Candy Gold Custom Tank paint + Piccies..

[kaceyk2]

Thought I would post these pics up of me tank painting....
First off, I got the old girls tank back to bare metal....
It tried to trick me immediately...paint stripper would not touch it, someone had done the tank in a rock hard synthetic that was impervious to stripper..... So, as the tank had been dry for ages and there was not the slightest smell of fuel....out with the hot air gun.. this took the paint off like I was wiping butter off it so to speak....
I left the cap on at this stage as it was an old cap and I had a new replacement, so it didnt matter if it got scratched  and I left it on so debris and dust would not get inside the tank.
Anyways,
I got it back to bare metal, and it just needed a couple of very small imperfections filling and sanding....
For some reason, at this point I was working on the floor, This is a habit I have had since childhood, and ruins my clothes, In the last "bare metal" photo you can see I have a Cig and a brew to my left; This means that I have either finished one process, Or that I am thinking.
I had a big red jumper on because it was cold when I first went out and I had the garage door open for maximum real daylight.... After loads of flatting I got hot and started to sweat, my hair sticking to my head, but was so involved in the tank, I neglected to take off excessive red jumper...(in case you wondered)
Anyways,
The "bringer of the brew" told me off for scrabbling on the floor again, , So whilst having said brew I devised a plan for the next stage...
A simple plank of wood from the window ledge to a pair of step ladders was erected, and this served two functions; Function (a) It supported the tank so it could be primered from all sides including underneath.
(b) it was just the right height to spray paint at, and, an electric heater could be used underneath, both before, during and after any painting, keeping the job hot and driving any possible humidity away.
The primaring is pretty self explanitory.
Two or three good coats and 600 grade wet and Dry (used Wet) in between plenty of soapy water...DO not, DO NOT, let wife/girlfriend/mother into garage at any point with a polishing cloth or pledge/mr.sheen at any point.... any hint of "silicones" in the vacinity will wreck your work...Tell em to clean out their car another day.
Onwards.
Wife/ girlfriend/ mother will however have been in the garage before you and done "woman polishing things"
SO,
When wet flatting primer., Allways use hot soapy water with washing up liquid in. WITHOUT FAIL.
This will keep the job grease free and reduce the risk of inadvertant silicones...
After wet flatting, allow to dry , and with a TACK cloth in one hand and an airline blow-nozzle in the other, gently blow and tack off the wet flatting white dust thats now dried on the job.
Forgot to mention,
Looking for something that just fit in the tank-filler-hole snug, I found a toilet roll middle was just the job, with a couple of winds of masking tape round it to make it just so, it wedged in there and didn't move any during the whole job.
Heres the piccs up to and including primer.

[kaceyk2]

Next , on with the colour.... yum,  the trick here is to keep your eye on the ball as far as the filler neck is concerned, You have to be even all over the tank, but never too heavy, and absolutely precise round the filler neck,  I used the same technique I would on a car, start off at the bottom of tank on one side and work up and over, so you can use your "trigger-finger" well to stop start over the filler neck and not get it uneven......  Did I think How I was going to get "round to the other side" with that Plank in the way???
YES!  ( I had a cig and a brew and a thinkplan before starting!)
I ducked under the plank, spray gun in hand at the relevent moments.....
Anyways, up to seven coats I can buy, anymore is just not needed, I give it four and was happy, so I gave it another "for luck"....THEN... on with three good coats of laquer.......
I went away and let it dry.
(I came back and peeped a few times, but hey its expensive stuff and I was curious)
I went away and let it dry some more...in fact I got hassled into food shopping ( I hate asda and tesco and all those places...)
Somebody cooked the food that we got "food shopping" ( I love eating the food that comes from asda and tesco and all those places)
Anyways today turned into tommorrow.
Heres a thing, gently, very gently go all over your lovely tank with scotchbrite, to make it keyed up some.
It's like "oh no, it was all shiny and lovely and now I have matted it!"
But it has to be done.... DO IT NOW!! ( you will have to do the same to the stripes, but if you dont have to do the tank at the same time it helps you not catch the edges of new stripes...but we arent up to that yet!
Now the stripes......
Those bloody stripes that cost me nearly

[kaceyk2]

and the last piccy....

[UK Pete]

Great work Kacey, the tank looks fantastic, and the story telling / description of how you done it all is very amusuing i bet your well pleased and that your prep work and attention to detail paid off with a tuley beautiful tank
Pete

[kaceyk2]

Thanks Pete..  The only regret I have is that I paid more for my paint than RS charges. !!
But only because the saving could have been spent on parts!
Attention to detail in paint prep is everything, the prep is 99% of the work, the applying of the topcoats is the fun ... (albeit fun with a knot in the stomach as things can go wrong and the paint is dear...)

[Spitfire]

A fantastic job, really nice, probably better than the original.

Cheers

Den

[kaceyk2]

Thanks Den.Appreciated..

[Seamus]

Cracking job. Wish I had the patience and skill but unfortunately, painting is not my forte. I sent the last tank to Andrew Parnaby for painting. There is a post of this on here somewhere.

Be nice to see the bike when kits finished.

[kaceyk2]

Thanks seamus... I will keep posting pics of the restoration....

[K2-K6]

That's a really nice job and a good story, like seamus I don't think I've got that level of patience and skill in painting to do it.

[kaceyk2]

Thanks K2-K6.... appreciated.....
It seems that  "common denominater" is happening in replies here... "I don't think I would have the patience"
Guys,
I am a really impatient and impulsive dude.
This is what me misses tells me, and I find it best not to argue.  I feel sure that you would have the patience , especially after shelling out non-beer/fuel money for the paint.
My patience is notoriously bad, especially in the following situations;
Waiting for wife outside "claires accessories"
Waiting in a queue at the post office, behind a little old lady who is not only getting her pension, but everyone elses.
Waiting in a queue at the post office when someone in front of me appears to be sending ebay packages to folk all over the world...."and this one is going to outer mongolia, should I put it on the scales?" (no, theres no need, all the other two hundred and seventy packages had to be weighed, so why the Feck wouldn't that one?)
Waiting behind someone in the post-office when they are weighing in one hundred + bags of mixed change, especially when the women behind the counter "spots" they have put the wrong coins together.
Waiting for wife outside ASDA toilets.... I really wish I had a T shirt that catergorically stated "NO, I AM NOT a pervert, I am still waiting for my wife"
In Mc donalds, WHY do I have to ask for a big MAC and fries fecking TWICE, once the first time I ask, and then,, again after I have been made to decline a "meal deal" In fact the last time my request for a big mac and fries was ignored with the "meal deal" quiz, I lost patience and asked them if they had ever considered having two front doors..... A very slim front door that took you straight to the fun greasy stuff and a "special"  FAT door that only took you to a salad bar.. whilst engaged in what I thought was a much better topic of conversation than "meal deals" my misses intervened to shut me up,again.
My patience thins even more on the telephone,
I dont want "options" I dont want "menus" and I certainly do not want to be told by an electronic voice to "press the hash button now" especially when I haven't got me glasses on.
My patience does not extend to being put on hold number 12 in a queue and then having to listen to some sort of hideous pseudo-music/musak.
I have no patience for the television,
My wife commented and questioned just why I shout at it....so I decided to give certain shows a patience rating ; 0 = no patience  10 = all the time in the world for.
Bear Gryliss born stupid and getting worse;0
Gordan Ramsarse;0
Loose women - 1
Jeremy Kyle -3 (did you know there is even a facebook page that is called "Jeremy Kyle is a corporate whore . who profits at the expense of the ignorant masses... or something very close)
Actually, at this juncture, it might be worthy of note that even thinking of jeremy kyle has altered my patience level a tad more. here is a couple of answers to jeremy's questions that no one seems to have thought of yet:
Jeremy Kyle "why didn't you put something on the end of it?" (15 min of fame contestent) "I did jeremy, I put my one night stand on the end of it"
Jeremy kyle; "why didn't you put something on the end of it?" (smart kid) "what do you mean jeremy,arent you meant to roll it down all the way, and not just put it on the end?"
Deal or no deal (gread or not too gready) ;0  why oh why has someone not told the truth and said "no, I didn't pick my box at random, I was the last person to pick so I got what I was given?"

SHARPS EAGLE;4  (being a yorshireman I can identify with sharpie up to a point but why it has to be on so much I dont understand.) anyways, other folk get shot and sworded in this and they die.
sharpie doesn,t, furthermore many folk have traversed rough terrain, but the half naked ladies only seem to come rushing out the bushes unexpectedly when sharp is there.

Alien;0 I dont want to watch this, I know what happens, I memorised it.

Time team; 3 for interest -5  for screwing it up. "Once again we only have three days to not do the job properly" and I am sorry Tony but you will allways be baldrick.

OHHH  , Clothes bags that keep coming through the letterbox...we are now getting more than one a DAY, I am begining to lose patience with clothes bags, but have a plan... I am saving them and am going to put them all in one big bag and  leave them out....(for the folk who collect clothes bags)
talking of leaving "stuff" out.....
I have no patience for the betterwear catologue that has a "special" notice telling me to "leave it out on a day specified in the future to be collected"  I never asked for this in the first place , why should I be required to not only try and remember when to put it out, but to actually get up and do it?
Stephen Fry and QI ; 10+
Road wars/ police stop/ a touch of frost/ inspector morose (john thaw) 0. (anything to do with the police in general 0) Anything to do with the real life police; let the wife do the talking,my patience ebbs to new lows.
I see a pattern emerging.
"Do you want an order estimate number?" well no not realy cos I will be scrambling around for a pen and a torn-up envelope to write it down on while holding phone, but your going to give me one anyways, so I will be patient whilst we repeat the numbers to each other.
American Idol;0
American Idol the results;-4
Sell me the answer. WHAT , on the very first question?, lost patience immediately -6
The other day on the bus into town;(ten mile journey)
The bus goes two miles,
It pulls in at a lonely bus stop in the middle of nowhere, and picks a young lass up.
It stays there.
for ages (-3 allready)
The girl is made to sign her name and address on a piece of paper.and then she uses her mobile, but we cant hear whats happening.
The bus driver gets off the bus and uses his mobile (-6 and rising)
The bus has now been stopped for ten minits.
I feel my will to live diminishing.
The driver gets back on the bus and uses his mobile again, and at the exact same time the girls mobile rings.
I suspect either a conspiracy or candid camera has come back.
The girl scrabbles around in her purse.
The driver states loudly that he cannot contact the person at the office.
The bus has now been stopped for twenty mins and all the passengers are mumbling and fidgeting.
The bus driver states loudly again that she will have to get off....
I have just figured whats happening, have lost me patience,recovered my patience, and before it can be lost again, I get up and wander down to the front of the bus and say "whats up?" the girl says she aint enough money and her fair was meant to be paid by someone in town....
I ask her how much she is short...."60p" she says........
I feel a totallly unbefore feeling of a - 32 coming on, and look the driver staright in the eyes and say "for gawdsake" and give him 60p.
The girl says thanks and sits down...
I say to the driver "all that for sixty pence?" 
He may be able to sense my underlying -32 coming on and as some sort of justification he says "I cant let everyone off"
I have been riding into town on that bus on and off for twenty years and no-one has ever presented that particular situation before....
And then, loads of passengers said "ooh if I knew it was only sixty pence , I would have helped her out"
-14 , you didn't.in fact -16 because most of you looked richer than me,, a few of you had blackberries.
The biggest - number goes to all the folk who munched their way through crisps, chocolates, popcorn and other noisy stuff when i took me misses to see the Chinese ballet do swan lake at swansea.
Thanks for adding the dissonance to Tchaikovsky's music, I feel sure if had he had access to those sorts of sounds he would have not used them. -50 cos the tickets were dear as well.
So,
I don't really have patience... or maybe , it's because I don't have patience for much else, that its there for me bike, 
maybe . mostly? (Cartman saying "mostly" +30)


 

[UK Pete]

My patience rating

Long posts= 0

sorry Kacey only joking LOL, i just love you sense of humor
Pete

[steff750]

  good job Kacey  very nice tank and very good colour match ,did you leave under the filler cap and under petrol tap unpainted as you know the petrol gets under the paint and lifts the paint off,I'm planning to do one of my Honda's gold one day ,if i ever get round to it, if not i could farm the work out to you lol 

[kaceyk2]

Thanks Steff, ah the filler neck...
I gave it much thought, and decided to go all the way up the sides of the filler neck AND over the top.
My reasoning was this;
If I left it just up the sides (and not on top) and fuel made it lift ..it would be seen be everyone who looked.
But if I went over the top and it started to lift, only me would see it when opening the top and I could gently flat the top bit back.... a sort of "second chance " in the future.
Steff, I see you too are in Wales... I am near Carmarthen...

[AshimotoK0]

Wow that looks a fantastic finish Kacey and has to be one of the most difficult colours to do. I chickened out on my 750K0 and got Andrew Parnaby near Tadcaster to do it (he ought to do my next job for free judging by the number of people I have put onto him! ) He told me that one of the magazines did a K2 project bike in Candy tone  gold but the original painter chickened out and got Andrew to do it but Andrew was not credited with it.

Cheers

Ash