Paint removal

TOM SCHANNE

XS400 Enthusiast
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Mullica Hill, NJ
My recently acquired 81 XS400HS has a huge amount of paint splatters on the gas tank, seat and side panels. I don't know whether it's latex or oil base but obviously I want to make it gone.
I thought maybe a series of wet sanding then a coat of clear on the tank and side panels but I don't know where to begin on the vinyl seat.
Here's what I'm dealing with,
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Any suggestions?
 
Maybe wd-40 or some of that goof-off stuff. I kind of like the look. Very 70's sparkle. If your tank has poor paint already a re-spray might be the only good option if your looking for a nice factory setup bike.
 
Kind of looks like the sky on a clear night...............maybe not :rolleyes:

I tried WD-40 but no luck, I'll try the Goof off next but I was already anticipating getting it resprayed to complete the project, just trying to do as much myself as possible

Speaking of redoing the tank, I like the gold stripe I've seen on some of the stock XS's. Is that a vinyl graphic available from Yamaha?.
 
You might find some old stock stuff on the net. Your model never had any graphics. The 79-2F has a nice stripe. The 80 SG had a nice one too but not as wide. Those tanks also where black but had red flake in it. I kick myself for painting the one I had another color. There are lots of aftermarket vinyl stuff out there.
 
I made good progress getting rid of the majority of the rust on the inside of my tank last night but in doing so I unveiled a small pin hole that must have been a result of the rust. If I clean it up real good would soldering the hole be a good permanent fix?
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Also, the Goof Off worked pretty good at taking off the paint splatters from the tank Chris, Thanks!
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Brazing is what I think works best for tanks or take it to a good tig welder. Either way your going to want to strip the tank to look for more and re-paint it. With those fixes it will cause a mess of the paint.
 
Get the aerosol version of Aircraft Paint Remover. The application is cleaner and works very well as opposed to the paintbrush version.

After you spray, you can cover the tank in Saran wrap to help aid the process of paint removal. It should start bubbling right away though.

For the pin holes, Ive repaired small holes like that simply by cleaning the area with alcohol and solder flux and dropping a couple beads of solder over the holes. After it hardens, you can file it down a bit to make it smooth.

I wasn't too concerned with imperfections created by the solder because I used a textured truck bed liner spray and it hid the bumps very well.
 
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