Here’s another late post! After getting my car electrics sorted out I got back to my painting. You may remember that I’m brush painting the bike with coach enamel. This is pretty laborous especially on relatively small parts – I mean small as opposed to car bodies, canal boats etc.
Before stripping off the existing paint to see what delights lay beneath I refitted the knee grips to the tank and took a good few snaps to remind me of where the decals were. They’re not original anyway but the knowledge might be useful one day.
I made up a couple of different wooden brackets so that could hold the tank while I work on it. Then I set about stripping the old paint. I got going with various abrasives, the heat gun and used Jenolite chemical rust remover then rust converter after that to make sure nothing active was left in any pits in the metal. I found some filler as well. There was filled dent in one of the tanks flanks and filled rust pits which hadn’t been fully cleaned out and were still active. I dealt with these and think I was more than thorough.
There was also an area of untidy braze around one of the fuel tap bosses. I tidied it up a bit but decided it was probaly best not to play with it too much. Once the tank was bare metal I filled it with paraffin again just to check there were no nasty surprises. I needn’t have worried.
Of course, having removed all the old filler, I had to re-do it. Once upon a time I was good at this having owned many old rusty cars. However, I found I’d lost the nack and it took several goes to get it right. After cleaning, degreasing, cleaning again and tack-ragging the tank was given two good coats of primer, sanded and given one more.
Three coats of undercoat followed but something went wrong and I ended up sanding it back quite a lot before giving it another go.
Three top coats were applied after flatting back. I think the finish is acceptable but I might flat it again and have another try some time. Not now though.
I have found that it’s easiest to paint the vertical surface of the tank then turn it over on my “spit and do the next part that’s now become vertical. As I go I’m working quickly trying to keep a wet edge. If you paint the nice easy top surface there’s a good chance of the paint running when you turn it to do the next bit. It’s what works for me anyway.
The Racing Rhino 