Good turn out on tank with spray paint

EasyE

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Reading, pa
Started with a bright red tank, not my style, but also wanted to remove the side emblems and had a nice tip over on left side of tank
Started out process with the mindset of cheap but as quality as possible
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Used dremel tool to grind off emblem mounts and took down to bare metal where I was going to be applying bondo, just roughed up paint on rest of tank. Wire brush and rough pad drill attachments help this process go a lot smoother
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Time to lay down the bondo. First thing was cleaning up the tank so the bondo would stick. Applied first base layer of bondo thinly being sure to not trap air under bondo, let dry and applied two more thin layers being sure to keep lines as close to final product as possible bc it's a pain to sand though a lot easier to do soon after drying period. Used a 120 grit sand paper to shape
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Time to lay down the layers...
I used best looking plain rustoleum from lowes and their filler primer
Cleaned tank, screwed together some boards to make me a tank sawhorse, and stapled up a tarp in the shed for a "booth"
Layer down first layer of filler primer and sanded down with 400 grit paper after drying, sprayed second layer and sanded down with 800 grit paper
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Cleaned up and ready to lay down some color, layed down 2 layers of some green-blue
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Layed down the painters tape and shot with black...DON'T PEAL TAPE OFF TILL PAINT IS COMPLETELY DRY!!!
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Tape is off
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Went to the local mall and got some numbers printed up, stuck them on and put a few coats of car hard coat semi gloss, the clear coat is the most important thus that if gas is dripped on rustoleum clear coat, all of your hard work get "washed away" literally. Let dry and couldn't be happier with the turnout
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Did the same process on the side covers.
On the bike
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Nice work mate. Your bike is looking sweet.

How did you mount your seat? Did you make a small sub frame?

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It seems rigged up but I bought a prefabricated and upholstered seat so there wasn't the possibility to be able to mount through seat...I seen an alternate method of heavy duty velcro and it seemed like a sketchy idea but it was worth a shot. Come to find out its amazing, there's no shifting or moving and always stays secure

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Made a bracket off the tank mount and off the crossbar...with some washers and testing it sits nicely
 
So what kind of clear coat did you end up using exactly? Did you use a gun for that part?
 
I do believe it's made by duplicolor but its a spraycan clearcoat that is made for cars, so it can't be penetrated by any acids, gas, ect.

It works good, I seem to put it to the test every time I'm gassing up

FYI...They make this brand in color too which I originally didn't know just for a heads up and would prob make the whole job a little more bulletproof
 
The paint job looks realy nice and I have painted mine with spray can also.The problem is that I can not find a good clear coat of enamel acyrlic or of any kind that fuel resistant.What did you use on your tank?
Im going to repaint mine with auto enamel when it warms up.I also waxed it which made it shine realy nice as a form of protection from fuel but that didn't work either.Oh and I also used the duplicolor clear on my tank also but it doesn't hold to fuel.Im going to use a gun next time I repaint
 
I did a bunch of research last night on a gas resistant solution. Here are the options if you must use a rattle can:

1. duplicolor engine paint advertises fuel resistance on the can. It is not as good as a real 2-part clear coat, but I found someone that tested the gas resistance and it worked pretty well. The guy intentionally left gas on a painted strip for 3 to 5 minutes and any damage came out by lightly wiping the surface with a polish. It costs about $6 a can locally, but can be found for less online.

2. spraymax 2k clear is the real deal, but it costs about $20 a can and can't be found locally as far as I know.
 
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