sanding it woulda been a better direction. sanding acts in 2 ways
once ya sand it down to primer, you have a good base to lay your new paint down..and by sanding it, you can actually sand in a direction that will act as a guide for your new paint.. kind of what the guy on you tube did with his chcrome tank and tapeing it off. same principle applies.


with chemicals, you're gonna really need to clean it reallll good or else the new paint will bubble up from the chemiclas left over.

but not for nothing...this is a seriously stoked paint scheme.

 

Today, I go outside and start spraying front fender / tank. Both cans work 1 out of 10 times I press the nozzle down. Amazing....

I go back to Walmart to exchange the cans. No problem. I walk back to the auto dept and find they have 7 cans of the same stuff in stock. I start testing the cans.

Five (5) of the seven (7) cans on the shelf were bad, just like the two I had bought the previous day.

Did you look on the cans to see where it was made?

 

I've run into the same thing with paint from walmart. Even their great value cooking spray is a crap shoot as to if you'll get more than half a can out of it.

On your original question, do you think you could get around the rivets with a wire brush attacment on a drill or dremel tool?

 

3 things

1 . Plan on repriming if you re attempting to sand down to primer ...Its almost impossible to not go through to bare metal in some areas when attempting to do that .

2. I have a media blaster in my shop that gets used 4 times a year at best ( and I repair around 900 cars a year ) ...do yourself a favor and if possible have that operation preformed at a local shop that offers that service. all the Blaster will be is one of those things that you are tripping over 364 days a year .

3. I would only remove the rivets if you were going to replace them with the same semi tube style rivets ...standard blind rivets would look sorta shitty if used to replace them .


For the record ...I bought used fenders and tank ( tank was damaged ) to do a Custom paint on my bike last year and all I did was repair the damaged/scratched areas and sand, prime complete, sand..... and have at it .

 

Good news....

In talking to my mech/painter friend he hooked me up with a local auto body shop that had a sand blaster. The guy blasted the underside of my front fender while I waited and he'll have my tank done by friday. He didn't give me a price but he said it would be cheap. He mentioned just paying for materials and maybe an hour or so of labor.

I removed my back fender and just got rid of the clear coat today. Not has hard as I thought the removal process was going to be.

I also rebuilt my front end. I did reinstall the Intiminators, using SE type E fork oil. I am 110% confident both forks have equal amounts of fluid. I did make a jig so I could put the forks into a vise without risk of damaging them.

I used a 1x6 with two 2" pipe clamps. The type that look like a "C" with tabs at each end for screwing down. I placed a shop rag between the fork tube and the clamp. screwed down to the wood, then I had enough wood to tighten down in the vise. Made reinstalling the fork caps MUCH MUCH easier. Trying to do that with the forks in the trees is a royal P.I.T.A IMHO...

So.....

I am hopeful that primed and painted should happen sometime next week.

CrzyLgzz...that is the paint scheme I loved. It may be too much for me but I'm going to try to shoot something like that. Maybe instead of gold, something in a metallic blue. I think the blue would help compliment the chrome and won't be overpowering.

Turning some wrenches is definitely good for the soul.

 

Blue would look damn good instead of gold in that pattern. Look forward to seeing.

 

So...today is Friday and believe it or not, the auto body guy had my tank ready to go.

I'm stoked. He fixed the dents on the left side, and two small dings in the front from the top tree bolts hitting the tank once or twice. He also primed it ready to go....

$100.

So, so far I have about $125 invested.

$100...tank repaired
$16...two cans of stripper
$8 misc (sand paper,etc).

I just need to prime the two fenders, wet sand and I'll be ready to shoot paint. I don't foresee a problem not having it done by next weekend.

It's freakin gorgeous today...low 70's and sunny. I WANT TO RIDE DAMMIT!!

 

Skip the spray cans, buy it by the quart or gallon at an automotive paint supply store.

 

I wouldnt buy more than a quart. and frankly if you plan on clearcoat.... a pint ( once reduced ) should be more than enough.