Can this be done?

[dpep]

There is a former Suzuki mechanic here in Jax that I sometimes use for projects I don't particularly want to do. Recently one of those was to POR15 the tank of my newest ('81) 850 and rebuild/replace petcock if needed. Mistake on my part. Long story short he set it flat in a plastic tub with the petcock lever in the down (on) position. The lever deflected toward Prime enough to let gas flow out and fill the bottom of the tub.

By the next morning my tank which before had barely a blemish on it anywhere looked like this all around the bottom up 2-3 inches.







Upon close examination I learned that Suzuki's oem paint from 40 years ago was pretty good. It appears to have survived with no noticeable damage. The clear coat and the decals were a different story as you can see.

Is there a way I can strip all of the clear, replace the decals, and reapply the clear without stripping and repainting to whole tank? It would be a lot less work and I would not have to worry about the paint matching the rest of the bike. I am trying to dodge the bullet as much as possible.
...

[Cipher]

Wet sanding with extreme caution

I am currently doing a similar job on an acoustic guitar.
Topmost of clear went cloudy and a test showed i
Could wetsand to a deeper level of unsullied clear. But it painfully slow and I suspect I wiil get a burn through at 99.99% completed.
This thing has insanely thick clear though an is all but perfectly flat.

Id say reimmerse in the same gas but you may have just gotten lucky and. Further exposure might spell doom.

Nothing on you tube?

[Gorminrider]

Firstly, I would take it to a professional for an estimate. ideally said professional will be in a tidy shed restoring Vincent motorcycles for sheer love of it.... But it helps to consider the DIY options we may come up with so you can determine whether the professional is blowing smoke- ask him/her exactly how they will do it and judge.

A gentle wetsanding, re-laquer, buffing-in at margins of the affected area alone would not be impossible if you are very careful to test the laquer first.(ie-acrylic-type laquers might be a danger to the existing)
Or You might then best consider recoating the whole tank with a modern gas-proof clearcoat (urethane base...? see "pinstripe") I would try the "area-only" first, were it me. A bit of laquer sprayed into a lid brushed on might do....

BUT the pinstriping will be difficult to match. The gold is not so hard but the other (bronze?) looks rare.PLUS Age, time, and fashion can make a transition difficult. You MIGHT consider "paint" or rather laquer paint *mixed to match and a steady hand along the masked pinstripe ...

* enamel paint will be destroyed by laquer clearcoat while a urethane varnish would be ok over paint...
* a brushable laquer paint is NAIL POLISH. It comes in EVERY colour but Will need to be thinned or, straight-up, carefully sanded down and buffed-in

[nvr2old]

I think if you try to sand the clear you'll get into the base coat quicker then most people would think..especially in that lower right corner. I'm assuming the grey color is the pin stripe's backing..? Again hard to feather back and try to match the color. My opinion would be having to bite the proverbial bullet, get a striping kit from Diablo and do a respray. That sucks, I know, but it would be the quickest and surest way of knowing it was done correctly.

I know how you feel. A friend of mine backed into my freshly repainted PT Cruiser a week ago and caved in the left rear quarter panel. I JUST REPAINTED IT!!, I screamed..God, I was pi$$ed. I could've strangled him because he didn't even look, he just jumped in his car, put it in reverse and slammed into my car. His insurance will cover it, but still...

[metalfab]

That is a tough one. If you spray clear lacquer over it after wet sanding it just a bit it will tell the story. I would use 400 grit then 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper. You can get clear lacquer at Walmart for about $3.96 a can, stock has been pretty sporadic on the clear lacquer at Walmart in my area since covid came around. Stay off the paint and sand the clear coat and stripes. Clear envelopes clear really good, that might be your saving grace. Once you get a good coat or two of lacquer on it, you will be able to see if it will fly. So for just a few bucks you can give it a go. If it looks good give it multiple coats of clear, then wet sand with 400 to feather/blend the different coats of clear. Then coat it again with clear. If you can stay off of the base color with sandpaper you have the best chance of pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Good luck with it.

[salty_monk]

It's possible, I've done something similar on a smaller scale but getting through the pin stripe without burning through elsewhere is really hard. Good luck!

[metalfab]

Possibly the pin stripe could be overlaid if the surface of the old stripe was nice?

[LAB3]

Possibly the pin stripe could be overlaid if the surface of the old stripe was nice?

Even if done by hand with a bit a squiggle to it would probably look better.

[dpep]

Thanks to all for your input. I appreciate everyone's cautionary tone about the sanding. That was actually never an option for me. Fine sanding an entire gas tank without getting into paint is way beyond my skill set. What I was hoping for was some sort of miracle solvent that would take the clear and leave the paint the way the gasoline did. I do not have the balls to soak the rest of the tank in gasoline for a few hours to see what would happen.

Here are a couple of before/after sets where the only thing I did was flick away the peeled clear with my thumbnail. I could live with the paint part appearance wise. That still leaves the striping and some sort of clear protective coating for where the clear flaked off.

I could not find my bike (81 850) among Diablo's decal offerings. I would cut my own strips if I could find some tape close in color. Failing that the only option would be to try to match it with a paint mixture.









...

[Gorminrider]

I supposethere's a chance to find the pinstriping in that bronze colour. But you will want to top it with a clear coat, I think. I like your idea of finding sheets of sticky-back paper and cutting your own- the pinstripe I have is peel and stick...a kind of vinyl? because it can stretch to go 'round a moderate corner without creasing... Ebay?

If you go to "paints" I'd look for a professional "sign-painter"- usually they hang out in boatyards, classic car meets- also, a "modeller" uses extreme detail so a visit to the local toy and hobby store could be informative . Imagine painting the waterline boot-topping of a 1:250 ship and you get the idea. These guys know their paints! And, model paints come in HUGE variety.


DIY, you will have to apprentice yourself to the craft before trying this....example: just the ins and outs of "masking tape" in my limited experience: likely won't work unless oil-base enamels used... depending on the tape, many things more exotic than enamel will very possibly creep under it worse than without it...

[Grimly]

'Tis a pity India's so far away, because the lad who pintripes the Enfield tanks would knock that out in his teabreak for norra lorra dosh.

[LAB3]

'Tis a pity India's so far away, because the lad who pintripes the Enfield tanks would knock that out in his teabreak for norra lorra dosh.

Is that what the cool kids are calling it these days?

[nvr2old]

Part of the problem is even someone like 3M just don't make a variety of pin stripe tape anymore. It's not like in the 60s-80s when almost all cars and bikes came with pin stripes. New cars and bikes don't have them anymore so the demand for it has almost dried up except basically for the simplest colors like red, black, white, and silver. When I repainted my car I separated the 2-tone with a double orange pin stripe, something 3M had made for years. I got the last roll..in the entire country from Kansas City..according to the 3M dealer I went trough. They told me it won't be long before all pin stripe tape will be unavailable.

[LAB3]

Part of the problem is even someone like 3M just don't make a variety of pin stripe tape anymore. It's not like in the 60s-80s when almost all cars and bikes came with pin stripes. New cars and bikes don't have them anymore so the demand for it has almost dried up except basically for the simplest colors like red, black, white, and silver. When I repainted my car I separated the 2-tone with a double orange pin stripe, something 3M had made for years. I got the last roll..in the entire country from Kansas City..according to the 3M dealer I went trough. They told me it won't be long before all pin stripe tape will be unavailable.

My high school era job was at an auto parts store, I don't remember how many types there where on the display but It was every bit of four feet wide and five feet tall. Just did an eBay search using "pinstripe tape" and started sifting through them, you might want to try the same.

[metalfab]

You can mask stripes off new stripes with thin masking tape, then spray stripes on. An airbrush from Harbor freight tools is a good choice. A can of spray paint can be used too. Spraying them on is a lot easier than brushing them on. You have to be sure that paints are compatible when you are spraying one type over the other. That can be tough. It is best to spray paint on a test surface area in the sequence with the same timing between coats that you want to use on the final product. This will show you if one paint or clear coat will attack the layers under it.