Tank Tank

So my most recent project is the gas tank. I have been trying to strip the old tank and get it ready for some new paint. The first step in the process was paint stripper. It works ok but it's a slow process. You spray it on, let it sit and then scrape it off. Sometimes it wants to come off easy and sometimes it doesn't want to leave it's home. This process was ok but it was a lot of work.



After doing this for a while I had a genius idea- use the grinder. So I threw the wire wheel on the grinder and went to work. The paint came off faster than it was put on. After about twenty minutes all the paint was gone.





After some fine grinding the tank looked shinier than a new quarter.





Next up is paint. I have a little more prep work but the next pictures you should see would be the tank with some color on it. Thanks for staying tuned.

Pictures. Finally

Alright. I'm back online. Here are the pictures.

No Internet is bad news for blogging

Hey Everyone it's been awhile since I have posted. My last post was done last week been I wasn't able to upload the photo's so I held off on publishing the post. Well, here is the news. Since we have moved we have had a problem with our internet access. I am writing this from our laptop that has wireless internet access. The good thing about this new place is that we have a strong wireless signal coming from somewhere.

On to the build. I have actually got to do a bunch of work on the bike. About a week ago I had an epiphany, I figured I was going to use an old army ammo box for the battery box. So I went out to the army surplus store and picked on up. The box fits the battery side ways. I had this idea because I needed a battery box but I want to have a box to hold whatever on the bike. I had to make some cuts with my grinder to get the wires to the terminals that you will eventually be able to see. The height of the box fit perfectly under the seat where the battery was before, the only problem with that is that to open and close the box you would have to take it out because the lid is inches from the frame when closed. I might have to cut the top off the box and just have a battery tray. I am playing around with a couple ideas. Either way I got a cool battery box for about $9.

Next I have been working on the gas tank. For the record I am working on my old tank. The reason for this is that to make the new tank work I would have to get a whole new seat and rear fender. So for right now I am going to use the old tank and eventually use the new tank.

First things first, I had to take off the decals. To do this I had to use my heat gun to heat up the metal and scrape the decal off. Heat is key. If you try to this without it you are out of luck. If you heat up the decal you can basically scrape up one corner then peel it off- if you're good.

Next I stripped the paint so I can repaint it. So I got some paint stripper from the store and went to work. This has been a slow process. Basically you spray the stripper on the tank wait and scrape it off. Some parts of the tank were pretty easy but some parts did not want to give up the paint. So after a couple of days I busted out the grinder. With the wire brush wheel on it the paint came off in no time.

In a couple of days I plan on primering the tank and hopefully painting it by the following weekend. After that there is no much left. I am still not sure if it is going to run or not so I might have to take it in to see. Well keep up your heads and hopefully you will see some pictures soon.