prepping and painting the fuel tank

[rich-racing.co.uk]

tank on my bike has been painted satin black from the original red,but is badly crazed - not been done right.

need to flat it back and get some proper primer and paint, but can anyone tell me if the tank is plastic or fibreglass?

any tips on painting it satin black? got a spray gun etc

[snapdragon]

Welcome in Rich-racing is it the V or the normale? - not that it makes any difference, I'm just nosey about new forum members

Pretty certain the tank is plastics, certainly looked like when I scraped away a section on the tarmac.
If you want to pick someone's brains for tips about painting it maybe Ace of Sprays could help (Bristol based) he painted mine

[Miz]

Link for Ace

http://aceofsprays.co.uk/


If you do paint the tank yourself you will need to use an isolating primer to stop any new paint reacting with the existing paint.

[rich-racing.co.uk]

thanks for the welcome - seems like a great forum so far - use "the rev counter" daily too.

this is the bike

my 29th at rough count..

was looking for a monster,and this was advertised in there on ebay.
prefer it cos the TL engine not got belt driven cams (got a 748 and raced a ducati 620..)

great bike apart from the suspension

will do my usual and make it my "own" and improve it's performance.

[AZ]

If the tank has been done with rattle cans then just wash it off with gun cleaner/standard thinners/cellulose thinners,wipe on wipe off,try a small area 1st.The original Cagiva paint is 2K and wont come off unless you leave it soaking in a tub of it.If the thinners doesn`t touch it then it`ll be safe to paint over.The tank is plastic so dont rub too hard at the edges or you`ll go through to the plastic and then it`ll go all fluffy when you paint it and need flatting and painting again.I dont like using sealers, if i can i avoid it and would rather go back down to as much original paint as is possible.On plastic tanks the more you paint them the more prone to stress cracks they are unless using plasticiser in all the primers and top coat.If the paint does wipe off and the red underneath is sound then you can just wet flat and clear coat/top coat in the chosen colour,no need to prime.Any areas that show bare plastic must be filler primed and flatted before top coat.Hope this helps.
If you paint satin black you should by it in 2 pack or you can base coat it and put stickers on it and then use a satin converted 2k clearcoat like the Buell below.
This is a Buell S1 that i painted in satin black a couple of years ago.

[rich-racing.co.uk]

If the tank has been done with rattle cans then just wash it off with gun cleaner/standard thinners/cellulose thinners,wipe on wipe off,try a small area 1st.The original Cagiva paint is 2K and wont come off unless you leave it soaking in a tub of it.If the thinners doesn`t touch it then it`ll be safe to paint over.The tank is plastic so dont rub too hard at the edges or you`ll go through to the plastic and then it`ll go all fluffy when you paint it and need flatting and painting again.I dont like using sealers, if i can i avoid it and would rather go back down to as much original paint as is possible.On plastic tanks the more you paint them the more prone to stress cracks they are unless using plasticiser in all the primers and top coat.If the paint does wipe off and the red underneath is sound then you can just wet flat and clear coat/top coat in the chosen colour,no need to prime.Any areas that show bare plastic must be filler primed and flatted before top coat.Hope this helps.
If you paint satin black you should by it in 2 pack or you can base coat it and put stickers on it and then use a satin converted 2k clearcoat like the Buell below.
This is a Buell S1 that i painted in satin black a couple of years ago.

great help,thanks.

looks like a rattle can job - bike was born red - came up on the vehicle check and you can make it out through the cracks in the black.
will try some thinners - guess this will fetch the black off,and will see where it goes from there.

Buell looks great BTW - job well done!