Temporary fuel tank lining while painting outside of tank?

[Macmatic]

Then he sent me to a to-the-trade auto body supply store that has a computerized camera. I took one of the side covers in and they took a picture with the camera system, which printed-out a formula for new paint to match. That little trip cost me $60 to buy one pint of paint!!! ($20 camera charge, plus $40 for the paint)

Holy Christmas!

$20 camera fee? Cripes... I went to my local auto paint supplier with a side panel I wanted to match and they shot it with the paint matching gun, I think its a PPG system, and then made me up a can of the red and a can of a grey metallic I picked out of the PPG book for $11.95 per can with no camera fee.

These were rattle cans by the way. SEM Multicoat base filled with paint mixed in the store. I chose to go with a base coat/cleat coat since I was planning to paint some whole pieces and touch up others. The clear was U-POL Clear #1 and I'm really happy with how it came out tho I did have to fog on about four coats of the metallic before it looked right. The clear holds up to gas on the tank and brake fluid on the fairing too.

I forget what kind of paint they used, something under PPG but they said for rattle cans or anything less than a pro shop it was just as good without the price of the name and I think it came out great. I'll tell ya, where I matched the red on red and then clear coated you can't see the line even in daylight, the color is spot on.

Okay, this is long winded but what I'm getting at is that you could do the tank yourself for under $40. Read some painting tips online and have at it, if you're careful you can get some good results on your own. I think the method described in the garage section here is a little overboard by the way... come on, 1200 grit sanding for rattle can paint? Please... I'm mean I'm sure it came out great but you can get very nice results with a lot less effort.

/\/\ac

P.s. If you haven't seen it yet my bike is linked in my sig.