'79 Special Weed Abatement Project In Progress

[ViperRon]

Currious

What you are doing looks great so far. I'm really interested to see how this paint holds up. I have used rustoleum before with mixed results but never used the paints you are using. Just as with using water on bondo I have had rustoleum loose bond with paint after being covered. Typically with rustoleum like with bondo I like to go to bare metal or apply over an etching primer. The issue is that any porus material can absorb moisture or hold vapors that react after they are sealed. I'll be checking back in the future as I'm always willing to learn new things expecially when I can avoid stripping. Spraying requires a good enviroment not always availiable. There is always overspray. Even if the tempeture is right and no dust them bugs will fly from Florida to Alaska in winter and eat thew concrete to get into spray paint. My bike looked much worse from sitting in a damp shed than yours does sitting out so I am sure it will look great.

[3Phase]

Fourth Coat

Ron! I've only had one gnat land in the paint so far! Don't mess me up, man!

When realized what I'd done when I washed the tank I pulled all of the Bondo, sanded off all of the damp paint and primer and started over:

Build up and shape a few layers of fresh Bondo in the dent
Wait three days for the Bondo to cure and out-gas before priming
Spray and sand two coats of green self-etching primer
Spray and sand two coats of gray automotive primer primer to build and fill
Wait a couple of days to make sure the Bondo was really was cured and the primer coats dry
Spray and sand two coats of gray primer-sealer to, erm, seal the primer before rolling on the first coat of the White Gloss color coat.

I've been waiting a least a day or more between color coats to give the solvent a chance to evaporate after opening up the surface of the paint by wet sanding and to make sure the tank is dry -- no water!


This morning I used 1000 grit to wet sand the fourth coat. I won't have to use 600 grit again unless I make a mistake. I'll let the tank dry overnight, then roll the fifth coat of paint tomorrow morning:

Top of the gas tank wet sanded after fourth coat of white gloss paint





Filler neck





Bottom




Now that it's all about watching paint dry again I'll spend this afternoon goofi^Woptimizing the Internet connection so I can turn the new 32-bit Windows 7 Pro installation loose on Windows updates and SP1. Yesterday the installation was able to find and use the existing wireless card (Netgear WG311T) in my computer and it was able to connect to the wireless router but it's not connecting to the second router and the DSL modem. I've already downloaded the Win7 drivers for all of the hardware so it's play time!

[DGXSER]

Watching paint dry, is a good time for an adult beverage or three or four. Then you can go get some sleep and it is ready for your next efforts after you sleep those off. Beer, it isn't just for breakfast anymore.

Looking like a paint job Scott, keep going!! This is the tedious part I am sure.

[3Phase]

Santa Ana Winds Today

The 5th coat of paint was damaged by a Santa Ana wind. The wind picked up a plastic bucket and hurled it at the tank as it was drying in the sun after wet-sanding.

The paint was still soft enough not to chip but the bucket left a few divots and some dirt in the paint that had to be wet-sanded and feathered before rolling on the 6th coat of paint.




Rollin', rollin', rollin'
.Rollin', rollin', rollin'
..Rollin', rollin', rollin'
...Rollin', rollin', rollin'
....Rawhide!

[soccer4m]

awesome

Howdy Scott,,,,its awesome someone is rolling out the paint on one of these tanks. I havent heard anyone doing it on any bike, so we are all super curious to see how it turns out. Columbo will be jealous, so maybe that is a good thing, as Columbo will be nice all year round with lots of easy, no hassle miles. Anyway, keep the pics rolling..............rolling a tank,,,,,,awesome,,,,MIke in Sun diego

[motoman]

The wind picked up a plastic bucket and hurled it at the tank as it was drying in the sun after wet-sanding.

Was that #2 or #3?...............as Columbo snickers.........

[Gearsnd]

looks like you are doing a heck of a job with that tank!
too bad about the flying bucket.

[3Phase]

I'm going to try to mixing up just enough paint and hardener without thinner to touch up the marks and divots with a Q-tip and see if I can save it or if I'll have to sand it down and start over at about coat two on the top of the tank.


The tank was along the side of the house and when the wind picked up it made a vortex between the garage and the block wall. The bucket flew like it was in a miniature sideways tornado along with a bunch of other 'stuff'; almost knocked over my '79 Standard, "Old Faithful," too.

Columbo can go right ahead and be jealous and snicker! I got all the miles I can reasonably expect; still running strong so no center stand/frame repairs until I get the engine pulled for the rebuild and if things like this keep happening it's going to take a while.

[3Phase]

Success!

An old whiskey shot glass made it easy to mix a tablespoon of paint with a drop of hardener. That was more than enough to use a couple of Q-tips to touch up the divots and a few thin spots around the filler neck and the trim brackets.

This is an interesting 'learning experience' for me so far. It's not difficult at all but it is incredibly tedious and time-consuming. The replacement center stand for Bush arrived this afternoon so while the paint is drying I can start doing some of the prep work to get the frame strengthened and the mounting brackets welded back on.

[3Phase]

It's working!

The sixth coat of paint has been rolled on. Except for a few places the primer coat is no longer showing through after the paint has been rolled.

The damage to the fifth coat of paint was repaired and touched up a few hours before the sixth coat was rolled on.

[3Phase]

The end is near!

Here's the gas tank immediately after the ninth coat of rolled paint.

It looks like there is going to be a lot of orange peel but it gets better as it flattens out and cures. I switched to 2000 grit sandpaper for the eighth coat so the finish looks good.





The paint has dried and hardened and the orange peel leveled out. The paint and the tank are both straight and level and the gloss is good enough for reflections to show clearly so the tenth coat will be the last coat.




The tank after what was supposed to be the tenth and final coat of rolled paint. Naturally, the first and only gnats in the entire process chose the finish coat to see if the paint was really wet.

Don't strain your eyes. The second, smaller, gnat wouldn't fit in the frame for the picture.




Tomorrow I'll sand out the bugs and roll on the eleventh coat.

[XS1100_OEM4ME]

Looks great

Cool, looks great! Gnat saying a little work is left Keep the pics comming

[3Phase]

SNAFU and the project is back on track

I was buffing out the final coat and I found small black specks embedded in the paint.

I sanded down the paint until there were no more black specks but, unfortunately, that also removed the last five or six of the thin coats of paint that had been rolled.

So I took a break for a good long while and did other things instead of using the tank for a football.

When I got motivated again I decided to do a better job cleaning the garage before I started painting so I busted out the leaf blower and spent two hours blowing out the entire garage top to bottom until I could see no more dust going out the doors into the sunlight. I then spent another hour misting the floor, walls, ceiling, and everything else with a spray bottle filled with warm water to settle and fix the remaining dust.

I've had some problems with the guide coat showing through in a few stubborn spots this time and as I was sanding the orange peel on the third re-roll I noticed the black specks were back again!

After way too much time spent staring at the ceiling and the walls and the floor looking for microscopic specks of dust I got fed up and put away the paint and tossed the painting tools over in the corner... black specks appeared on the white plastic paint tray liner.

The black plastic roller handle was breaking down and crumbling around the metal roller rod as I rolled the paint. I bought a new handle and there don't seem to be any more black specks in the paint.

[DGXSER]

Now I see why you call the bike Columbo...it takes a detective to figure out all the stuff that happens with this machine!! Hoping your painting process goes much better for you from here on in!!!

[cywelchjr]

Now I see why you call the bike Columbo...it takes a detective to figure out all the stuff that happens with this machine!! Hoping your painting process goes much better for you from here on in!!!

It's not columbo that he's painting the tank for, it's bush.