Plastic tank repair, 85 Big Red

[J.D.]

Here's the start. I'm going to show how I restore a plastic tank and make it nice, shiny and new looking again! More pics as I go along.

[ADW3]

Bring it on J.D.! Can't wait to see you work some more of your magic! :headbang:

[J.D.]

OK well I pretty much got the first step done tonight. Basically, I start off with 400 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper, I like the 400 because it doesn't gouge the plastic real bad, so it's easier to smooth out down the road, but at the same time it's a little harder to get results quickly. I reckon if you have deep scratches, you could try some 200 grit, I wouldn't go anymore than that personally and I've never had to go that far, the 400 has always gotten the gouges/scratches out for me with a little work. What I do is just have me a lil ice cream bucket with some water in it, take it and start hitting the plastic. I like to make circles as much as possible, never tried it straight but the circular motion should give it a more uniform pattern. Here's the first step before I washed it off. Looks nice right now, right???

[J.D.]

Haha sucka....and you thought you were done! Here's after washing it off with water to remove the plastic residue and blowing it off with air. If you notice, I've missed some spots, especially where it had the faded look to begin with, it needs to be gone over again. If you look on the sides where it's got that lightly scratched look, you want the whole thing to look like that. This is why I wash it off and dry periodically, to see what spots I haven't got. It's especially hard to get the creases along the side, especially trying for a circular motion. I usually just fold the paper and try to gently run along that and make a small up and down-side to side motion. The hazy crap up top is going to get hit again, and a couple of other spots I missed. More coming later!!

[J.D.]

Ok, here's step two. I use 800 grit wet-or-dry paper. Same idea as last time, you want to hit all of the area you want to look good, and make it all look uniform. Might not be another update til this weekend but it is coming! Some of the patches look lighter in the pic, it's just a camera thing. In person it all looks the same, I think the lights just hitting it differently....some of it may be I wiped my hand over some of it and it cleaned the surface off of some of the dust.

[360X]

Any update on this SSJ3Goku?

I want to see the outcome of this and what to know the next steps in the process to get it done because I need to re-do my 85 R tank.

[250sx]

Yeah what he said...lay off the Jim Beam and get to work! :slap: :thumbsup:

[ScottZJ]

He found out that it doesnt last very long and then goes back lol.

[J.D.]

Hahaha I dunno I hope not. Has that SX you got from me already gone back?? That thing "did" look real good. Sorry guys just been real busy lately and haven't had a chance to get back to it, slacking hard!! It will get done eventually.

[J.D.]

Ok well here we go. Next step is the 1000 grit wet-or-dry, same as before just keep going over it until it all looks uniform. 1st pic is what it looks like after 1000, 2nd pic is a closeup...kinda sucks but gives you an idea.

[J.D.]

I just realized my pics of the 4th step apparently didn't come out, so I'll have to kinda skip ahead a couple of pics. The 4th step is the 2000 grit wet-or-dry. This step is probably one of the most important, because the more sanding you do here, the better it looks in the end. In this pic the top I have already hit with some of the finish polish, ignore that...just look at the side, that's what the 2000 grit looks like done.

[J.D.]

Ok, here's the last step...this is the one that makes it all worth it. Now, I kinda did some experimenting...I had somebody give me some stuff and I tried it. Normally, I've used the yellow terry type cloth with mothers mag/alum polish, and it works real good, but I think I like the meguiars plastx better, seems to give a better shine. In this pic of the tank here, the top is done with Plastx, the side is done with Mothers. If you use the mothers, use a good amount and kinda just spread it around and work it into the plastic. Once you do that, you need to let it dry up for a few minutes, it gets a whitish haze to it, once it dries, wipe it all down with the yellow cloth and thats what it looks like.

[J.D.]

Ok and now here's just two pics of the finished product. It's not perfect, in person you can still see some slight sanding marks, I didn't really spend enough time on the 2000 grit, but, this is a trail rider and it's gonna get scratched up again. I still think it looks pretty good. What I actually wound up doing here in the end though, I went over it all with the mothers, let it haze, wiped it down, and then went over all of it with the Plastx. I think it looks pretty decent, at least a bit better than what I started with!

[ADW3]

:thumbsup: :headbang: :thumbsup: