rattle canning tank.

I remember this great string of posts with lots of pics on stripping and prepping and rattle canning a tank last year. Does anyone else remember that string?

I am going to keep searching for it, but if anyone knows a more direct route to the string I would appreciate it.


Might as well paint the tank now that I am waiting for parts to come in the mail and such. Bike has been down for a few weeks now already.

i used a ratel can on my whole bike. have a look at pg 2.not very durable but it will by time till u get cash. a lot of work though.
kzrider.com/component/option,com_joomlab...it,20/limitstart,0/B )

QDude,is this the thread you were talking about?
tinyurl.com/2fhnp5

It's not about "painting" the tank, but about clearcoating. The prep work for the tank before CC was basically using many coats of primer, w/lots of sanding, 400, 600, 800, 1000 girts, to get it smooth to the touch. Much about what I did for the CC, is just as pertinent for the actual painting. The hardest thing was the waiting a week to go by before sanding and painting again. Ya gotta let it "melt", between coats. I've heard you can speed up the process by using an oven.
(PT, left KZr not long after)

Post edited by: ronjones, at: 2008/03/06 16:35

If I remember correctly, there used to be a thread that was stickied in paint a body that went through from stipping, to bondoing, to priming all the way to the clear coat. I think it was tittled "Painting Your Bike". Don't know if this will help with your search. Found a printout of part of a thread tittled "How to: repaint your bike".

That might be it, Painting your bike.

The other info is going to be incredibly usable as well.

Thanks Ronjones, I will use that info farther down the road.

Now I have a can of paint stripper and some tape and some sanding disks and new steel and brass brushes.

I need to strip the tank tonight.

I am going to search for the painting yo0ur bike thread. It had really in depth instructions with pics as well.

Thanks all, I wish I could add pics, but I cant get them into the computer from my phone.

I will keep posting though. Wish me success.

Could not find the article/string. So I am just going to go down and follow the directions on the back of the can and strip the paint off of the tank.

I will be sure that the gas is completely out of it first.

I will remove the petcock and gas cap and mask the holes.

Can I leave the stripper on too long?

What about the less than 7o degree temps?
I will use an electric space heater to cook it a bit.

Here goes.

I think I know which thread you are talking about.

Give this one a try.

kzrider.com/component/option,com_joomlab...ew/id,72544/catid,6/

Yes that was the one I was thinking about!! Thank you!

I thought there was more in there about the stripping aspect, but it does seem to center around painting.

With this and the info from Ron Jones, I am sitting pretty!

I put the stripping chemical on for the second time, as some of the paint did not come off. 30% remaining.

I will go out and sand the rest off the wash my hands and then what?

What should I do now with the paint stripper on the metal.

Sand the rest off and use tack cloth to clean it off?

Keep sanding?

Probably not what you are talking about, but here is an article I like

www.thegsresources.com/garage/gs_repaint.htm

All excellent sources, plenty of info to go with.

I'm going to get some sand paper and bondo now. The tank is free of its paint and needs to be sanded now. I have three hours to go 'til I need to go to work. I wonder how much I can accomplish?

Aw-right, so the Bondo is going to be a pain in the ass. I can see now that this is going to be a multiple application type thing. I know that if you try to work it too long, then it starts to bead up on you and come out/off in large snowball type lumps.

I got a cheese grater type rasp that I will use to rough shape the mess. I will get the basic shape formed (big dents, tablespoon sized). Then sand down the high spots and get it with another much thinner layer.

I got an hour to go, might be able to pull it off. I need to just get it rough rasped before I need to go. If I have time then I will apply the thin coat, but I'm planning on waiting a day for that. Take your time, right?

Qdude, it sounds like I'm already too late with this, but what I like to do for dents like that is load my squeegie with un-activated bondo and do a couple practice swipes to see the best way to lay it down. That way, when I do add the hardener, I know exactly how much to put on the sqeegie and which way to smear it. Because I hate a lot of rasping and sanding.