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.
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.
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.
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.
