Well ever since I got the idea to put one of the iconic CAT gas tanks on this bike it has caused me a fair amount of aggravation. First just finding one.....and then making it look presentable again. Most all of them have some kind of issue...broken fuel nipple, stripped or leaking mounting holes, cracks, chips, burns, gouges, scratches...you name it. :doah:
I caught a break when my pal SimpleTom offered me a tank.
I had conceded long ago that I was going to have to paint this one to bring it back close to new looking....it was past the point of "buffing out" but it did have a solid base with nice threaded holes and fuel outlet.
I read a post somewhere (Casey Davis I think) which pointed out that if you were going to paint a plastic tank you needed to first "seal" the inside to keep the gasoline vapors from leeching through the plastic and lifting the paint..
Didn't see that coming....:doah:
Sooooo I took the advice from our resident gas tank guru Evil Ed and sealed the tank using the Caswell product. That stuff is actually pretty cool...I was nervous at first because after I coated the inside of the tank it seemed like it wasn't hardening :scared: ....but once that stuff "activated" it hardened up like a rock and glass smooth....looks to be indestructible :thumbsup:
Finally, on to the painting...this should be easy right?....right..?......wrong!! :doah: nothing is easy with this tank.
It was easy enough to feather in a little epoxy filler on the sides and sand it smooth....but the tops of these tanks have a "textured" finish" which runs from front to back right around the filler neck. And the top was really rough with a lot of deep gouges and scrathes .
I tried every trick in the book to try and fill the scratches and gouges and then "reproduce" the textured finish by embossing the filler before it hardened but to no avail......:surrender:
As a last ditch effort, I decided to "spray" the texture on using some wrinkle black paint. First I shot the whole tank with Krylon Satin Black paint for plastic and let it dry for a couple days. Then I masked off the sides and shot just the top with the wrinkle paint and waited excitedly for the result......CRAP!!!! :doah:
The wrinkle paint proved to be incompatible with the base paint and created a soft , gooey, wretched mess that had me ready to stomp that tank into oblivion ala TRK
........I just turned out the lights and walked away from it.
Came back yesterday with a belly full of turkey and a new plan....I first had to chemically strip off all of the old paint and start fresh ....
....then I shot just the sides with the base coat leaving the center section bare plastic...then I masked the finished sides while I shot the center again with the wrinkle paint.....
put it under some heat lamps to accelerate the drying time....
Voila`!!!!
It's not "good as new" but I think it looks pretty good.....anyway gonna have to do until I find a "mint" one someday.....
.
I caught a break when my pal SimpleTom offered me a tank.
I had conceded long ago that I was going to have to paint this one to bring it back close to new looking....it was past the point of "buffing out" but it did have a solid base with nice threaded holes and fuel outlet.
I read a post somewhere (Casey Davis I think) which pointed out that if you were going to paint a plastic tank you needed to first "seal" the inside to keep the gasoline vapors from leeching through the plastic and lifting the paint..
Didn't see that coming....:doah:
Sooooo I took the advice from our resident gas tank guru Evil Ed and sealed the tank using the Caswell product. That stuff is actually pretty cool...I was nervous at first because after I coated the inside of the tank it seemed like it wasn't hardening :scared: ....but once that stuff "activated" it hardened up like a rock and glass smooth....looks to be indestructible :thumbsup:
Finally, on to the painting...this should be easy right?....right..?......wrong!! :doah: nothing is easy with this tank.
It was easy enough to feather in a little epoxy filler on the sides and sand it smooth....but the tops of these tanks have a "textured" finish" which runs from front to back right around the filler neck. And the top was really rough with a lot of deep gouges and scrathes .
I tried every trick in the book to try and fill the scratches and gouges and then "reproduce" the textured finish by embossing the filler before it hardened but to no avail......:surrender:
As a last ditch effort, I decided to "spray" the texture on using some wrinkle black paint. First I shot the whole tank with Krylon Satin Black paint for plastic and let it dry for a couple days. Then I masked off the sides and shot just the top with the wrinkle paint and waited excitedly for the result......CRAP!!!! :doah:
The wrinkle paint proved to be incompatible with the base paint and created a soft , gooey, wretched mess that had me ready to stomp that tank into oblivion ala TRK
........I just turned out the lights and walked away from it.
Came back yesterday with a belly full of turkey and a new plan....I first had to chemically strip off all of the old paint and start fresh ....
....then I shot just the sides with the base coat leaving the center section bare plastic...then I masked the finished sides while I shot the center again with the wrinkle paint.....
put it under some heat lamps to accelerate the drying time....
Voila`!!!!
It's not "good as new" but I think it looks pretty good.....anyway gonna have to do until I find a "mint" one someday.....
.
