Can i Paint my own Tank? First time..

This is my first bike and i've already started tinkering with it.

77 kz650 custom, fun to ride lots of power. I got it for an unbeatable price from a motorcycle mechanic who was getting married and had to part with a couple to pay for things..his loss, my gain.

Bike runs great, BUT it's not BLACK. black is my color- so i've already turned the tail, side covers, and guage/light holder black. She's starting to get the feel, but I have more to do.

Most Obviously The tank. I want to paint it black, and turn the silver stripes white.
what's the best way to go about accomplishing this ??

I want to paint the bottom of my forks black, as they're simply faded metal color, and possibly more engine parts..and even plan on getting Black cafe racer handle bars, and lastly seat pan if i can find the right one.

Hey Prophis,

you have a very nice bike. Congratz.

Thats a bike with style & class and your`s look pretty original. You should invest more in her than just a black painting. Too much bikes are black in my opinion but if you like do black but don`t paint yourself.

I on your part would make her nice from scratch. You can do that expensive (bring her to shops) or cheap yourself with some bottle beers, 2, 3 weekends time.

The fork buttoms are easy to polish and look better than new with 10 dollars and 1 hour work. You get any metal shiny and looking new - no matter how crappy it looks. Than do the wheels - they need a afternoon to polish and paint. I just did id 3 weeks ago on my 500 - they look like new and been crap before.

Your bike is great and deserve more than black spray paint in my opinion. She could be a absolute beauty and headturner with a little work.

Just my opinion.

For Tank & Plastic Painting:
Here's what I followed using can paint and 2-part clear coats.... Works like a charm every time....

head-light-shell-can-paint

Tank Prep-Painting

Sand old finnish, Seal with Epoxy primer, fill dents and nicks with easy sand bondo, sand smooth, then use high build primer, wet sand smooth with 800 wet dry. If everything looks and feels nice use a sealer coat, u can use epoxy primer with extra reducer to seal or your first coat of single stage urethane finish for your base color, wet sand with 1000 grt (careful not to burn through, tape off your design with striping tape, apply next color single stage urethane finish. Add 3 coats of clear wet sand with 12-1500 in between coats and buff last coat out with polish, wait 24 hours in between each coat before next coat. ( do not use spray cans on a gas tank) you must use a two part paint for chemical resistance, you dont want spilled gas eating up your new paint.

Gar

2 or 3 part Clear coat protects the paint (gas)...

Used can paint on my tank, still holding up 3 years later... And yes, I have spilled gas on it a time or two while filling her up... :pinch:

I know, shameful plug... :blush:

Looks great OMR! Like OMR said you can use can rattle can but finish it off with 2 part urethane clear so it will be protected from fuel spills. You will need to purchase an aerosol sprayer in order to do this. Home Depot has it for about $15.00. Just look at OMR's instructions on the links he gave you. Although I only painted parts (head shell, triple tree, gauges, etc) and not my body parts, I followed OMR's instructions he posted in the file base and got awesome results. Good luck.

Use duplicolor paint and Spray Max 2-part aerosol clear. Just google it, it's like $17 a can. You need 2 cans of clear for a fender, 2 side panels and tank. About 2-3 cans of base coat (duplicolor).

Holly crap Kid... That came out just plain gorgeous!...

Old Man Rock wrote: Holly crap Kid... That came out just plain gorgeous!...

Thanks. My build thread from a couple years ago has all the info.

Thank you all VERY Much for posting back!

z-igor thanks for admiring my bike. It seemed to be just what i was looking for. Possibly 650's a little large, but relatively she's almost as light as a 400 i read. I plan on turning it mostly black but with Red & white accents though, i prefer all my rides to be mostly black.

Downloaded the two pdf's it's pretty well documented thank you very much. going into my bike folder.

Gar Thanks for advice, making me really think about paint quality
Old Man & Kidkawie REALLY Encouraging photos! Your tanks look amazing i'm jealous! after painting, it seems key to lay on the clear protective part real good. I was researching replicolor the other day, i saw somebody else recommend that brand, probably will go with some of those high quality cans.

Both of you guys have beautiful lines also on your custom tanks. impressive, i'm still unsure if i can pull off turning my silver stripes white on the black tank.

Again, MUCH appreciated guys~
thanks

The paint I used is Duplicolor. It's like $6 a can at auto parts stores. The clear is from Spray Max. There's an activator button under the can that blends the clear.

The clear won't lay out like that. When it dries you'll need to wet sand with 2000 grit paper to knock down the orange peel, then buff with polish to shine. I only had one can of clear so I could only remove like 60% of the peel. Looks like a factory paint job.

cost me like $50 to paint my bike.

A black base coat works great for silver, or gold. FYI

Silver over black..