Decided to respray my tank..

[blade023]

I didn't get any before pictures as I was too engrossed in the actual work, and wanted to make a start before it was dark. Also, the weather forecast isn't that great and I wanted to get the primer on before any rain.

Here's a couple of pictures of the tank nicely sanded down. I used a wire brush to remove any trace of rust, then went over the whole thing with sandpaper and primered it.




I was going to buy a mini air spray gun thingy to do it, but I couldn't justify the cost for just one job. So I went with rattle cans. The ones I bought from MotorMart (great guys there, in Newton Abbot, know their stuff and give good advice) are pretty decent at £9 a can, and I got gloss black and laquer. So I'm hoping it will turn out nice, I'm going to take my time with it and resist the urge to be impatient. I re-sprayed the front mudguard a while back and it turned out nice, and the other day I finished and tinted the screen.

Just to let you all know, those who were on the ride out from Taunton, the screen now looks much nicer and is not the tatty looking thing it was on the ride out! XD

proof:


More to come!

[blade023]

First 3 coats on. As you can see it has a nice orange peel effect to it! I'm planning on wet sanding it tomorrow with some fine grit paper then laying on another coat. Hopefully that will get a nice smooth finish.





Any tips would be appreciated as well, if anyone has any experience with rattle can spraying.

[badgerKDD]

What helps a lot is to make sure the cans are warm before using, so keep them in the house overnight before using. Give them a proper shake, not just a quick 20 sec jiggle. Lay lots of thin layers on, keeping about 6 to 8 inchs away from the job, and give ten minutes or so between coats. Laying wet on wet also helps the paint flow together, but mostly its just trying to use a can in the same way you would use a proper spray gun, its still paint after all.

Oh and inverting the can after use does work for keeping the nozzle clear.

[blade023]

Thanks Badger, I've been following those tips after doing some research on t'internet before I started. I warm the cans up in some warm water before using them, shake for the 2 minutes like it says and while using, and I try to keep the right distance from the tank while spraying. I've also been clearing the nozzles afterwards like you said.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the results, except the last laquer I did which I sprayed on and did nothing else with. I think what helps (as my spraying technique isn't the best) is doing a very fine grit wet sanding and buffing afterwards which I will do tomorrow as the weather will be nice. Once this is done I should have a uniform smooth coat of laquer over what was a nice smooth black. As I read that the laquer emphasises imperfections in the previous coat I was careful to make the last coat of black nice and smooth, I spent about an hour just buffing it!

I've never used a proper spray gun before, nor have I done much spraying in general so this is pretty new to me. For anyone else looking to do this sort of thing, I think the best advice I could give from experience is to lay a few thin coats of colour down, then wet sand with about 2000 grit and a tiny bit of washing up liquid to lube the paper. After achieving a uniform matte look (this also helps to show up orange peel and low spots) use some rubbing compound or buffing paste and tack rags. I used turtle wax which worked very well.

I followed this guide:
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/car-clea ... tures.html

I did however manage to achieve a nice smooth finish doing 2 coats of black on my plastic front mudguard. It was looking tatty round the edges so I decided to spray it a few months ago. I'll update with more pictures tomorrow!