Manky Monkey Motors

Well as winter seems to nearly be here and the wind is blowing a gale I thought I would make a start on the repainting of my Fuel tank off my Z...Here are initial pic's of how the tank looks now.....I will add each stage of the repaint and how it was achieved all the way through to it fitted back on the chop......Voodoo....

Woo hoo! Another re-paint thread!!

Looking forward to this buddy!

Clive

yea 2nd that :)

can't wait wooopy.... ;D

A master at work bring it on

Heres the next stage..
As I am going to be useing the existing paint as a base coat instead of having to prime the tank first here is how I do it.....
First off I flat the tank off with 400 Grit to cut back the lacquer...Then move up to 800 grit to get it a smooth as it gets finish....Remember to keep the paper nice and wet or it will clog up...I use a bucket full of warm soapy water and just keep dipping in the paper...then I use a sponge to wash the panel every few mins...

Next stage Wash the tank down (I use warm water with a squirt o washing up liquid for this)and dry it...Then use Panel wipe to remove any contaminants,next use a tak rag to get off any dust or bits of fluff(try and use cotton lint free cloths or you will get bits on tank) off of the panel, Main thing to do is make sure your preparation is as good as you can get it or you wont get a good finish....Voodoo.....

Ooh! Attacking that shiny paint with sandpaper must be a bit daunting!

Next stage is to give it a dust coat of paint...I use a Pearl black as its a great bascoat for Kandy...I gave the tank one dust coat In Pearl, leave it to flash off 10 mins then Give it a light coat of Pearl....leave another 10-15 mins depending on flash time of paint you are useing......Spray another wet coat of Pearl...I tend to do a 25% overlap @ half to 3/4 trigger pull for this.....

Tank after 4 more coats of Pearl, ready for next stage...( everytime I use this pearl black I say "I will have to do a bike in that soon" lol) .Tomorrow I flat this base coat back and get on with the Marble.....Yep I always cringe when flatting out shiny stuff...Voodoo...

Can you explain what "Flashing Off" is VD?

Ah sorry...yep flash time is how long the paint takes to dry off enough to add another coat of paint without it all running...Voodoo...

Right-o, thank you.
Carry on.  ;D

Next stage I sand the paint back with 1200 grit until it is as smooth as I can get it, basically if its still shiney then you aint flatted it back enough lol (yet again I prefer to wet sand as I find I get a better finish).....once happy with it I then apply a wet coat of Silver Marbleizer (I do this in 4 stages across the tank starting from lower left side of tank)...the trick is to not load the tank up too much with this or it will run and you will not get the desired Marble effect...I will mention that when doing this you have a choice of effects...either the normal marble or a tricky to achieve snakeskin effect...No I wont tell you how I get that effect its a secret lol...Once you have applied the first area of marbleizer (lower left) leave for 15-30 seconds then apply plastic cover sheet and pat down or rub to get desired effect...leave for a further 30-60 seconds and remove plastic....repeat this step for the rest of the tank......Leave to flash off...only takes 15-20 mins...Voodoo.....

Here's the Marble...Sadly thats all for now until I get another compressor, my emergency compressor is ok to base coat and do the Marble but nowhere near good enough for top coat and lacquer.....HHMMMM as I cant do nowt for a bit I may stick on some ghost flames.....watch this space.......Sorry about poor pic size...................................Voodoo...........

I do like that effect. Also good for camouflaging any defects in the prep!

haha yep it can be used to mask the odd blemish...but nothing beats good prep for a good finish...Voodoo...

VOODOO your a man of many talents cant wait for the finale

Went out yesterday as decided to get stuck in and finish the tank...after having a real good look at the tank from many angles I decided I did not like the pattern I had with the Marble, so I removed it......I have redone it but this time ive gone for the Snake skin effect....
Once I was happy with the Marble I then coated it with intercoat clear to seal the marble and help bring out the Black Pearl Basecoat...I will check the Clear in a couple of hours and if its gone off ok, I will then knock it off (Sand it back to mirror smooth finish) with 1500 and Start on the Kandy Coats...Voodoo...

How was that effect achieved then Mr Doo?

thats right,you have,nt explained how you did the snake skin effect....Fantastic work and a good write up on the process.Can u tell me if its possible to spray a stainless steel tank? Do you need a special primer and paint for it? Keep up the good work,its a great write up.

Its a secret lol.......Yep you can paint Stainless,cant remember the name of the paint atm but will check it later.....Stainless is great for doing clear pearl over.....Voodoo.....

Bulldog adhesion promoter I think it's called!!!

Nice effect there Voodoo!!!

Clive

Heres a link to the stuff for painting direct to metal etc..
http://www.house-of-kolor.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6_7

Here's the next stage...I now apply a light coat of the Kandy to the tank and leave to dry overnight.....Next stage I flat the paint out with 1200 grit paper until it is perfectly smooth....Now I spray the first full coat of kandy with about a 25% overlap,this I leave to flash off 20 mins then apply a second coat of Kandy...It is now left overnight again to fully go off.....

Now comes the tricky part.....As you will notice the Marble has been buried under the Kandy and does not show up...what i have to do now is wet Sand the tank with 1500 grit paper...this stage is very tricky as you want the Marble to come through but not break through the Kandy...once this is done to my satisfaction I then spray on the first Clear coat...
I tend to spray 3 or 4 coats of clear then leave tank overnight yet again to fully go off....It still looks like the Marble is buried but as I add more coats of Clear it will start to come through stronger....Voodoo...

That's lovely Voodeedoodles.
I do like that green.

It will look even nicer once I get another 10 layers of clear on it and polish it up...Voodoo....

Next stage is pretty much same as the last....Wet sand the Clear with 1200 grit paper this time, pic 1....Apply 5 coats of clear 20 Min's apart and leave to dry, pic 2........Final stage of Clear, I apply another 5 coats and leave over night, next day Wet sand with 1500 grit paper. Then I apply the final coat of clear which is a different mix ratio to normal clear as it is a flow coat and I want maximum shine........Leave this 48 hours to harden properly.....Final stage to come in 48 hours.
As you can see from the pic's it still needs depth as the Marble still does not stand out enough,this comes with next few coats and artificial light never seems to pick up the Marble properly...
I also use Panel wipes & Tack cloths before any stage of painting to remove any dust etc that settles on the tanks when drying.....Voodoo....

Looking good buddy! Love the shine you get! What clear do you use, and do you then heat set?

Clive

Hi, I use 2k Clear (House of Kolour) and bake the tank with halogen heaters to set for a couple of hours.....I then like to leave it 48 hours in my little sprayshop (I have radiators on in there when any paintwork is left to dry) before starting any mopping.....Ideally I want to build a hot box for bike parts but that will wait till next year...Voodoo....

You seem to have more money than.............................. only joking ;D!!! Just find HoK extortionate in price for all there products, but must admit there's is the only 'true' kandy!!

Built myself a real heath robinson oven last year, out of Polystyrene sheet, lined with foil, heated with a hairdryer!!!! Amazed at how hot it got in there. Managed to melt a cycle helmet with it!!!! Hence it's now part of the insulation of the shed!!!!!

Have got myself an IR lamp though. great for kick starting the drying process though!!

Clive

I agree with you there HOK are expensive, but then again I find them some of the best products out there..I have a heat gun I use whilst painting etc, one hand has a spray gun in it the other a heat gun lol, minimises runs and as you said it kickstarts flashing.....Voodoo.....

Keep that handy, you'll be using it on your airbrush work A LOT!!!!!

Clive

Finally got to do some more on my paintwork today...Have flatted out the tank and put on a Gold base where my design is going......Then had the joy of doing a Gothic (Semi Chinese lol) style Dragon......tomorrow I will flat it all out and touch in any bits I am not happy with...then Lacquer it before sticking on a couple of coats of Kandy green.....All being well I should be able to knock that back and Start on final Lacquering the weekend..so watch this space for pic's soon.....Voodoo......

Only manged to get it touched in today in the end as in a bit too much pain to get on with it...fingers crossed i will be ok to get some done tomorrow...Dave..

GGGGRRRRRRR....went out today to try and get this finished and ended up cleaning the whole lot off the tank as I was not 100% happy with it, the lines were not sharp enough.......Not helping the fact I am in loads of pain atm after spending nearly 2 days kneeling down working on bits, and have a zero tolerance level to things that dont go right when I am in pain........
Decided to get it preped up in the Gold base again for now and attack it again tomorrow....Worse thing is I did the design twice before I even started on the tank to check what base colour would look better either Silver or Gold and those 2 Turned out ok lol....
I have stuck a couple of pic's on 1 of the practice job and one with Dragon on tank that I removed, not great as i only stuck on 1 coat of Kandy and 1 coat of Lacquer on them just to get an idea......Voodoo....

I like that mate. Your own design?

Finally re-done it and started with the Lacquer...so far got 8 coats on it with another 7 at least still to go then its time to compound ands polish...oh plus added a little design to rear mudguard...that also needs loads more lacquer and a polish...(the light in the shed is awful for trying to show off paintwork lol...I will get it out into some sunlight soon and retake them)......Voodoo....

Well as i dont have any grit higher than 1500 I have decided that its good enough how it is lol....Still got a few bits to replace in the near future (New forwards and new rear pegs for a styart) but the Z is now set for summer....Voodoo...

Next lot...Voodoo...

Looks great Dave. Looking forward to seeing you on it at the Basingstoke show in May.  ;)

thx....now that the paint is done I can get stuck into all the other little jobs I need to do on it...Just replaced the risers/hand grips and speedo mount this week...next items will be a new set of forwards and rear pegs and a mirror I can actually see out of lol...Planning on enjoying it this summer then stripping it over winter and having all the chrome redone and possibly having the seat recovered....also toying with the idea of getting another front end for it at some time...now its nearly done I will get a writeup sorted out for you with some better pic's when the sun comes out.....then at least you will be able to see the Marble snakeskin effect it has under the kandy green lol.....Voodoo....

HI Voodoo that's a wicked colour you have there a man of many talents

Thanks...My paintwork is fine, but only just starting out with airbrushing so a long way to go with that as yet...The Green looks wicked in the sun as the Marble effect ive gone for really shines through...I will be at Basingstoke and the Monkey world run this year so people can actually get to see it close up......Voodoo...

Did a bit more polishing on the Tank a few days ago and finally got it out in the sun to take a few pic's...this paint is so good the depth of the tank is amazing...Voodoo.....