[Resolved] FZS600 98-02 Fuel tank to replace vandalised tank.

[ogri48]

But it was coming. Work kept interfering, but eventually first coat of primer, then the twenty hours air curing time, flatting, then another, and more curing time..

[ogri48]

Spoke to dene a few times, it was taking a lot longer than I thought, but he was good as gold about it, there's nowt worse than not being able to use your bike for a few weeks. Just hoped I could sort it out for him..
He'd chosen grey with a black stripe. Got loads of silvers but inly one gray, Volvo Flint, so we went fir that and a flat bmw black.
Flatted everything again and painted, then made a totally disastrous mistake..


Knowing I had several coats of lacquer to apply, I used a u-pol additive, "rocket" to speed up the air cure.


It reacted, and shagged the lot..
Cleaned it up with thinners and wet and dry, started spraying colour again, and it reacted again..I hadn't cleaned it all of enough.
By now I was so fed up with it you can't believe it, and the week end was gone. All my own fault and part of my learning curve unfortunately
So woke up today, thought " right, calm down. Start again. Finish it today no matter what, get his bits back to him.."

[helloindustries]

I am a happy mo-fo right now!

And so utterly appreciative.

[ogri48]

Tried a different tack. Normally it's thinnered lacquer, cure, flat, lacquer cure, flat, work through to very fine wrt and dries, compound, polish done...
Days of work, that I havnt the luxury of doing ( back to twelve hour shifts tomorrow),and dene wants his bike back on the road before Christmas..
So, no thinners, very thick coats with no flatting between.
What that means is I can get the stuff back to him, he can fit it and it'll look fine, and he can hand polish it over time to glass it up a bit.
Unfuckinbelievably, thefront muddie reacted again just on one side, so it was working to the wire to get it done, but done it is. His colourchoicewas good..it looks pukka. Hopefully dene will have it back weekend.
I did it for two reasons...1) to help a fellow biker 2) to practise and learn from mistakes. Think I achieved both, especially on the mistakes front...

[ogri48]

Glad I could help dene, and meand her indoors will be taking up your offer if help with the business stuff, thanks.
I'll send the stuff you need to finish it along with the paints for touching up mate..you still got some elbow grease to do, but it's all good, an a lot better than it was

[Doddsie]

Looking good, hope we get to see a few pics when its all back together.  :thumbup

[helloindustries]

Looking good, hope we get to see a few pics when its all back together.  :thumbup

Oh, goes without saying!
I also need to sort out my instrument mount as it's just back from fabrication, so: Bend/drill/weld/paint.
Should all be ready to rock by the weekend with luck, then i'll clean the rest of the bike and get some glamour-shots up on here as well as some before/after and a link to a progress album of photos from when i got it (as a cat-c write off) to what it will be at the weekend.

[ogri48]

Sounds good dene. Hope your pleased with the tank, in truth it all wanted another primer coat and another flatting before paint as you can still feel the odd ripple, along with more coats of lacquer and flatting for a perfect finish, but you can get that over time with polishing regular. It certainly looks better than it did,,wasn't sure about your choosing grey over silver, but you were right, looks much deeper and better

[bigbluebear]

Ogri48, you are a gem of a guy mate, not many would offer their time and materials to help out a fellow foccer like that....I doff my hat to you sir.

[ogri48]

I needed the practice dude..


Still do in truth but I'm getting there...

[helloindustries]

Sounds good dene. Hope your pleased with the tank, in truth it all wanted another primer coat and another flatting before paint as you can still feel the odd ripple, along with more coats of lacquer and flatting for a perfect finish, but you can get that over time with polishing regular. It certainly looks better than it did,,wasn't sure about your choosing grey over silver, but you were right, looks much deeper and better

I'm already pleased with the tank, provided it still holds fuel

I'll get a photo up here when it's all on tomorrow/Thursday minus the mudguard , i'll do another shot when that's done and on.

[helloindustries]

Here we go. Put it all back together today. Can't overstate how happy i am with the paint job Ogri did for me

• I need to do work on the front end to get it all right.
  
• Headlight needs centring properly
  
• Mount for instruments needs making
  
• Electrical problems need resolving (and are...odd).
  

[noggythenog]

Fair play a lick o paint & it looks a new bike. 8)

[ogri48]

Excellent mate, glad your happy, looks good, by the time your finished it'll look a belter. I was double carefully with the panel beating so should be no nasty surprises ( ie leaks) over the next[size=78%] few years, and acid etched the tank before I filled and sprayed so hopefully should all stay good :-)[/size]