Polishing Tank??

[thesefuggincarbs]

I have an extra 750 tank, same as the one I have on my bike now. I'm thinking about blasting it and then polishing the bare steel. Anybody ever done this? How'd it come out and what did you seal it with?

[bill]

I've just finished stripping and priming an xs 750 tank and was very impressed with the condition of the bare tank. I had a few small dents I wanted removed so went with filler and primer before paint. But if your tank doesn't need any body work I think your plan would work nicely if finished off with two or three coats of clear after the polish.

[bill]

[thesefuggincarbs]

Nice, maybe I'll give it a shot, it'll give me something to do this winter, seat looks good too
......I'm planning on making over my bike this winter...it's too conservative and heavy looking.

[acormier7]

Bill,
I love the look of your tank and seat combo. Very nice I'd love to see the finish product. What pipes are you using?
Art in Peterborough

[bill]

Thanks for the good comments. The pipes are 2 into 1 Macs with some extra stainless wool to help keep the sound down a bit. Can't say I thought of this tank on my own, I get a great deal of inspiration looking at what others on this site have already done. Bill

[bubbabuck]

I was leaving my tank bare but decided not to because of the bondo. They make a clear primer. If you use that then use regular clear it comes out nice! I just run a wire wheel over mine with a angle grinder. But you could polish it and get a better effect. It looks a lot better in person.

[ShakerNorm]

You could always paint or powdercoat it with an "aluminum" paint - it would still look like bare metal, but have the protection of the paint (not to mention it would cover up any bondo or fillers).... kind of the best of both worlds.

[EvergreenXS]

I like the idea of aluminum paint. Does anyone have a product to recommend? Anyone have any pictures of results to show off?

[buzzdagen]

I know where you are coming from I ran into all the pitfalls of the cafe aluminum tank look myself.
If you want to spend the dough you can get a hand made aluminum tank from "The Tank Shop" in England but they are 300 pounds (about $700 canadian). If you have your tank bead blasted you will know where to go depending on the look you want. If the inside of your tank is rusty it will need an acid bath to clean it. If you want to line your tank you can't have it powdercoated because the liner will burn-up in the oven and you can't line it after because the metal inside will have been exposed too long. If your tank has dents in it and you want to fix them then the best option is paint as there is no perfect filler that will survive the oven when you use powder. My tank was pretty nice inside so I had it bead blasted which exposed a small ding. I decided to leave the ding and have it powdercoated with "near chrome" which looks like chrome until you put it next to chrome then it looks like aluminum. I figure it will look like a shiney old aluminum tank with a ding in it. I am also doing my side panels and chain guard the same colour. If you do clear on raw metal it must be perfectly clean you can't touch it with your bare hands or any contamanants and if it chips it will rust underneath and begin to lift the clear(if you can find one that sticks to polished metal in the first place). If you want a paint that looks like chrome or polished aluminum check out
www.alsacorp.com.
they have some expensive but cool looking paints you can do yourself from a can including a two part urathane in a can that you puncture the bottom to release the hardener then shake for two minutes and spray. Sounds like a good paint to stand-up to gas. There is also a cheaper chrome paint at Eastwood automotive called EW liquid chrome and clear that would need to be spayed.
Good luck hope this helps. All it gave me was too many options and a headache. I chose powder, no liner the cheapest route.
An old Race bike should have a dent or two or it will be too pretty.