Hey, guys! Sorry I haven't answered this sooner, but I've been pretty busy with various projects and family business, so haven't been able to access the forum for a while... I'll admit I've been spending more time with the Corsa and not as much on the bike, but that's about to change now that the 'vair is ready for paint...
Sooo.. glad you're back! As always, immediately after reading your latest post, I went out and checked out the corresponding parts on my bike. You absolutely must preserve the lessons you've provided all us devoted readers for future SOHC fanatics. Thanks again.Hank, thanks for the encouragement! I appreciate it!
Hey Ron.....I finally caught up on your build, fantastic. Have you found a painter?Stev, the paint for the bike has turned into a major hassle and I wish I'd known about Nevr2old sooner; I'm sure I could have saved myself some stress. I looked in the "Services Offered" section of the forum for painters but didn't find anyone, so I opted for a local body shop that was recommended by a friend and, to be honest, not all went as smoothly as I would have liked....
As I mentioned above, I spent some time preparing a tank for painting using a phosphoric bath and it came out looking great. It sat around for a few weeks while I looked for a painter, and still looked good when I delivered it to them. They hadn't done anything like it before (candy and decals), but assured me that they'd be able to do it without problems; I'd seen some of their work and was happy with what I saw, so I delivered the tank, side covers, decals and a "Sunrise Orange" kit from Vintage Honda Paints to them.
Two weeks later they called and said everything was ready, so I drove over after work to pick it all up. The side covers and painted tank looked great; however the decal was another story. They had used their own clear coat and I guess it reacted badly with the decal because the decal had lifted and showed minor splits in a couple of places. Additionally, the finish parameters required a black field be painted over the orange and somehow the delineation between the two paints had outgassed and there was what looked like a ripple running down the middle of the gold area in the decal (both sides)! Needless to say I was less than pleased with the result, and after some discussion with the shop manager it was decided that the best fix would be to have the stripes painted on, so I crossed my fingers, left the tank with them and waited for them to call me back.
This time it was nearly three weeks before I got the call, but when I went back to the shop the tank looked absolutely perfect! The stripes were professionally executed (although slightly out of position... but I'm just being picky about that) and the tank looked brand new. And they didn't charge me a dime for the work to fix it. I happily took my new tank home with visions of a finished bike running through my head...
That's when the
real fun began.
I'm sure you're way ahead of me on this, but I'll plow on anyway. The tank had required some body work done - a couple of small dings and scrapes - and I had the shop do that before painting. To make an even longer story slightly shorter, they did the body work, then sealed the tank up with tape for painting and, what with the problems that developed with the decal stripes, it stayed that way for over a month with nothing inside but air. So when I finally got it home I pulled the tape off and, of course, the tank was now "full" of rust. Not just mild flash, but some pretty heavy stuff in places. My heart sank like a stone when I saw the mess. Now I had a beautiful tank with an expensive paint job on it, and it was unusable in its current condition.
I hit the computer and did a search of the forum for every method of tank de-rusting I could find - and there are lots of them - vinegar, molasses, electrolytic rust removal, and acid treatments from "Prep and Etch" to "The Works" toilet bowl cleaner, just to name a few... I decided to stick with the "Prep and Etch" treatment since I already had some, and it seemed the least likely to result in more rust in the tank (I know, I know; I used it before and got rust anyway, but I'll get into that later).
Let me tell you now that it takes some serious stones to pour phosphoric acid into a tank with a $750 paint job on it, and I was sweating it all the way. I used a funnel but had a wet rag on hand to immediately sop up any stray drops. Once the acid was in the tank I filled it to the top with water (per the forum search), then let it sit for 24 hours... and a more nerve-wracking 24 hours I have rarely experienced, let me tell you! When the time was up, still being majorly paranoid, I didn't empty the tank via the filler neck but, instead, pulled the plug at the petcock mount and let it drain slowly out. Once it had drained, I just let it air dry (again, after advice from the forum) to give the zinc coating a chance to form (per the forum).
Well, that didn't work at all. The major rust spots were gone, but there were pools of flash rust where the water I'd added to the acid had separated and flashed over; in addition, there were large areas that appeared to be wearing "fur", which I took to be poorly adhering patches of the zinc coating. I tried some "Must for Rust" in a spray bottle to clean things up, but it has even more water in it than the 4-1 Prep and Etch bath I'd given the tank, and it just made matters worse. I realized that if I was going to save this tank and its pricey paint job I had to get serious and get back to what I knew would work. Get back to where I once belonged.
So, once again I steeled myself, bought some more Prep and Etch and acetone, sealed up the petcock holes with electrical tape (works great for a short period), then poured about a quart of Prep and Etch straight into the tank and closed the filler neck with more electrical tape. I then spent about half an hour shaking and rolling the tank, keeping the acid in constant motion to be sure to cover every square inch. I then let it sit for fifteen or twenty minutes, then did the rolling and shaking thing again. After what I thought was enough time, I drained the tank - this time via the filler hole - then rinsed it out with water and immediately blasted it with compressed air, followed by the hot air gun until the tank was too hot to touch, then hit it with the air again until the tank had cooled somewhat. I then poured in about a quart of acetone and did the rolly, shaky thing for five or ten minutes in order to remove the water, after which I drained the tank and hit it with the compressed air and heat gun treatment.
It worked. The tank came out sparkly clean and stayed that way. I finished up with a step I hadn't used before; I poured in a quart of 2-stroke motor oil and rolled the tank once again to make sure the inside was liberally coated before draining the excess. I hadn't done this originally; in my own defense I live in the middle of what was once described as "The Great American Desert" and there just isn't much moisture in the air. Additionally, I wasn't sure how the oil would react with the painting operation and decided a dry tank would be the way to go; and leaving it dry may well have been fine if the tank hadn't remained sealed up for over a month...
So that's where things are now and the tank still looks good a week after the treatment. It may be that I'll have to line it eventually; only time will tell. The paint still looks great with no issues, and I'm breathing a big sigh of relief about that, considering all I did to it. If I had had to buy a new tank it might have put the kibosh on the whole project...
Anyway, enough on that. I'm still preparing a post to finish up the electrical install and should publish that soon. I still hope to get the bike done this year and, barring any more SNAFUs, I feel confident I'll accomplish that. Just one step at a time.
Here's a preview of things to come, just to whet your appetite
I should be posting soon; again, thanks to all for your support!
