Any tips for painting the tank

[rdunehew]

Hey everyone, i really want to paint my metal gas tank, but never done it before, anyone have tips? It has some dents, the famous ones made from the forks, can I use bondo?thank you

[Kerick]

When I painted my tank I:
1) Used paint stripper took all the existing paint off(dont get it inside the tank)
2) I sanded and primed and repeated until smooth
3) then painted with THIN coats and let dry after every coat.

[rdunehew]

Ahh stripper, good call, what about using bondo to fill in dents, will the bondo suck being used on a fuel tank? Thanks for the reply

[bones200x]

Not sure of bondo. I would try to pull out the dents or freeze them out.
I Never have used bondo or fiberglass filler on a motorcycle tank.

[jcorkin]

have the dent pulls, you dont want bondo to be very thick only a mm or 2 at the thickest also for the painting of it go heavy with the primer as you can sand it off and it dries fairly quick, for the base coat do it light and let dry for around 20 mins in between coats and for the clear when you apply it make it look wet and then let dry for about 20 mins in between coats as well, do about 3 coats for the base and the clear and do the primer as many times as you need to get everything smoothed out, also tape off the top of the area where you add gas to the tank as when you go to put a cap on after painting it it will strip the paint off.

[rdunehew]

Awesome feedback, thank you guys

[Legbah]

I had a 350x once that had the "Oh Sh1t" dents in the side of the tank when I got it. I gave it to a friend at a body shop to paint and he used bondo and made it look really nice. I sold it three years later so I don't know if the bondo feel out at some point. Good Luck.

[rdunehew]

well, I'm gonna try the freeze out technique first, it sounds interesting, and its free, we'll see what happends.

[big schott]

Everything sounds good here.... I put on the decals before I clear. (3 or 4 coats or untill all smooth and clear) The clear makes the decals feel like the way the factory does it.

[rdunehew]

Well I froze it and re-froze it 4 times, it did seem to push some of the dents out, but only a little, it really didn't get rid of them. It did however widen my tank, I had to squeeze it back just so it would fit properly back onto the frame, and so the forks wouldn't hit it.plus side to this, everytime I melted the water and rinsed it out it seem to clear out alot of rust and gunk, this is all after i used evap-o-rust a long time ago, so that was nice to see. I guess next ill try the preping and bondo, thanks for all the feedback!