It is now possible to customise your vehicle without having to buy different parts for your bike that can be fairly expensive by using vinyl graphics or getting a customised paint work job for your body work. It’s fairly inexpensive and doesn’t take a long time to have done, unless it’s a very complex paint job it could take up to a week for a professional to finish a complex design. As well as having a professional carry out the work to a high standard there are some people that attempt to customise their motorcycle paint work them selves.

Obviously to do this you would have to have some knowledge of painting and be fairly confident with what you are doing and the materials you are using. With the graphics you can buy a lot of them tend to come in DIY kits and aren’t just available for your bike you can get a lot of them for your helmet as well. These kits are fairly simple and come with full instructions on how to prepare the piece you are going to apply the sticker to and how to apply the graphic and what tools you will require. However, what you don’t hear much about is DIY paint jobs apart from those that are experienced in that kind of work, here are some instructions you can follow to do your own paint job:

• Unless you are a professional with this kind of work then you will be best just completing the paint job with one colour all over. So first you need to decide what paint you are going to use it will need to be a vehicle lacquer spray paint you will be able to get advice from the assistants in the shop you buy it from on which would be best and how many cans you will need.
• Once you have the paint you will need to remove the parts from the bike that you want to paint and remove the paint that is on it at the moment. Once the parts are removed you will be best to bend a piece of aluminium and place in the area you will be painting in (make sure it is well ventilated and you have an appropriate painting mask) to use as a practice piece.
• You just need to use this piece until you have got used to the technique you will have to use when painting. You have to spray very lightly over the piece so every part is covered with a light coat. You will need to do about three coats leaving about 35 minutes between each coat, if you spray too heavy and end up with a drip then wait 2 hours and sand lightly till worn down so even with the rest of the paint. Then cover the part with paint again lightly.
• Once the colour base is on you will need to use a clear lacquer spray to cover the parts in about 4 or 5 coats leaving the same amount of time as before between coats.
• Then you need to use a piece of sanding paper (the assistants will be able to advise on the best grain) after waiting around 6 hours with your hand to rub all over the different pieces, whilst sanding over use a damp, clean cloth to wipe over the different parts. Once finished each part should be a dull sheen.
• Then cover in clear lacquer with two coats leaving the same amount of time between coats again.
• Wait around 5 days to let the finish harden. You will now need to get a slow buffer with a foam pad and some polishing compound. Prepare the pieces with very fine wet or dry sand paper just sand lightly on places where you can see any defects. Dry all pieces with a clean cloth.
• All that’s left to do is cover the pieces in a light coating of polishing compound and using light pressure use the buffer all over the parts being careful when buffing on edges not to apply too much pressure.
• Your parts should now have a high shine check over pieces for places you may want to re sand and buff.

So as you can see you can complete this kind of work your self but if you don’t feel entirely confident then it is advised you let a professional carry out the work for you, also if you have a professional carry out the work for you its possible to have more creative designs.