A paint job preservation warning.

[Chuey]

Just a note about a problem I had.

My Cafe Racer has some electrical gremlins that I have been chasing. About two months ago, I took off the tank and set it down in a cardboard box and put a towel over it. I had just filled it with gas before I decided to do this diagnostic work. When I uncovered the tank to put it back on the bike, I found that the gas had seeped out from the cap and ate the paint for lunch.

If you have a full tank and take off the tank, prop it up so it is level. The petcocks had tilted my tank on an angle it would not have seen if it was on the bike.

Who thought of the name "petcocks" anyway?

Chuey

[SteveD]

Who thought of the name "petcocks" anyway?
Chuey

Good advice Chuey.

We call them fuel taps here in Oz, btw.

[dwerbil]

Well crud-nation, Chuey....now you have a tank-paint job to do. Thanks for passing
along a painful lesson.
Painful lessons....that could be the title of another thread.

[Major Softie]

Did that tank have lacquer on it? A two-part urethane shouldn't do that, but some of the old lacquers were very susceptible to damage from fuel.

[Zombie Master]

When I put a gas tank aside, I put wood blocks under it, so the petcocks are not touching anything and have no stain put on them whatsoever.

[chasbmw]

We are now getting high ethanol fuels in the uk,
One effect is that they are dissolving tank sealers and will cut through normal 2 pack paints
I think that paint jobs will have to be finished with a fuel resistant laquer.

[vanzen]

OUCH !!!

[lrz]

Same thing happened to a few years ago on the /7. The irritating thing was I had actually taken the precaution of draining the tank a bit beforehand-just not enough to compensate for knocking over the block it was resting on without noticing until the next morning...I called it patina.

[Chuey]

Did that tank have lacquer on it? A two-part urethane shouldn't do that, but some of the old lacquers were very susceptible to damage from fuel.

I think it is two part urethane.

I've seen tanks with the top section painted a contrast color. I'm thinking of doing that to it. It most likely wasn't going to be the final paint job but the tank was painted plenty nice for me to enjoy as I finished up other details of the bike. Eventually, in the popular parlance, I was going to "blow the bike apart" and do everything up with a nice level of finish. I've been whittling away at that. After I get the electrical stuff taken care of, I plan to reinforce the steering head area. It goes back together until I'm sure that it is the way I want it, then back apart for the final version.

I think it shows very little imagination but I have a frame with a new high gloss black powder coat and some silver wheels. The frame is on the work stand and when the fairing was off the Cafe, I rested it on that frame. It looked pretty good, lots of gloss black and some shiny metal bits to set it off. Who knows, it may be painted black with a black frame in the end.

Chuey

[enigmaT120]

How old was the paint? About a month after I first painted my Triumph's tank with two part (3, actually) urethane enamel, I filled it up with gas before I got to work one morning. I walked by it a few hours later and the gas had warmed up and expanded, soaking the tank for some time and that softened and wrinkled a bunch of the paint. But I think if it had been more cured (2 months?) it may have held up better.