Topic: OMG...my paint! I think I'm gonna cry : (

[IndyFour]

"The paint was two part (metalic silver underneath with orange tinted clear) and I believe it was house of color auto paint."

There are a couple of things that throw up a red flag for me.  One is the price, another is the nail polish, and the third is the "orange tinted clear".  Candy colors are transparent like hard candy and shot over a solid or metalic base color.  The base and the candy create the final color.  The paint job isn't done after the candy is shot.  The entire tank needs to be cleared afterward and buffed smooth.  This isn't the 70s anymore.  Modern paint jobs need to be clearcoated.  The clears can be tinted but this is usually for UV protection not to create the final color.  Was the tank cleared after the colors/striping were done?  It only cost $100, so you won't be out that much.  I would reconsider using the same painter to redo the tank.

Scott

He very well may have done it the right way and I just did not describe it correctly.  I was not there to see him paint it, that was just my understanding of how it was done when he described it to me.  I'm pretty sure the products he used were House of Kolor, though.

This particular guy is pretty well known here in the area and has done lots of jobs, especially for vintage and custom bikes and I've never heard of anyone having issues like this.  From what he told me in his e-mail, he thinks it was some sort of failure of the product and I tend to believe him.

I should've been more clear about the $100 price.  This all came about because he came over to purchase a CB500 that I had listed for sale on CL last year.  After we talked and it became clear that he was a painter, we bartered a bit and came up with a price that included him painting my bike as a partial trade.  In the end, I had bought that other bike, sold it, got a set of original pipes off of it for my own bike, and bartered a paint job out of the deal and I had only spent $100 in the deal.   

He's going to make it right, and I'm totally good with that.  The job he did this time looked beautiful.  I'm confident he'll make sure it's right this time.

[sangyo soichiro]

Anyway, just thought I'd mention that it wasn't the gas itself that seeped out, but rather the fumes that did it.  

Huh?  How did the fumes pour down the side of the tank and mess up the paint all the way down to the bottom?  

Excessive heat and direct sunlight will cause gas to spill out the top of a completely full tank.  The exact same thing happened to my 550 less than a week after painting it.  Luckily it was just a cheap rattle can paint job so I wasn't all that pissed, but it was definitely liquid gas spilling down the side of my tank when I went back out to my bike.  

Yep.  I guess you're right.  Somehow I missed seeing the gas streaks going down the tank in the photos but instead focused on the area by the gas cap.  I edited my original post.  Thanks Gordon.   

[nvr2old]

I've been painting bikes for years, and this is not so much the painter's fault as the gas itself being the culprit.  There's just something about today's gas that just doesn't jive with today's modern paints.  It took the very same thing happening to a couple of my own tanks to learn.  Most catalyst hardened polyurethanes will take gas being spilled or splashed on it.  But if it gets underneath it, yer screwed, especially at the filler neck.  I now always leave the paint line on the neck as far down as I can.  Brushing a thin coat of 2-part epoxy over the paint line seals it off nicely.  You have to seal that line.  You can usually save it the second you see it starting, by cutting around the affected area with an Xacto knife getting back to solid paint again, then applying the epoxy. Or better yet, as mentioned, hopefully keep it from happening in the first place.  Breaks my painter's heart to see your tank, but everything can be fixed.  If he can repaint the orange above the stripes, sand out the drips down the sides, and then re-clear the whole tank that would be cool.  If not, just start over and chalk it up to experience.

[nippon]

This kind of peeling comes from the inside of the tank. The paint was lifted up from the bottom side of the paint.
The sun heats up the tank and the gasoline inside of the tank,...and pressure increases. So, if your tank is not 100% airtight at the filler neck. Gas will find it's way out under the paint and it will lift up the paint.
If you did not overfill the tank to get this result, check first that your tank is airtight at the filler neck before you do the second paint job.

Here is a pic of another tank with a nice bubble which became bigger and bigger in the sun.

nippon