So, let me start with a little background. We bought some used quads back a few years ago to use at the BOL, bug out land. Nothing fancy, just to be used as toys primarily. As most of you are also fellow “Preppers of Doom”, you know everything is suppose to have multiple uses. Well, these could be handy for quick mobility or even recon if the noise issue was overlooked.

Its true we do have fun zipping around on them. However, as much fun as that is, it is nice to have these standing by to pull a trailer or run for that tool left in the shed. My daughter has outgrown the joyriding stage now that she saved up and purchased her own car. So, I thought it was time to do a few cosmetic repairs when I had the bike home getting the brakes repaired.

   I had taken some “BEFORE” shots for this post but as I previously mentioned, Mr Murphy, had other plans for them and they are no longer on the camera where I left them??? So, you’ll have to use that over active imagination that God gave you. I DO have photos of what the plastic body panels looked like prior to the paint job and even what the bike looked like stripped of its skin. I suppose we’ll be able to make do with what we got…

   As you can see the bike isn’t in that great of shape overall, not to bad either, just not great? Well, we actually purchased it in roughly this condition. It was owned by a family that had acreage but how it got so rough was the teenage daughter had taken it on a trip with friends down to the Oregon Coast and it had been in the saltwater. That’s right, corrosion, again not awful but still it had done a number on the metal finishes. It still runs great but looks kinda shabby. Myself, always being Prepper minded, wasn’t real keen on the blue plastics. Blue is hard to blend in with out in the country. Not that I plan on doing much hiding mind you but you just never know what the future holds. This brings us up to why I thought a paint job would be in order. I can already hear it, painting plastic? You’re just going to make a mess…

   I started by removing the gear racks, that were also getting pretty badly worn, from the front and rear of the bike. After this it was just a few corroded bolts later and I had the plastic skins completely stripped.  Next, I scrubbed these suckers down trying to get all the dirt and grime off in preperation of the new paint. When I was done cleaning them as good as I could I let them dry overnight so as not to end up with wet spots making a mess of the paint.

   Alright, finally I’m ready to wash that blue right out of my hair. Wait that just doesn’t sound right and besides I’m bald?  Back to the task at hand, painting  these panels. I started thinking I would use that new Krylon spray paint product, “Fusion” I think its called? However, a friend turned me onto another product that is designed to adhere to just about any surface, including plastic. The dry time is a little less than ideal but hey they had the color I wanted and I’m getting to be a little more patient in my upper years. So, we paint… It actually went real quick and I got good coverage with this product. I was surprised that it was so readily covering the bright blue? In just a half hour or so I had the new color sprayed on. I had painted the gear racks a number of days prior with black truck bed liner paint and had them ready so it was just wait the required 4 days to let this paint completely cure and then reassemble the thing.

   When I was taking this bike apart I noticed alot of other things I would have liked to do as well. Such as paint the wheels to cover up their rough condition. Maybe take the stock muffler and tailpipe that are pretty well rusted off and have a muffler shop fab up a very small auto muffler to try and tame the exhaust down a bit. Always going to be another project that could have been done. Oh well, job security for the Prepper in all of us.

   Reassembling the bike went pretty smooth, I had gone to the hardware store and gotten as many replacement bolts, nuts and washers as I could match up to the originals. I don’t have plans to disassemble it again anytime soon but it should be easier if I wanted to in the future. Maybe to try that exhaust project when I get everything else caught up? Well all that’s left is to show you all how it came out.

   I’m pretty happy with it. The areas that I have addressed look much better but these in turn make the rest of the bike even more shabby? Whats a guy to do… I really think that the brown I chose will blend in well over on the East side of the State. Its called Coyote Brown, it seems consistent with the Coyote Brown I see referenced with military equipment… 

   Don’t hold back, let me know what you think? Overall, I think its a good start but I will need to put some miles on it and then I’ll be able to give you an after action report on how it holds up over time! I will also give you the details on where to get this paint product after I see the long term results. So thats what I’ve been working on this last week. Its Friday again and I’m heading for the BOL and that means no reliable Internet until Tuesday. Between now and then I would love to see some more comments come in! This is what will help me improve on the quality of this site. So, please tell me what ya’ll think so far! I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend and I’ll see you all next week!

 PS. – keep the comments coming as I need your input!

Prepper