Although the tank looks good in the picture.

It needed repainting due to someone dropping some small items on it chipping the paint, and whilst they were only small chips, the paint under the black was purple, so it stood out from 10 feet away.

I set about removing the paint with a can of paint remover (spray on) and it did not do a particularly brilliant job, mind you it was black, then undercoat, then purple, then undercoat followed by red, and the original black under that, so that paint stripper had a lot of coats to soak into.

It ended up with some metal showing, though a lot of paint still left on, so I finished it off with a round attachment that takes sand paper, fitted to my drill, and set about stripping it with that, at 120 grade paper, two hours later and I had this below.

It needs a skim or two of filler still.

I have ordered some lacquer in a can that is fuel resistant, and 2pac, the reason I am going to do it with a can, is to show you how easy this can be DIY, yes I could get the spray gun out, though not everyone has one, so I wanted to do it, to show anyone can do this at home, on bikes, motorbikes, cars and anything else you may want to spray.

I have given it a skim of filler in a few places, and will be sanding it tomorrow and putting on a few coats of primer.

Why bare metal you ask?

Well there is always a chance of a reaction to new paint from the layers below, the more layers, the more chance of a reaction, and when you are putting $40 - $50 of paint on something after spending hours prepping it, the last thing you want is a bad reaction from a layer below, so bare is best, plus I get to make sure there are no nasty rust pots lurking, as they are deadly on petrol tanks, and very bad news on a bike that I can no longer buy a new petrol tank for (the bike is 1982 you see).

I will update with another post tomorrow on the undercoat, and then do a final post with a nice shining coat of black covered in dripping wet looking lacquer. Preparation is key to any paint job as any fool can spray something, not everyone can or will prepare it for paint properly, more time spent preparing = much better end product, so 2 days for me to prepare a petrol tank is normal.

Above photo is how not to stay clean by moi.

Have a perfectly pleasant day, I hope your day was as productive as mine (I am sunburned today :-) ).