Progress.
I decided that for version one of the project I wanted that raw metal look, so today I stripped the tank. Now this tank came to me on the bike in a deep red, very clean with no dents.
So I suspected a respray was done due to dents.
I painted my favourite paint stripper on to the tank, and scraped the red paint off.
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Only to find yellow under the red.
And pink under the yellow, and grey under the pink, and a good 1/8" deep layer of hard white chalky filler under the grey, and the original green under the filler. Cleaning this tank back to bare metal was not a one coat strip job.
After a good couple of hours work with a stiff wire wheel in my angle grinder, I had every scrap of every colour and filler off the tank.
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Old badge mounts now visible, plus the surface rust, plus the three dents.
This is how I want the tank to look in my stage one build.
Finally - I painted out the old deep red tank underside with satin black and gave the bare metal top two good coats of satin clear.
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That's working for me. A real CB500/4 stripped back bare metal rat bike.
And one day yes - it will reincarnate as a lovely Bacchus Olive Green restoration, but for now - I am having too much fun.