K75S DIY painting (& polished tank) thread

Go to Harbor Freight and ask for their mag wheel polish kit. It's about the same as the Eastwood kit, but a lot cheaper. I've used it before and it did pretty decent.

Oh...Don't bare down on the tank when using the kit. Just let the drill, felts and compound do the work. You can put a pretty good dent in the tank with too much pressure.

I'm almost there already

Thanks for the HF kit recommendation, Joel, but I don't need any more equipment or polishes to get this job done.

Yesterday I sanded it up to 2000 and today I buffed it again. Much, much better this time! I still have a few areas where I see my reflection, but it's fuzzy---so my hypothesis of insufficient sanding before was correct---tomorrow I'll re-sand these areas with the 1000 & 2000 and by then I should be good to go for the final polishing at long last.

I'm already so stoked I have the tank in my living room with one of the roundels temporarily stuck in place just so my wife and I can appreciate what it's going to look like.

It's been a lot more work than I anticiapted but I can see that it's all going to be very, very worthwhile once I'm finished.

nh7robmw said:

I'm already so stoked I have the tank in my living room with one of the roundels temporarily stuck in place just so my wife and I can appreciate what it's going to look like.

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I'll bet your wife is just as stoked as mine is, when I tell about something I'm doing to the K75.

I'm trying to envision whether a polished tank would look good on the RT. I need to repaint it or something. In typical K75RT fashion, it gets pretty hot during the summer, but fall, winter and spring, it's pretty cozy. I think it might radiate more heat if it was polished.

Yeah, my wife is helping me with my project sometimes and she gives me feedback when I suggest a color scheme. Yesterday she spotted and pointed out a parked Hummer with the same rare kind of color I'm considering for the saddlebags and top case---so thanks to her, it will be easier to determine that particular color code should I decide to go with it and thus give the Hummer paint code to my paint guy.

As far as the heat from the tank thing goes, I don't think it should make much diiference but I could be wrong. I have left the original paint and reflective heat insulation on the tank's underside intact to be on the safe side. Does your RT have that insulation? I think it may have been an option so I'd check it out, especially living in El Paso.

It was 95 when I was riding my S around Tucson last fall and while I noticed the extra engine heat in slow traffic I imagine it'd be a lot worse on an RT.

Reminds me of the sweltering summer day I was roariing up the twisties in Jerome, AZ on my K100RS. Stopped in town for a cold drink and opened my gas cap to see if I needed to get gas... The gas inside was actually boiling!

Yep...Mine has the insulation. But it's nowhere near enough. I did find a cure this afternoon though....

2002 R1150RT-Dang pretty bike. Anyone want a K75RT?

Done with polishing the tank at last!

Resanded the sides with 1000 & 2000 grits and hit it with the Makita and Blackfire again. Notched up the buffing speed a bit which seemed to help.

Here are my results with a roundel temporarily stuck on one side:





(not as concours perfect as I'd hoped for but close enough; I can see much clearer reflections over most of the tank now---only the back side panels are still a bit grainy)

I got a bit of water in the tank when I was wet sanding so I'll go ahead as originally planned and give it a good cleaning soon; hot water, Simple Green and a thorough hot water rinse/dry before I reinstall the new fuel filter, fuel pump (with a brand new pump sock ($41 at Bob's, yikes!)) and new in-tank fuel lines. I won't have to worry about any bits of dirt in the tank for a while then.

Now it's on to the rear rack which I will start sanding after lunch. I spent a couple hours trying to strip it with methylene chloride to little avail---I think it must be powdercoated as I only got a little of the black paint/coating off and it was in a granular form.

So the rack is the next chore on my long agenda and I'll update my progress and results next.

nh7robmw said:

Now it's on to the rear rack which I will start sanding after lunch. I spent a couple hours trying to strip it with methylene chloride to little avail---I think it must be powdercoated as I only got a little of the black paint/coating off and it was in a granular form.

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In my experience, the easiest way to remove paint from the rear rack is to mount a top box to it.

The tank looks awesome!!

What color have you decided on for the rest of the bike? Yellow?

Progress

I only had a bit of paint gone from using the top box but know exactly what you mean, Lee

I plan to line the bottom of my top box with a couple of mouse pads or some protective felt so I don't scratch up the rack once it's polished. Should provide a slight added benefit of a tighter fit, too.

Thanks for the tank compliment. It even looks better in person. If only I could get the same mirrors on the knee panels as the rest... Perhaps in time I will manage to find the best method. I'll have to get out the Mother's or Blackfire and polish it with a microfiber cloth every week anyway. (corrosion prevention)

Haven't decided 100% on what color yet but I am leaning towards one in particular. I just don't want to jinx my tentative choice so will wait to reveal it until after I've gone to the paint store to make the big purchase. Please bear with me, guys. No, it won't be yellow

I got 95% of the black paint off the rack today using 220 grit 3M paper, water and lots of elbow grease. That powder coating is tougher than nails. I tried using 3 different power tools first but none worked as well as the 3M and a sanding pad.

I want to finish getting all the paint out of all the nooks and crannies and then fine sand it right up through all the usual grits for the eventual hand polishing (might use my Dremel with some felt wheels for the tight corners).

At least I don't have to worry about sanding all the way through the aluminum this time

I think I'll wash out the tank in the morning and hope for a sunny afternoon so it can bake itself dry inside of our car with all the windows rolled up.

Should it rain again I already have a Plan B in place: stick the hose from my HVLP turbine inside the tank and let it blow warm dry air inside for an hour or so---the Fuji is kind of like a giant hair dryer!

My progress is slow but I'm having a lot of fun with this multi-faceted project.

I just finished watching the FIM races on tv (Troy Corser finished 6th on that new SS1000R, btw) which reminded me that the summer riding season is in full swing everywhere.

While I'd also love to be out riding around now---I've kind of written off this season* to really dial in my bike the way I've wanted to ever since I got it last year (*While it is possible to ride year-round where I live the rest of the year is pretty rainy so it's really not so ideal as it may seem.)

This is still a fun way to get to know my bike, give it a unique look and make it really mine. I don't have much experience in rennovation and such but I am finding all my efforts are pretty rewarding.

That shine on the tank has already put a smile on my face and I'm looking forward to getting on with everything else on my agenda. Glad I got a new fuel pump sock as I discovered the old one had a tiny but significant hole on one end. I'll probably get some new outside fuel lines, too, and install those when I put the tank back on.

Sorry for my rambling on a bit... but stay tuned; I'll be posting before/after photos of my rack asap.

Lookin' GREAT!

To me the next question isn't the rack....It's the gas cap. What are you going to the gas cap. Paint/Powder/Polish?

I tried shooting mine black early on because it was looking faded, but the black wouldn't stick to the powdercoat. I think it's a candidate for a soda blast and a new coat of something.

Are you going to clear coat the tank to stop oxidation?

Aluminum gas cap, by any chance?

Joel; All I've done to the gas cap so far is remove the inside filler flap thingy. Ive seen a couple of photos of bikes (K75Ss) with chromed gas caps which is an attractive option. I didn't realize that the stock cap is powdercoated; I actually thought it was some kind of super hard, solvent-resistant ABS plastic!

Wonder how hard it is to remove the lock from it? I'll take a close look at it and see if I can figure that out firsthand.

I could then take it down to a local sandblasting place and have it done (sodablasting preferred, of course). Then I'd have to ship it off to the mainland for chroming unless I could get it done in Honolulu for a reasonable cost.
I recall hearing of a recommendation of a place in Ohio that was really good for MC parts, inexpensive and fast turnaround time so I'll look into that (was on ADVRider a while back) if I decide to go ahead.

It just occurred to me that the gas cap might also be aluminum, in which case, well...I'll give you one guess as to what I would do to it if is......

Guess I better go get the fridge magnets right now and check it out!

Protecting bare aluminum

RoyB said:

Are you going to clear coat the tank to stop oxidation?

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All the research I did on protecting or clearcoating aluminum told me that anything I put on the surface will dull the shine.

I started a thread over on ADV's Garage Forum on this exact topic as I was hoping some sort of clearcoat would turn up that wasn't problematic on bare aluminum. No such animal, as far as I was able to determine.

The best thing is to just keep it highly polished all the time, as if it was a vintage Airstream at a Concours d'Elegance

The upside is that finely polished aluminum corrodes much less as long as it is kept up and doesn't sit out in the elements much. I'll keep an supply of Mother's or Blackfire handy and give it a once-over with a microfiber cloth as needed.

This brings back memories of a sailboat (34' Catalina) that I used to have. My wife polished the portion of the mast in the cabin. Once done, it was quite easy to maintain and looked great.

Looks like chrome...

Just finished polishing my rear rack after three days spent sanding, sanding, sanding and some more sanding---all by hand---60 grit on up..

This morning I started with the fine sanding at 400 grit, then 800, 1000 & 2000. Polished it by hand with a microfiber cloth and a glop of Blackfire.

Getting the black powdercoat off was a pain. I tried using Klean Strip Aircraft Remover which barely roughed up the surface. Had I known that methylene chloride wouldn't work I would have had it media blasted in Hilo to save me using so much elbow grease

The final result looks like chrome and I'm very pleased despite a few minor scratches here and there. The scratches might be buffed out at some point later on but I'm done with this for now. Almost as much work as polishing my tank but equally worthwhile nonetheless.

I think the rack will compliment said tank perfectly, especially with either paint color I end up with (to be announced)

Almost forgot the before/after photos!

Oops! Here's the photos of my rack before and after I meant to include in my above post:

Before (the tape underneath was for preventing the aircraft remover from stripping the powdercoating on the bottom):



After a ton of hard hand-work:

Cut it out, Lee!

You think I spent the last two weeks sanding away all of the yellow paint just so I could repaint it the same color all over again?

If this keeps up I may have to announce my color choices sooner than later...

nh7robmw said:

You think I spent the last two weeks sanding away all of the yellow paint just so I could repaint it the same color all over again?

If this keeps up I may have to announce my color choices sooner than later...

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I just thought it would be pretty dumb to paint a bike named "Chiquita" blue.

Chiquita no more?

OK, Lee, but Chiquita would still befit a bike that was a certain shade of green, brown or black depending on ripeness...

Actually, my wife pointed out to me some time ago when I informed her of my impending project that I will probably need to change her name (the bike's, not my wife's).

From here on, maybe we should refer to her as "Alumina." I actually kind of like that.

Maybe that name will stick, regardless of what the color of the rest of the bike turns out to be later on. Guess I'll have to change my signature line now.

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Yesterday I retrieved the gas cap out of the big plastic bin full of tupperware I've removed from the bike. I took a close look at the cap and while I can hardly believe it, , IT IS ALSO SOLID ALUMINUM!

Since it is powdercoated I will see if I can get it sodablasted first (I learned my lesson the hard way with the rack already).

Then I may send it off to get anodized some wild color unless I should further succumb to sanding and polishing instead. It is kind of addicting, actually.

Any idea on how to safely remove the lock cylinder? I was hoping it would come off with the cover part that has three screws underneath but no luck, seems that it is pressure fit. ?????

At any rate, the gas cap refinishing will go onto the back burner for now. The summer is flying by and I really need to start sanding and prepping the tupperware for painting. All the sunny, more-or-less dry weather we're having now won't last forever.

Once I get the painting accomplished I can go back to worrying about all the minor details like bits of bling that can be done when it's raining again.

Probably the very next thing on this week's agenda is to "reassemble" the tank. It's been sitting inside our 4Runner parked in the sun for several days. Wanted to make sure it will be completely dry inside after I washed it with Simple Green and gave it a thorough rinsing.

I'll install new in-tank fuel lines and a new pump sock and fuel filter when I reinstall the fuel pump. Very glad I went ahead and removed it for inspection a while back---while the rubber surround was fine (hard as an old tire), the pump sock was gummed up and had a hole in it.

I might put a couple drops of Sea Foam into the pump's inlet, too (for the sake of lubrication), what do you think?

nh7robmw said:

From here on, maybe we should refer to her as "Alumina."

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Maybe ALOX or Corundum for all the "wet or dry" you've used. You could even shorten it to "Corie."