Painting a tank........ questions

[Huffa]

This Big Red 200 tank is in great shape on the inside (you wouldn't think so) and was wondering how to paint it proper. I want to leave decals on, mask them up and use a spray can.

Every time I use body putty to fill in small dents on other tanks it looked and felt nice and smooth until I went to paint that is, then you could see where I tried to blend the edge of the putty on to tank beyond dent. What am I doing wrong?

This tank has no dents but needs some kind of filler as you can see once I sand it. What kind of filler should I use? Also a bit worried if I sand the heavy part (top rear) it might open up some small holes?

I have a freind that did gourgous work with a spray can which amazed me. I think he wet sanded it after he painted it but not sure if he recoated again or what?

All these ?'s really amount to what is the very 1st step and the very last step on painting this.

What brand paint and color in a can shall I use? I'm selling it on ebay and just want it to look 1/2 decent for the sale + it's good experiance for me.

[x.system]

one- Clean the whole tank with a pre cleaner that removes wax.

two- Sand the tank completely with either 320 or 400, this will expose any bad areas and it will prep the good areas for paint. The areas that need more work will need a courser grit like 180 or even 80 grit.

three- Filler, you want to put your filler on bare metal thats been sanded with 80 grit.
When you can see your edges of bondo through paint its from one of a couple reasons. You either did not feather the edges good enuff or you didn't put primer over it. Your primer is also a filler, it fills small pinholes in the bondo and also fills the edge of your bondo so you can feather it out evenly. Primers also need to cure properly in order to get the best results. 99% of the time paint jobs are rushed and turn out shabby.

four- Primer, use alot of it because you will be sanding most of it back off anyway when you block sand it. Put 3 or 4 coats, medium to heavy, of primer on allowing each coat to dry. Let it sit overnight. Now put a light coat of black over the primer, this is called a guide coat. Sand the black off with 180 or 220 using a block or rubber pad. You will see any imperfections in the primer when there is still black showing. If you have paint or bare metal showing after your done sanding the primer, prime it again. Your paint will stick better to primer than it will bare metal.

five- paint, Nice even light coats will turn out alot better than a couple heavy wet coats. spray your last 2 coats a little heavyer to get a shine but allow each coat to cure.

You can get good results out of a spray can if done correctly and slowly. Believe it or not, I've painted 2 of my personal cars with s before. I also cleared over them with a hvlp spray gun to finish them off. I used to be a painter for one of the largest dealerships in Mi, I used to paint 10 to 12 cars a day and had all the latest equipment but for the do it yourselfer these methods will work for you. I know I've left out a few things but more people will post I'm sure.

I will scan a couple pics of these two cars I did in the next few days and post them here.

Jim

[dirtface]

That tank does look nice on the inside. I know I have had to replace big red tanks on three of them that I have brought (drug) home. PA seasons are hard on metal tanks.

[Huffa]

Thanks x.system !

A lot of good tips for sure and yes, I did rush paint jobs too, now that I see all the proper steps.

2 questions on your statements : Are all primers considered body filler primers because one can of grey primer I have says it is a body filler but not any (I think) of the others (red or grey) do. Matter if it is the red or grey stuff? I know grey is usually for bare metal and red for metal with rust so I assume it must be the grey?

What type of black do I use? Does flat, satin or gloss work better then the other or is it a speacial black used for that purpose only?

[Huffa]

Thanks x.system !

A lot of good tips for sure and yes, I did rush paint jobs too, now that I see all the proper steps.

2 questions on your statements : Are all primers considered body filler primers because one can of grey primer I have says it is a body filler but not any (I think) of the others (red or grey) do. Matter if it is the red or grey stuff? I know grey is usually for bare metal and red for metal with rust so I assume it must be the grey?

What type of black do I use? Does flat, satin or gloss work better then the other or is it a speacial black used for that purpose only?

Oops, one more ? If there was pin holes after sanding will the gas eat thru the body putty?

[Huffa]

That tank does look nice on the inside. I know I have had to replace big red tanks on three of them that I have brought (drug) home. PA seasons are hard on metal tanks.

Yea, it only has very light surface rust inside, not near enough to even worry about. Can't imagine though how the outside got so bad?

PA with it's high humidity is rough on them. So you have 3 of them now? they all run?

This tank belongs to a parts one that I'm parting out. Just too much wrong with it to fix.

With that tank being taller then your typical 200S or M or whatever, I wonder how it would look on them? I'm getting a 185S tomorrow (a buy & sell job) and going to try it out. I think it should bolt right on?

[dirtface]

I have probably owned six or seven big reds, I don't have any now. I have sold them. Three of those were parts only. Bikes sit outside here in PA for a couple years and some aren't worth anything but parts. Over the years I have drug dozens out of the weeds, just don't find any 250rs or 350xs. Mainly just hardtails.

[mx600]

My advice is if you are just using this on that 185s, don't worry about making it perfect. Make it presentable and clean looking and then sell it. You won't get any extra money for it being up to YOUR standards.

When I did my tank I stripped all the paint off using a chemical stripper. Took no time at all really. Then I sanded it out with 150 grit paper, applied 3 coats of grey body filling primer. I did not wet sand the primer.

For the color, I used a Rustoleum can from WalMart. I don't remember the actual color name, but it's a perfect match. Go to Wal-Mart and you'll be able to find it no problem.

I put 3 or 4 light coats on, wet sanding each one with 400 grit. Then I used a Krylon Super Thick clear coat. The clear coat came out chunky and gave it the orange peel texture, so I don't recommend that particular clear coat. I wet sanded that with 600 and 800 but that wasn't near enough to knock down the bumps, and I didn't want to cloud the clear coat, so I just left it. I put the decals on before the clear coat.

A couple things I noticed....The primer is pretty thick stuff and does a pretty good job of filling in some imperfections. Also, light coats of gloss paint do not give a glossy finish. My final coat was a little heavier to bring up the gloss. It really shined when I put the first clear coat on it.

So far it's been holding up pretty well, but I recently chipped some off on some dead pine branches. I guess that's to be expected if you ride through that stuff. I'm going to get some auto touch up paint and just fill in where it came off.

My goal was to make it look as nice as possible, but you know I'm certaintly not a perfectionist with this stuff. The whole process only took a couple hours labor, if that, over the course of a few days. Oh...and I didn't do anythign to the bottom of the tank, just cleaned it. It all matches really well though, as I said before.

[42F67N]

Ive done a few metal tanks i usally use bix stripper to take the paint off then clean the tank good with a thinner then sand it with a light grit paper just to make sure its smooth then apply the bondo putty were needed,after it dries i hit the bondo spots with a heavy grit paper on a drill till i take it down even with the rest of the tank i then use white sandable primer spray it with a thin coat to bring out all the inperfections ,i then break out the glazing and spot putty" this is what will make ** edges even and cover all the small inperfections use the putty let it dry wet sand it with a 1500 paper and repeat till its smooth as a babys ass then hit it with like a 2000 wet paper ,primer look for imperfections if none paint it.

Heres a few atc 70 tanks i did and painted with a

all ready for paint

before adding flames and clearing


and this 70 tank that i just redid had the infamous dents on both sides from the forks and the back right side was caved in

[crackshot]

haha. Police dept stickers! That is comedy!

[nouseforaname90]

Gas Tank:
Now the gas tank was supposed to be the first priority on this bike, but it got set aside sometime during the project and forgot for awhile. As soon as my dad remembered that my neighbor is a painter and told me about it, I ran over there to ask him if he would do it. He jumped on it, as he used to work in a body shop where he would do painting everyday, but hasn’t painted in about a year and is trying to get some practice because he is trying to get back into it. I went to NAPA and bought the paint and all the supplies for $80.00!!!! Oh well. As long as it turned out nice, I thought. And it did. The paint job, along with the decals from Harlan made it look brand new. The tank took about 2 hours of wet sanding from me, and about an hour of wet sanding from Kaz, and probly an hour or two for painting. When all was said and done, he put 9-10 coats on it.. so I don’t have to worry about my knees rubbing the paint down to bare metal anytime soon!!
Here are a few pics of the progress of the tank:
After wet sanding:



During and halfway through buffing:



And the finished product:

[nouseforaname90]

The finished product on the bike with the decals, newly painted gas cap, and polished petcock on it:





I think it turned out very nice, but at a very high price. $138 total, but if I hadn’t already had the Wet/Dry sanding paper and rubbing compound, it would have been more like $170.




This is the tank I did on my SX. I used car paint, but I figured all the steps in-between you would find useful.

My biggest friend when filling the dents in the tank was Filler Primer. After putting the Bondo on and covering most of the dent, there were small air holes in the bondo and the edge of the bondo showed when painted. I sprayed 3 heavy coats of filler primer on (after 3 coats, this stuff was like over 1/8 inch thick) and then wet sanded it down until it was smooth and perfectly contoured. Now you can't even tell that it was once dented.

[42F67N]

thats to much thats why i dont paint with a gun and i have everything to do it in my garage,its cheaper to do a job and * can make a job damn nice if ya put the effort into it.

tank is beautiful btw

[Maine_Triker]

Huffa, if you have a bud who paints cars and stuff bring your tank to him.

That is what I did... he had paint hanging around and used left over clear coat from his car paint jobs. Did a fantastic job. He took care of everything... removed the dents and all. It took him a week but it cost me close to nothing!

Phil

Pics before and after:

[350xBomb]

[QUOTE=Huffa]This Big Red 200 tank is in great shape on the inside (you wouldn't think so) and was wondering how to paint it proper. I want to leave decals on, mask them up and use a spray can.

QUOTE]

wouldn't it be easier to get new decals off ebay or something? I haven't done much painting but seems like working around the decals would make it look uneven around the them.