Problems with CUSTOM PAINT JOB!

[rover]

My tank

has the original finish, getting a bit dull and scratched, but I do not wish to paint it because of what happens to paint and gasoline. My special has been repainted, and sitting in the garage for a few years. I wonder if time can cure the paint good enough to be impervious to gasoline.

[BA80]

If it's not too scratched up get some of THIS and lightly sand what you have and wipe it with acetone, spray this on, and it'll bring back the original shine with a little wet sanding and polishing.

Spray Max 2K is VERY resistant to gasoline unless you let it sit on there for a long time.

[CaptonZap]

I don't think acetone would be a good idea. It will attack almost every paint out there, and the newer the paint job, the quicker it will eat it.
A milder solvent is enamel reducer. It won't eat into the paint as easily, but will clean off all the oils, if you use CLEAN rags. Enamel reducer does have some acetone, MEK, and other strong solvents, but the percentage is so small that it takes a good soak for it to soften a well dried paint film. Test on an inconspicuous spot.
Even better is alcohol. It won't soften anything except the your inhibitions.
Wet sand with 600 grit, to the same matte finish all over, detergent wash, rinse, dry, wipe with cheese cloth dampened with enamel reducer or alcohol, let dry, then paint. The pro's will use a tack cloth just before painting, but if you don't try painting when the wind is blowing, you can probably get by without it.

CZ

[donebysunday]

has the original finish, getting a bit dull and scratched, but I do not wish to paint it because of what happens to paint and gasoline. My special has been repainted, and sitting in the garage for a few years. I wonder if time can cure the paint good enough to be impervious to gasoline.

Time/temp changes, cold/hot/cold/hot will help harden the paint. Still not totally resistant to fuel and E10 seems to be a stronger paint remover than non-ethanol. If the paint is newer don't try to wipe off small fuel spills, air dry/ride it. If the tank is to full or filled when it's cold out and now it's warmed up you may find rivers eaten into your paint from constant or repeated fuel overflow, don't ask how I know this.
On your original finish tank you might try one of the colored polishing compounds, may not be perfect but better ?

[cajun31]

rover

post a picture of what your talking about and you will probably get better advice. What has been said is all true but if the damage you are experiencing is too severe it will be hard to hide. It just depends on where you are now and what is acceptable to you as an end result. Having it color matched and repainted is not a bad thing especially if you have someone paint it and bake it for you. If you do decide to paint don't take the tank back down to bare metal. Just prep it by wet sanding then just have the base resprayed followed by several coats of clear. Wet sand that with 1200 to 1500 wet sand paper and then buff that up and you will have a good finish that you will be proud of.

[webbcraft2150]

Imron (spell) is a killer if you don't use equipment designed to protect you from it's fumes/vapor. Had my 79 done in a heavy flake silver Imron, did not know anything about it, neither did the guy that did the job. He had huge doors on either end of his shop that he mostly kept open (saved his life).
Guy down the road did an Imron job on an entire car in his booth using his standard equipment and died in the hospital 4 hrs. later. Doc said there was nothing they could do, the catalyzed vapor went into his lungs and slowly solidified freezing his lungs as the chemical reaction hardened what had gone into his lungs.
They say spray bombs have a dose of cancer in every can if not used right.

That explains why I still see rhinos climbing the garage walls sometimes.

[BA80]

That explains why I still see rhinos climbing the garage walls sometimes.

I was wondering where those went....

[dolphans1]

Painted the tank on my 1100 Spectre (long since gone) using Centuari and a hardener. Never had the paint lift even when I spilled fuel. Mine was a single color paint job though. Imron (do they still even make it?) is impervious to almost anything.

Imron has undergone many changes over the years, from regular Imron to Imron 3.5 to Imron 2000 to Imron 5000 to Imron base clear 6000 to the new Imron Elite, Imron is used by most truck manufactuers today, there is 70% market share which shows it's bigger today then ever, however the car guys find it very hard to use, and very expensive, with aftermarket companies selling a gallon of paint for $80 a gallon most wont pay $300-$500 a gallon for Imron, we try to explain that Imron would last forever and the cheap stuff just a couple of years but most are blind to value when faced with dollars out of pocket .

The big problem with Imron is "orange peel", the stuff is real thick and needs to be heated to get it flow, also the dries times are very long, again it's thick and is very slow to dry, so if you do a 3-4 step(s) process, it takes a long time between coats, and with no bake capability, the final dry is very slow. If you can deal with those issues, go for it. I'm doing a couple old tractors and a 57 T-bird and they're all going Imron.

By: Frank S.

[Radioguylogs]

Frank has an advantage.

Wouldn't baking be redundant for Orlando in August?

[scratcher09]

When catalyzed clear fails around the filler neck, it is usually bad prep work. Painting a bike is not the same as painting a car. A lot of skilled automotive painters don't take precautions to prevent fuel from creeping under paint because they don't know motorcycles.

Modern automotive paints have greatly improved over the last few decades. Baking is not usually a must. Modern paints will fully cure without baking. And catalyzed clear should be resistant to fuel. I have painted many many bikes over the years (most without baking) and I have never had problems caused by fuel (except where pin holes were the real problem). I attribute a large part of this to meticulous prep work.

Powder coating is of course a very durable alternative.