Need some advice...

[Rasher]

Peeps

If you wanted to take a painted tank and strip it so that it looked like one of those older unpainted / stainless / bare metal jobbies like you would see on an old Norton or Triumph, how would you go about it? Are all those old tanks aluminium or what? Is it even possible with a steel tank?

AND - once you have it stripped and looking like you want it - what (if anything) do you need to do to keep it looking that way?

[generalisimo muldoon]

Nitromors to remove the old paint. Hopefully it hasn't been dented and filled in the past. If it has you'll have to remove the filler and repair the dent with silver solder. Once it's been stripped and polished, a coat of laquer will keep it rust free.

[pillphil]

How do the edges look when it's filled with solder?

[Rasher]

thanks General...I guess the best thing to do is to start with a straight tank!!!

[myksav]

Originally Posted by Rasher

Peeps

If you wanted to take a painted tank and strip it so that it looked like one of those older unpainted / stainless / bare metal jobbies like you would see on an old Norton or Triumph, how would you go about it? Are all those old tanks aluminium or what? Is it even possible with a steel tank?

AND - once you have it stripped and looking like you want it - what (if anything) do you need to do to keep it looking that way?

The very early "bare" tanks were steel, polished and lacquered. Triumphs and Nortons you see with them are alloy.

Striping a steel tank down, make sure the tank is 'perfect', even silver solder won't quite match steel exactly. Silver soldering the seams will work though, polished smooth, it looks ok.

To rust-proof it try one of the PU 'varnishes', it's more like plastic coating. There's also stuff called Clear Cote used by some bodyshops. Hard wearing, UV proof and dead clear. Pricy though and has to be done in a proper spray booth.

[the toenail cutter]

You could get the tank sprayed a nice silver be less hassel or you could get it cromed . It would cost a lot but look the bollix
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