Tank

[wildpudding]

Hi everyone,

Just a few quick questions, in the process of giving my bike a paint job, and just wondering if its safe to use paint stripper on the tank, and if so whats the right stuff to use?

Also, after I emptyed out the tank I noticed quite a bit of rust on the bottom of the tank, with some of the metal flaking off eaisily with a screwdriver. Not good. What the best way to deal with this problem?

Cheers,

Stefan

[Paul in NZ]

Depends how bad it is.

Just a bit o rust/ Get some rust converter from supercheap (phosphoric acid I think) and seal it up 9if you can take the fuel taps out and seal with a spopper / bolt etc so much the better), shake (keep all surfaces wet) for 15 mins or so. Flush out with lotsa clean water and (this is the important bit) dry completely. If paint is a non issue, plug a hot air gun into the filler and remove the taps and leave it to heat the whole thing. Shake it about the get all the water out of the nooks and crannies and make sure it's REAL dry.

If it has holes in in (rust holes) use something like POR15 to seal it.

Cheers

[scumdog]

Before doing what PaulNZ says try putting in a good handfull or two of gravel and add some water then give the tank a good shaking all around.

The gravel will shake loose the rust flakes and you can flush the lot out with ahose, do it two-three times and it should cut down a hell of a lot of the rust.

You COULD try it without the water but if parts of the tank are a bit thin theres a risk that you have a lot of little 'pimples' on your tank from the pounding effect of the gravel flying around inside.

[wildpudding]

Cheers Paul, there's no holes but from having a wee look inside the bottom, the rust looks quite bad. I wonder if thats been causing the engine to run strange lately...

Stefan

[wildpudding]

Still wondering if its safe to use paint stripper on the tank...?

Cheers

[Macktheknife]

Take it to a panelbeaters shop and get it sand/grit blasted to remove any rust stuff from inside. Why the paint stripper?
If you want to repaint it just sand and use a hi-fill undercoat.
Edit:
If you want to go back to metal then strip away, or have it blasted back to metal.

[Paul in NZ]

If you are going to repaint the whole thing and it's a steel tank, go for it. Often easier to strip everything off. If it's plastic etc, erm - no, just sand it back.

Remember to etch prime it after if you get it to bare metal.

Go to supercheap, they have a little speil on repainting it.

[imdying]

Still wondering if its safe to use paint stripper on the tank...?

Cheers

Yes, on anything metal it will be fine.

/edit: Having said that, if the base coat is sound, you can just key it up with a scotchbrite pad (bodyshop store will have them) and blow over the top.

[wildpudding]

Cheers thanks for that.

Stefan

[degrom]

Hi everyone,

Just a few quick questions, in the process of giving my bike a paint job, and just wondering if its safe to use paint stripper on the tank, and if so whats the right stuff to use?

Stefan

This might be a dangerous way of removing paint but it really makes it easy. I use a welding torch to burn of all the old paint. You will have to be absolutely sure that there are no Fuel/fumes left in the tank because it can exploded it there are left.

Let it cool down and brush it off with a steel brush or one of those rotating steel brushes that you use with a drill. It cleanse it down to the metal and ready to be primed.

Hope it could be helpful.
Let us know how it turned out.

[The Pastor]

This might be a dangerous way of removing paint but it really makes it easy. I use a welding torch to burn of all the old paint. You will have to be absolutely sure that there are no Fuel/fumes left in the tank because it can exploded it there are left.

Let it cool down and brush it off with a steel brush or one of those rotating steel brushes that you use with a drill. It cleanse it down to the metal and ready to be primed.

Hope it could be helpful.
Let us know how it turned out.

Fire + petrol tank = awesome! Man I was freeking out about using a hot air gun in my tank recently (bad experiances with petrol and flames lol)

[TLDV8]

....try putting in a good handfull or two of gravel and add some water then give the tank a good shaking all around.

I have heard of folk doing just that but using a concrete mixer with the fuel tank wrapped in suitable padding.
On a tangent,i used sand and water to clean the inside of the plastic radiator overflow tank on the TL..Gave it a shake and it came out looking like new.

[degrom]

Fire + petrol tank = awesome! Man I was freeking out about using a hot air gun in my tank recently (bad experiances with petrol and flames lol)

Just make sure the petrol is out of the tank before you bring the flame near it... LOL

I let it stand for about an week with the fuel tap removed and the cap open. Or you can use a compressor to blow it out if you want it the next day.(Let the compressor blow clean air into it for a few hours)

Cheers

[Finn]

Before doing what PaulNZ says try putting in a good handfull or two of gravel and add some water then give the tank a good shaking all around.

The gravel will shake loose the rust flakes and you can flush the lot out with ahose, do it two-three times and it should cut down a hell of a lot of the rust.

That's a great idea. I was wondering if you got this information directly from your Harley owners book (1000K inspection service) or was it from previous experience?

[scumdog]

That's a great idea. I was wondering if you got this information directly from your Harley owners book (1000K inspection service) or was it from previous experience?

Ahem, my only previous Jap bike is the only bike I have had that needed that treatment and got the idea off another Jap bike owner, he wanted to know why Harley tanks did not need that treatment.