm jealous! I'm looking for a 250 ninja pre-gen so I won't have to worry about dropping it as much as a newer one as I thought all the pre-gens looked pretty bad compared to the new ones. You just proved me wrong.

[A7xschecter6661]

Originally Posted by Mocha Man

Whoah! I'm jealous! I'm looking for a 250 ninja pre-gen so I won't have to worry about dropping it as much as a newer one as I thought all the pre-gens looked pretty bad compared to the new ones. You just proved me wrong.

They can look great if you clean them up like we did to ours.
The only thing that looks outdated is the front fairing and the square headlight
Otherwise you can make them look pretty sharp

[GeorgiaHooligan]

Hats off to you, awesome job!

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by A7xschecter6661

Send me your plastics, paint and $50 and ill spray them

only $50????!??! damn that's so tempting...

[A7xschecter6661]

Painting is not hard, you just need a little practice.
I was painting base coat then clear coat which is 100 times easier to mess up than the single stage i used on the bike.

Now i am motivated to finish my car!

$50 for spraying isn't really bad.
Painters charge so much because they can and the average joe is afraid to try.

Theres a girl around here that rides a pink ninja she paid $600 to have sprayed.

So $80 worth of paint and the dude makes $500 spraying for 1-1.5 hours.

My rule is do everything yourself (except inspections of course) lol

[A7xschecter6661]

Here's the update. Black rims! Much better than purple.
Painted them flat black and we got white reflective wheel tape on the way.
I think that will look awesome!

[Momaru]

Looks sharp!
Had the pleasure to ride with another white pre-gen last month at the Dragon and I can honestly say Kawasaki really dropped the ball not making that a stock color until this year.

[nickjpass]

Originally Posted by Momaru

Looks sharp!
Had the pleasure to ride with another white pre-gen last month at the Dragon and I can honestly say Kawasaki really dropped the ball not making that a stock color until this year.

Many manufacturers don't make them white for some, unknown reason!

[Heed]

Originally Posted by A7xschecter6661

How does it look guys?

One hell of a job. Makes me want to buy a pregen if they all looked like that.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by Momaru

Looks sharp!
Had the pleasure to ride with another white pre-gen last month at the Dragon and I can honestly say Kawasaki really dropped the ball not making that a stock color until this year.

They did white and red on the 250. I forget which year it was. I think it was 1988 or 1989. White fairings with red vinyl stripe and red rims. I saw one at an estate sale in ROUGH shape

[Lil_Green_Demon]

That is probably the best looking pre-gen 250 I've ever seen. Nice work, OP.

[Momaru]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

They did white and red on the 250. I forget which year it was. I think it was 1988 or 1989. White fairings with red vinyl stripe and red rims. I saw one at an estate sale in ROUGH shape

You're absolutely right. Thanks for the correction. There's a few pics of one (or a replica paintjob) on the forum somewhere. I remember it comes up in the random entry page every so often.

Still, 20+ years without a white OEM bike...

[coolbreeze]

This may be yours. I can't remember where I found it, but I was considering changing mine to this color combo, so I saved it.

[Indy250r]

It looks great, nice job!

[rusninja]

Originally Posted by nickjpass

Many manufacturers don't make them white for some, unknown reason!

No manufacturers are going to make a whole bunch of colors They are motorcycles not skittles.

[nickjpass]

Originally Posted by rusninja

No manufacturers are going to make a whole bunch of colors They are motorcycles not skittles.

Making a motorcycle white is not a bunch of colors. They could replace some ugly vinyl scheme.