Well moving right along, the primer surfacer was delivered while I was still fuming about the atrocious service I received today from my "big box" hardware store. I ordered some stuff from Bunnings yesterday, was told that everything was in stock, and when would I like to collect it? I elected for 0930 as I had a video conference(?) at 11.
I rolled into Bunnings car park at 0930, to receive a text that the dremel mandrel I ordered was out of stock, sorry about that, blah blah blah. Fcuk you very much Bunnings, you had 24 hours to check your stock and tell me, but you didn't until one of your flunkies went to pick my order, and discovered that the mandrels were out of stock? Lovely. Still gave me the attachments, which of course I can't use without the quick release mandrel, you fcuking clowns.............
Anyway, arrived home, and the poor wife, not knowing I was fcuking ropeable, bounced out with the Repco box to tell me that my primer surfacer had arrived, which did neither of us any good, but I did apologize, so she wasn't too miffed with my behavior. I took a break from pretending to do some work, and hit the tank with a full can of primer surfacer.
Being that it was in the mid 70's today, but windy, I'm sure more primer surfacer disappeared into the atmosphere than went on the tank, but the good thing is it was too windy for bugs to land on it, and fcuk it up, so I had a pretty good surface to start with. Being a "K" guy, I almost forgot the tank lid flap thingy, but I did retrieve it, etch primed it, then hit it up with the primer surfacer, and hung it under the tank so I wouldn't forget to paint it.
Terry's Effing F2 Tank paint 15 Oct 2020 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Now it's been a black bike, probably from new, which is pretty rare here as for a long time black bikes didn't make it to Oz, something about safety, from memory? Anyhoo, I intended to paint it black until i realised that cliff's blue sidecover was a factory colour, so I ordered some blue metallic paint, that (to my color blind eyes) looked close.
Terry's Effing F2.2 Sunday fiddling 20 Sep 2020 5 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
The paint wasn't in stock and they didn't charge me for it, so I went back to black, but then on Tuesday the blue paint arrived. Buggar. Oh well, if I didn't like it, I could always use the blue as an undercoat, and paint it black. I sprayed one of the little 150 gram cans of blue onto it, and it didn't look bad. Now anyone here who knows anything about painting will know that one little can isn't enough for full coverage, and streaky metallic paint aint no good, so I sprayed on can #2, and this fixed the streaky paint. I remembered to paint the lid, and the underneath of the tank, or at least, where it'll be noticed, just like Honda did.
Terry's Effing F2 Tank paint 15 Oct 2020 1 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I emptied can #2 of 3, keeping in mind that I'll need to paint my new repro sidecover, and maybe (just maybe) my other sidecover and duckail, to make it all uniform. I then did some nice wet coats of clear lacquer without getting any runs or sags.
Terry's Effing F2 Tank paint 15 Oct 2020 2 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
Now we've all seen those episodes of "American Hot Rod" etc, where they paint the car, clear coat it, then rub it back with wet and dry sandpaper to remove all the "Orange Peel" so they can smooth it out then buff it to a "wet" look. Basically, they're sh1t. A good painter will get something that glossy off the gun that it doesn't need wet rubbing and buffing. The trick is to get a nice wet coat without any runs or sags. Easier with a rattle can than a spray gun, as you're not throwing the same volume of paint in a wide fan arc, but if you know what you're doing, you'll get a good result. I'm happy.
Terry's Effing F2 Tank paint 15 Oct 2020 3 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr
I put it back into the garage as it was just starting to rain, but am more than happy with the result. All going well, I'll put fuel in it on the weekend, and take it for a lap around the block, or two...... Fcuking lockdown is never gonna end, or so it feels............
Terry's Effing F2 Tank paint 15 Oct 2020 4 by
Terry Prendergast, on Flickr