Painting all day long!

This has been a weekend of painting work.

The original situation was a solid fuel tank, with very little inside surface pitting, so I decided to reuse it. Last post I mentioned how I cleaned the inside, so now it's time for the out side

Using a angle grinder with a wire wheel, I removed all the rust and old paint and debris. It is a slow progress, loud and unpleasant..... working at 4pm in summer in Spain, makes the angle grinder get really hot, so hot, that I had to stop from time to time as I really could not hold it (I had no gloves). Wearing a mask is a good idea as rust dust is not nice to breath. Of course, it's necessary, lets say mandatory to wear goggles for your eyes. You don't want to imagine what a wire that is spinning at 10.000rpm, can do if it hits your eyes... but if you want to know, just click.


After some two hours of work I finally ended cleaning the fuel tank. It is very important to clean throughly the metal surface to get the best key for the paint. I first used a sanding sponge, that I have to say are great. They are very cheap, and easy to work with and adapts very nicely to all surfaces. I used a course sponge and finally cleaned all the surface with clean rugs and white spirit.

To paint the fuel tank I used POR15 black paint, which should give a very tough and hard finish. In my case, the two metal halfs of the tank, where separated in some areas, although the weldings are in perfect condition. Such gaps can head to rust do to water and mud getting trapped. So I took great care to get the paint inside to encapsulate the gap.

Final result is great, better than new!



Following, I moved on to the wire wheels. I used a fine sanding sponge, about 250, to remove all the dust that the primer had. When finished, I cleaned them with water, and let them dry. I used 2 can for the four wheels. It was just enough, but I think a third can would be better to give a thicker layer of paint. It was just enough for two thin layers.

I used a special wheel paint made by DupliColor called CAR'S. This paint has very positive posts on restoration forums, but it's not cheap, about 14 eur per can. I have the doubt if I should give a coat of clear lacquer on top. The specialist at the auto paint shop told me not to use it. His customer usually don't use it, and have never had any issues.

 

Two or three days to fully cure, and then I will take them to the wheel shop to fit new protection bands, new tubes and new tyres.