'79 Special Weed Abatement Project In Progress

[bikerphil]

[3Phase]

Nice tank there, Phil!

I had the tank painted but the stupid dent bugged me. I should have just let it be; let it be! Let it be! Let it be! ... anyway, before I added any Bondo I sanded out the dent with 80 grit and used acetone on a lint-free cloth to scrub the area with a fingertip until the cloth came up totally clean. The 36 grit worked better.

This whole thing is new for me. I've never done anything like this before because by the time the paint is gone and bodywork absolutely has to be done on any vehicle I've owned it was about as useful as patching and painting the crows' nest on Titanic.

[3Phase]

First coat of Rustoleum 7792 Gloss White 'Stops Rust' rolled on.

Proportions: 2 - 0.5 - 0.25
Paint - Mineral Spirits - Penetrol

No hardener was added for this first coat so it's going to take a while to dry before it can be color sanded. The next coat will be thinner and it will have hardener.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Wazz up

Wazz up with no paint around the gas cap hole?

First coat of Rustoleum 7792 Gloss White 'Stops Rust' rolled on.

Proportions: 2 - 0.5 - 0.25
Paint - Mineral Spirits - Penetrol

No hardener was added for this first coat so it's going to take a while to dry before it can be color sanded. The next coat will be thinner and it will have hardener.

[3Phase]

Wazz up with no paint around the gas cap hole?

I skipped a few places with the roller. Later on tonight I'll use a small disposable foam brush to paint around the filler neck and all of the little nooks and crannies on the bottom of the tank.

[DGXSER]

Looks like a nice top quality paint job in the process. I am sure it will make mine look like it came straight from the orange grove time your done.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

ROller

Roller. well, thats different, but if you get the paint on and work it with some sand paper and compound, should look like a million bucks, keep the pic's comming

I skipped a few places with the roller. Later on tonight I'll use a small disposable foam brush to paint around the filler neck and all of the little nooks and crannies on the bottom of the tank.

[3Phase]

Yes, I'm rolling my own.

As usual the hardest part was the prep work and don't think that hasn't been a little slice of heaven... the first coat is finished now so all I have to do is leave it alone and let it dry!

The paint rolled out nicely without running or sagging and the bubbles popped and flattened so there will be very little orange peel. There aren't many bugs and there is very little dust this time of year so it's looking pretty good. Too bad most of it'll just be sanded off to level the paint.

Oh, Don: I honestly have only the vaguest idea of what I'm doing after reading about it on the 'net so by the time I'm done with this thing it'll probably look like it fell out of the back of a grapefruit truck!

[3Phase]

The second coat of Gloss White paint after color sanding with 600 grit. NAPA/Martin Senour 'Crossfire' CH254 hardener was added for this coat and it rolled on and self-leveled very well.

The paint cured smooth and hard overnight and even after wet sanding you can still see the gloss and the straight reflections of the garage door windows.

The metal of this old tank is ridged, dimpled, and waved hammered like the hull of an old ship below the Plimsoll Line. It has been difficult to get the surface level but the work is finally paying off!




The third coat of paint with hardener will be rolled this afternoon when the tank has finished drying. Mixing up only enough paint for one coat is fun. The hardener makes the paint set up and cure so I can't just cover everything and stick it in the freezer between coats. I only mix enough to do one coat at a time, then triple clean the tray and roller before the paint sets up.

[DGXSER]

Sounds like a real process Scott, you should have it perfected about the time your done.

Looks like a paint job to me. And it does look good and smooth, reflections are even. Looking forward to see how it turns out!

[3Phase]

Thanks! I can't really go anywhere until I get at least one of the broken frames on my two bikes fixed so I'm taking it out on the poor old gas tank.

The frame on the '79SF where the center stand was torn off is actually in better shape than the frame on my '80G but I had to buy a Special center stand. That'll take a while to get here so, in the mean time... idle hands and all that!

[motoman]

What's the status on the tank and "rolled" paint?.......curious, idle hands and mind just curious......

[3Phase]

What's the status on the tank and "rolled" paint?.......curious, idle hands and mind just curious......

I had a few other things going on this weekend so motorcycles had to take a back seat but all is not lost!

The 3rd coat of white paint with hardener was rolled on Saturday and it's starting to cover nicely. After color sanding, I spent most of Sunday afternoon detail sanding around the filler neck, tank badge mounting brackets, underside wiring brackets, frame mounts, and all of the weird scallops and whoop-dee-doos.

As I was getting ready to head downstairs this morning to roll on the 4th coat paint I tried to check my email and my computer threw a fatal hardware bluescreen error so hard it couldn't write a crash dump file and it knocked all of the internal drives somewhere so far away that that even Norton Ghost could find them when I booted from the emergency recovery CD.

So I fired up a Windows 7 install disk and gave it a whirl to see if it was a disk partition or file system problem or if all of the drives really had decided to leave the building through the same gate at the same time. Windows 7 installed and running less than an hour so I used it to check the drives before booting back to the recovery CD.

It worked; drives are fine; no data lost; I have a new operating system to play with when I get bored working on Bush and Columbo.

Now it's back to the garage for that 4th coat of paint I was going to do this morning!

[motoman]

Now it's back to the garage for that 4th coat of paint I was going to do this morning!

4th coat!...........well, least if it rust from inside out.....won't leak and should be bullet resistant if one made a wrong turn at 3a.m. on wrong side of tracks somewhere where they wish they weren't........

[3Phase]

Should I play with Win7 or mix up some more poisonous paint?

Yeah, I hope it won't rust inside or out and the paint should be bullet-proof -- day or night!

The directions recommend 6 to 8 coats using thinner, more if necessary. You're supposed to thin the paint almost like milk so it'll flatten out and the bubbles will pop. I'm using a little less thinner because I'm also adding hardener and Penetrol. It still rolls on almost translucent and it takes a few coats before it starts to cover. Wear gloves and a mask, don't sniff the roller and don't smell your fingers or bite your fingernails.

At first I tried rolling with less thinner but I wound up sanding a lot of the paint right back off to get rid of the bubbles and orange peel. Then I got bored and decided to fix the dent and it all got sanded off anyway so I could start over.