My 105 left shift lever has some scratches and so on.

I just want to paint the main long silver ****er and leave the black down shifter black.

I want to paint both of them red (bike is red mainly).

I have quite a bit of painting experience (mainly cars and fiberglass).

Has anyone painted their levers before?

Did you say ****er?

Anyhow, aluminum needs a self-etching primer to to adhere properly. Plus the usual scuff sanding, so you'd be committed to them being painted from now on.

Not overly difficult if you're half way decent with an automotive detail gun. Sounds like you are. Personally, from an esthetics POV, I'm not sure I would like flaming red ****ers.

LOL shifters

I think I will give it a shot and see how they look. I've never seen anyone with red levers.

I've painted several aluminum parts (fenders for an S2000 time atack and several parts for 2 E36 M3 CSL doors) in the past so I expect the process will be similar.

paint it like this.

Now that's a flaming red ****er!!!

Wow maybe I can just use that toilet seat cover as my new saddle


It is so aerodynamic...It looks like it can shave at least 2mh of my avg.



Straight from the IRC (International Redneck Convention)

I may go with some gunmetal gray (darker then the original color).

Any idea if I can take these shifters of the bike easily and put them back on without having to take them to the LBS? Maybe a tutorial?

I did a search but did not get anything.

What top coat have you used? I cut my teeth on the old DuPont Centari (urethane hardened acrylic enamel). Switched to PPG line - Deltron and DP primers - love them! Except these days I don't have a shop discount account any more and they want too much money for them.

I've used Dupont EUROTEC

I've also used Dupont Tecstar. This is normally used for industrial things (cabinets, cabinets, heavy machinery). Did a few frames (cars) to test it out. It holds up really well and it has a very high resistance to chipping.

I've used Deltron a bit. We've used it in the shop before since it is very easy to match the OE paint. A lot of shops use it for that reason alone which makes it great. I've heard of some guys in other shops who were trying to make it pop and were not happy with the low gloss (just using a basecoat no clear) and would try to overwet the paint to get more gloss out of it Not sure why since it is not engineered to work that way.

I'm out of the auto painting business but I'm looking at getting into airbrushing. Will be working Createx paint.

Yap, even the purposely-mixed Deltron single stage does not carry the wet look as well as hand-rubbed lacquer or even acrylic enamel, which when done well gets that "porcelain" look. But the urethanes will far outlast both of them by far. For the ultimate "euro wet look", as we used to call it, nothing beats a nice 2-stage finish.

I was never "in the business", but in my days I sure painted a lot of spoilers, side skirts, motorcycle tanks and fenders, as well as a few car overall jobs.

i heard that eggshell wall paint works wonders.

I just polished them. Now they have a mirror polish to them.