Beginning to paint...HELP! UPDATED!!!

[wolfman]

Starting the long proces of painting the bike and the fairing I aquired last fall. ?Starting with the tank and side panels. ?Proceeded as follows:

1. Washed parts in a strong degreaser/detergeant to remove wax etc.. and allowed to dry
2. ?Sanded completely to roughen up old paint and remove surface imperfections and rust.
3. ?Repaired any dents, rust spots and blemishes with epoxy putty and spot putty, and sanded again.
4. ?Primered with Rust Oleam primer
5. ?Light sanded and primered again

All went well UNTIL, I tried to paint the final color (Duplicolor Red Laquer) over the primer on the plastic pieces at which time it immediately "alligatored" ?(Dried paint surface resembles leather in appearance) Seeing this, I did NOT try to paint the tank or front fender. ?I am really not looking forward to sanding all these pieces AGAIN! ?What went wrong? ?At this point I am seriously thinking of scrapping the Duplicolor laquer and just going with an enamel. ?Any thoughts you guys?

Took a chance and painted the tank with the same laquer color coat.  (Keep in mind it is primed and prepared the exact same way as the plastic pieces.)  Tank came out PERFECT with no issues what so ever.  An attempt to paint the plastic front fender yielded similiar results as the rest of the plastic.  This leads me to believe that the problem lies with something inhierant to the PLASTIC pieces and NOT the primer.  I will sand off the plastic parts, and try Duplicolor's "sealing primer" this time and see what happens.  Any other suggestions or possible causes to this dilemma would be appreciated.

[Walt_M.]

I think your lacquer did not like the rustoleum primer. You should have used lacquer primer. If you don't want to sand the primer off, you'll probably have to use enamel.

[Rick G]

Enamel is a poor choice  for a bike  as gas will attack it and cause the paint , at best, to go flat and at worst to run down the side of the tank. You  should throw the rustoleum primer as far as you can ! Get a  laquer primer in grey and start again . I've painted many bikes successfuly with bug bombs,  but have always used the same brand  of primer as the paint I'm using/!

[wolfman]

Guess that's a possibility.  How about spraying a couple of coats of Duplicolor primer OVER the existing primer? (I'll have to sand and/or strip the already laquered pieces I know) I am absolutely NOT going to sand all that primer off at this point (I'd never be able to get it all anyway)

[Rick G]

Use a good paint stripper and it will all come off, and your sanding job  will go fairly quickly,  remember  preperation is 90% of a good paint job!
As to putting a couple of coats of duplicolour primer on, it will probably work , but you might try painting a tin can with rustolum and after its good and dry , give it two coats of duplicolour  and see how it comes out , as a final test  give it a coat of colour .  

[wolfman]

Thanks for the help and suggestions.  I am thinking however that paint stripper on plastic parts is probably not a good idea. Oh well, a sanding I will go, a sanding I will go, Hi ho the merrierio...