Project rattle can

[SteveW]

The paint on my 550 tank had gone strange with thousands of cracks like crazy paving.
As I had nothing to lose I thought I’d rattle can it.
Probably 25+ hours work went into the tank, never attempted it before but it came out pretty good.
Will give it a proper polish in about a month once the lacquer is hard.

I know they are not the genuine colours, I just wanted something similar.

[SteveW]

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[Nurse Julie]

That looks really good, better than I ever managed to get out of a rattle can (holts matt black in the early 80's 🤣🤣🤣🤣)

[philward]

Thats really good Steve - what actual colour is it?

[SteveW]

Ford Electric Orange pearl and VW Urano Grey from Halfords.

Oh and the white is the same white as a certain large German company paint their MRI scanners in, I had some left over 

Lacquer is Simoniz stuff from ECP, friend of mine used it and accidentally spilt petrol on it and it was ok.

[Lobo]

Beautiful job Steve; rattle cans have come a long way. I’ve done 2 tanks now; a full air compressor / paint gun job on a SS50 tank, and a rattle can on a 400F tank. Both surprisingly good results... but one SO much easier.

[ewanhughes]

Fantastic job Steve. How many coats of the orange did you need?

ps. It's not everyday you see a flamingo in your back garden! 

[AshimotoK0]

Yea great stuff Steve,

I am in the process of painting some tanks and parts for my tiddlers but mainly in metallic and straight colours. I am using RS bikepaints spraycans ..which are great apart from the water based dark  grey metallic for my JDM CB250. I they must have sent me a duff can as the first sprayed great but the second keeps spluttering..despite taking their advice and fitting new nozzles (different nozzle for water based) and warming up the can and ultra long rattle shake .... it still does it so going to email them today. going to use Spraymax2k  German manufacturer) clear for the tanks but not tried it yet, ..£25+ for one can £94 for 6 cans so I got six.

[SteveW]

One thing I found and I don’t have any idea why it did it.

I had the tank on my homemade stand sitting as it would if it was on the bike. When spraying the top of the tank in the orange you could see light and dark lines across the tank. So I ended up with a tiger pattern across it.
The same thing happened with the side panels.

Only way to get around it was to rub it back down to remove the stripes and hang the tank vertical, spraying the tank vertically and keeping the can vertical is the key.

Spraying the tank sides in black on the stand was ok as I could keep the can vertical.

Oh, and only ever spray the final coat with a fairly full can, as it empties the pressure drops and it may splutter.

[AshimotoK0]

Good to compare notes Steve... my 'spluttering' can was a new one but I know what you mean about final coat with a fairly full can.  think some aerosols are designed to be ony used in vertical position and some can be used angled.

Which cear coat do you use for your tank?

[SteveW]

I used the Simoniz lacquer from Euro Car Parts.
Only reason my mate spilt petrol on his side panel that he’d used it on and it didn’t harm it.

I haven’t fitted my tank back on yet, it’s only been a few days. I’ll give it a couple of weeks before I risk petrol near it.

I’ve been leaving the tank out every day in the sun as well hoping it bakes it a bit.

One other thing, I sanded with 1500 wet and dry between the top coats and 2500 on the final coat and then the lacquer.
And de-greased between coats with meths, it seems to clean the coats of any residue and evaporates off without any streaks.

[SteveW]

My panel, it was split from one of the badge holes all the way to the bottom edge.
This was done before the tank as a test, the panel was literally scrap it was so badly split so it was my  test piece.

No filler was used by the way.

[adespin]

 Great job, did you use a siver base coat or just a grey primer.

[SteveW]

White primer, that is what’s recommended on the Orange can.

[SteveW]

Fantastic job Steve. How many coats of the orange did you need?

ps. It's not everyday you see a flamingo in your back garden! 

I did 4 coats but had trouble with stripy line effect so had to rub back a bit and apply a couple more.

The Flamingos are the wife’s, she has about a dozen.