Painting My Bodywork

Kidkawie wrote:

DoubleDub wrote:

How would you seal the tank?

That would be up to you to figure out. I think I would use the stock gas cap but add something so it doesn't vent. Maybe add a soft strap around the tank for back-up. Then make up some sort of adapter for the petcock...heck, even just attach a 1/4" hose directly to the fuel supply then attach that to a regulator/guage setup. Start at 20psi and gradually go up from there. I would definately practice on a spare (honda, lol) tank. I don't know how much pressure would start making seams fail.

Here's my setup for the pipes, I use a higher pressure guage now though. the stinger is capped off with a 35mm film container and a coupla hose clamps. You could pop dents out of a set of headers too.

get an old truck tire inner tube and cut out the valve stem and a few inches around it clamp it around filler neck with a good hose clamp.
be really carefull heating up a gas tank unless its been tanked at a radiator shop or atleast purged really well with nitrogen,carefull not to blow the seams out of tank although i think hose clamp should come off first.
tapping around the radius of the dent really carefully after its pressurized just a little might get the dents out

DD... how deep is this dent?
Tap around on small dents pop it out...
Weld a rod/bolt to it and pull it out....
Sharp Creased...

Pack a motorcycle tire tube in the tank under the dent, possible pop it out with a little air....

Hell, just bondo the damn thing.... :laugh:

BTW... Don;t mind me for I've allowed myself a few budweisers... Rare these days as it may be, four beers and I get shitty faced.... :blush:

Doubledub, one thing to keep in mind too: Don't beat yourself up over it! You've chosen to just do it and learn as you go, which is admirable (and my chosen path to learning most times as well-see the trouble I'm still having with my silly sidecovers) but it is not without it's drawbacks. Making it look like dents have disappeared and laying down a smooth and blemish free paint job is an art, and one that is not quickly or easily learned. Keep at it, you're doing a great job and you'll get some decent results that you'll be proud to say "I did the body and paint myself"

Thanks, guys... I think for my fiscal and mental health I'll just keep at it and finish it up. I'm already planning the next time, but I don't want to be without the bike for the rest of the season. We'll see how it ends up and go from there.

Thats fine, get it painted and ride it! I might recommend practicing filling dents on something else while your bike is ridable. Something like a fender or even a scrap piece of sheet metal that you smack with a hammer in a few places for dents. Then fill them in and make the panel flat again. It would be good to practice, that way when you take your bike back down to refinish it it'll be faster and easier to do a better job on the body work. Remember, when you're doing body work and paint, your results are only as good as the quality of work underneath and you can't over prep!

Ok, so finally got some progress - it's been crazy around here, my dad is in and out of the hospital (he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer stage 4 over a year ago) and our neighbor's son just passed away from a 2 year fight with a brain tumor.

Anyways...

I put in some more time "welding" the side cover. I feel pretty good about it and think it will hold up well enough. I put some primer on it after trying to smooth out the chunks of ABS that got melted and reformed.

I'm also on my third or fourth coat (lost track) on the other parts. Just about ready to start taping the stripes for the tank and the tail. I need to find some "fine line" tape, though. Nobody around here that I've been to carries it and I'm hesitating ordering it from Eastwood as it would be way more than I need and I'd have to pay shipping. I'm also having issues finding wet/dry higher than 1000 grit locally.

So here's the pics.

Hope to have more tomorrow. I may just do the stripes without the fineline, but it sure would look nice if I can locate some. There is a body shop supply store in town, but they were dicks the last time I stopped in there so I don't go there anymore. Why have a retail store if you don't want to sell to the public?

Started on the stripes today. I hope it works out, not sure if the paint is compatible or not based on how it started drying. I may have to wet sand it down and get something different...it's always something.