Painting the tank process????

[futter]

If I wanted to repaint my tank, what would I need/have to do?

I am guessing that I would need to rub it down with emery cloth, but would it need to be to bare metal? I do have some rust on the tank (RD04) so I would expect to have to get that right off and then fill/sand.

What primer should I use? What paint? Type of paint etc?? What finish can I expect, how long will it last, will petrol affect it.

Cheers in advance.

[jasonbc]

If I wanted to repaint my tank, what would I need/have to do?

I am guessing that I would need to rub it down with emery cloth, but would it need to be to bare metal? I do have some rust on the tank (RD04) so I would expect to have to get that right off and then fill/sand.

What primer should I use? What paint? Type of paint etc?? What finish can I expect, how long will it last, will petrol affect it.

Cheers in advance.

If DONT KNOW is your answer to all your questions best take it too a body shop or it will end in tears and for the sake of a few quid to a professional shop. They will do it in no time and it won't cost a fortune

[digitalcaptive]

If there's rust on your tank at the moment you'd be better taking the tank down to the bare metal, you can get away without doing this but you run the risk of paint shrinkage marks around the various layers and of course there may be other areas of rust developement beneath the paint.
Once your tank is stripped ensure the sanding finish is no more coarse than 240 grit, before applying any sort of paint wash the entire tank with a good quality slow drying synthetic thinner to degrease it.......then degrease it again and when you think you've degreased it enough......degrease it again (you need to rid the surface of all the years of polymers and other waxes/oils that have been applied).
Buy some tack cloths (they are pennies and worth every one of then) tack off the surface and ensure totally dust free, apply a light coat of etch prime, and then a more liberal coat. Once dried sand the etch prime using 400 grit wet and dry paper (unless you are using a wet on wet system), now you are ready for two good coats of a high build primer (my preferred is a cellulous based APS 3 for Air dry(different story in a booth where I'd use a 2K primer).
When dry wet flat the entire tank using 800 grit paper (remember any imperfections at this point with be seen in the final top coat) If you don't uniformly key the whole area now you are asking for paint flaking in the near future (so every curve, seam or insignificant bit needs wet flatting)
If you break through the primer surface reprime the area and wet flat it again.
Before application of a good quality 2K top coat ensure the area is totally clean and dust free degrease the surface again and again ensure all holes are masked shut, tack rag the whole surface (then do it again) cleanliness is the name of the game. Unless painting in a booth consider hanging the tank upside down to spray it (dust is less likely to settle on the upper surfaces then)
Good quality 2K paints eg, Dupont, Glasurit, Sihkens, ICI
Use a decent quality gun eg.....Devilbiss, Sagola. Binks
Have a good water/oil trap in between the compressor and airline
Use at least a 3 cfm compressor (to try to maintain a constant 45-55psi)
when spraying top coat make you first coat a quick light coat (tack coat) and then two full coats using long sweeps across the surface keeping a distance between nozzle and painted surface of about 12-16 inches and each stroke should overlap the previous by about half the fan width (preventing dry lines)
Leave the tank as long as you can to dry before handling....it may appear touch dry after a few hours but if you start handing it inside of 24hrs (in an air dry environment) its sure to mark it.

I'm sure others will have preffered methods that dont match my own......but this method has served me well for 20 odd years.......I'm bound to have missed a few points off (sometimes we take these for granted but this is aimed as a rough guide

Just a word of warning.....2k is considered the anti christ by the environment agencies these days so you may be offered an alternative.......stay well clear of water based paints they are not suited to the Air dry environment and it doesn't to me to be as durable (even though it is coated with high solids laquer..

One further point if you want to make your finish that bit more durable put a couple of coats of laquer on as your final coats

Leave plenty of time between coats, theres nothing quite as soul destroying as seeing your paint start to run on your final coats (I know first hand)15 minutes between the first and second coats and then add ten minutes per coat as the paint thickness increases

Hope this helps

To be honest Jason talks sense when he says take it to a pro, you are opening a whole can of potential misery here

[jasonbc]

Just a word of warning.....2k is considered the anti christ by the environment agencies these days so you may be offered an alternative.......stay well clear of water based paints they are not suited to the Air dry environment and it doesn't to me to be as durable (even though it is coated with high solids laquer..

One further point if you want to make your finish that bit more durable put a couple of coats of laquer on as your final coats


Hope this helps

I had the bonnet and roof of my L200 sprayed last year at a body shop. I was there the colour was sprayed. The bay was heated for 20mins with a large space heater, when we entered you hardly breath it was so hot. The colour was applied it was a water based paint, nobody uses 2 pack anymore. After the colour was apllied a fan gun was attached to the airline so force dry the paint by moving the hot air over the paint. From spraying to the paint being dry and hard was 45 mins. Laquer was then sprayed and dried the car was left over night before the paint was cut polished. Absolutly fantastic job done, lots of prep work and a bill for £275..

[jasonbc]

stay well clear of water based paints they are not suited to the Air dry environment and it doesn't to me to be as durable (even though it is coated with high solids laquer..

Not true, if you mean at standard atmosphere possibly correct with the dampness in the air, but like i said when it was used the air was heated to remove all dampness or vapour in the air as that is the last thing you want in your paintjob. Again any professional will know how to use the paints on the market...

It wasn't until i watched my car being sprayed that i found out leather seats can be sprayed as they had a reasonably new Porsche in the shop with the seats removed and they were spraying the leather black with some sort of fabric paint before the car was to be resold. It does make sense when you think about it especially when you look a the colours and designs of some leather jackets and trousers

[digitalcaptive]

Not true, if you mean at standard atmosphere possibly correct with the dampness in the air, but like i said when it was used the air was heated to remove all dampness or vapour in the air as that is the last thing you want in your paintjob. Again any professional will know how to use the paints on the market...

It wasn't until i watched my car being sprayed that i found out leather seats can be sprayed as they had a reasonably new Porsche in the shop with the seats removed and they were spraying the leather black with some sort of fabric paint before the car was to be resold. It does make sense when you think about it especially when you look a the colours and designs of some leather jackets and trousers

Jason absolutely true......"air dry" common terminology for in conditions other than a booth enviroment I've never heard the term "standard Atmosphere" used
You may well be more qualified than me on whether leather seats can be sprayed or not and I bow to your infinate knowledge as is so apparent

I don't know how I could have got it so wrong

This is one of the reasons I generally stay clear of offering advice as there are so many armchair professionals about......I can only offer what I learned from many years of being dare I say it "a professional" doing work for many of the major insurance companies

I once watched somebody doing an ice sculpture does that qualify me to do the same?

[jasonbc]

Jason absolutely true......"air dry" common terminology for in conditions other than a booth enviroment I've never heard the term "standard Atmosphere" used
You may well be more qualified than me on whether leather seats can be sprayed or not and I bow to your infinate knowledge as is so apparent

I don't know how I could have got it so wrong

This is one of the reasons I generally stay clear of offering advice as there are so many armchair profesionals about......I can only offer what I learned from many years of being dare I say it "a professional" doing work for many of the major insurance companies

Didn't mean to offend just going by my own experiences.. Consider my self put in place..

[digitalcaptive]

Consider my self put in place..

Sorry if it came over this way, i was just trying to defend what I had learnt over the years........a lots happend in the last 10 years in the paint industry but one thing remains the same they can't get water based to dry without the correct drying systems, I'd just assumed that these systems were not available to the original poster