TOPIC:

The clearcoat on the top of the fuel tank on my '77 Z650B1 has been partially stripped off, probably due to fuel. I am thinking of using 1200-grit sandpaper (wet) to remove the clearcoat on the top (right up to the striping) and redoing it using rattle-can clearcoat.
My question is: will it hold on the original paint, or just chip off? And: how fuel-resistant is acrylic rattle-can clearcoat?

Thanks!

Gosh, wish I had seen this... the rattle can clear coat is a waste of time. It has no hardeners and washes off with gas. You may be able to reshoot the clear with a compressor and a gun. Shooting clear takes a bit of practice and some skill unlike shooting primer or even a base coat. The clear goes on thicker and must be even. Take the tank to a body shop and let them reshoot it and pray the the clear is compatible with the original base. You might also find a paint forum and ask a pro painter if this is even a good idea.

I wasn't going to say anything since I'm of course ridiculed on the group for my views on paint , but since WG said it, I'll reinterate, paint from a can will wash off with simple rain, think about what gas will do. I remember before I got old and wise repainting a bicycle back in about 1974 and a big rainstorm "rainblasted" it. Just a free way to get a good beadblasting I guess, then in about 1976 a friend had a crappy Yamaha DT1 enduro in original orange that we painted blue complete with clearcoat. Not bad for 17 year old kids, came out nice, til the first gas spill then piece of garbage. That's where I got my "attitude" originally, then I've seen it over and over 100 thousand times plus since. If you sand down the original clear to get to original paint, it's going to be all messed up for sure, but that's not the worst thing, adding clear will result in a mess beyond your worst nightmare.

Definitely no CAN clear coat is worth a crap and I had tested several brands all with same results where it won't hold up to gas, period.

Can paint ok but you must follow up with a 2 or 3 part clear coat for the fuel protection.

Here's what I used and have no problems in testing with GAS...

Paint:
Black: Dupli Color Acrylic Enamel
Orange: Dupli Color Metal Cast Orange (used Ground base, think metal flake primer)

Clear Coat:
Sherwin Willams 2 phase Clear Coat.
RS6200 Clear Coat
RS9200 Hardner

Was a spray gun required for the Sherwin Williams products?
Nope, home depot/ace hardware and paint suppliers have Preval Power Units... Was surprised how well this worked.
It took a couple of tries to get it right with no drips or extreme orange peel but after figuring out speed and distance off the piece, all good.

www.prevalspraygun.com/about.htm

And I guess they were mixed prior to application? 4:1 ratio, I just mixed it in the Preval jar itself...

OMR

that paint looks good! love the color. good job

Wow - that looks nice. I have the original Kawasaki badges that I want to put back on my tank after repainting it, but it looks like the holes in the tank may have been filled in with body filler? Were these originally threaded holes or were they just insets that the badges were epoxied or glued into?

DoubleDub, not sure about KZ650 nor which bike your speaking of but the KZ900 and 1000's are threaded.

If filled with bondo, a sharp tipped point can get that out of there rather easily.

OMR

the 650 is screwed on like the others, if they filld them you will prob not be able to clean them out, I would cheat them on, get the screws and cut them off, leaving only the head, super glue them in place, then either silcone or double stick tape them on

Thanks for the replies! The clearcoat that has been damaged looks like the original. Some of the paint has been dulled as well, either from the sun or because of a gasoline spill. The Preval spraygun with cartridge seems like a great idea, especially since I cannot afford a compressor or a professional respray (prices start at 600 Euro, or 750 for a really good one by Löblein in Germany). I found a supplier in the Netherlands: guess how much that stuff costs over here...12.50 Euro, about triple the US price.

Anyway, the plan at the moment is to wet-sand the clearcoat, and see if the dull patches of paint will lighten up. If so, I'll use the Preval to spray on a two-part clearcoat. If not, I'll redo the entire paintjob. Since I'll have to do the ducktail as well, I'll probably respray (color + clearcoat) the entire set.
Does anybody know where to find a paint that more-or-less approaches the 1977 Z650B1 Candy Emerald Green?

I have never found any places that have the formula, but if you have some good paint someplace, they can do a color match that will be damn close

In San Antonio, they have a place that does computer color match. These folks scan the color on your vehicle then their computer comes up with a formula. It seems to work decently on base/clear type systems but on 3 part stuff, it doesn't work as well. A three part is a base coat of either black or silver then another base color over the top and then clear. I had a Kaw Nomad that had this type paint. It was red metallic over a silver base as I recall and when scanned, the resulting color wasn't a perfect match. I had to paint a trunk and after painting, it looked fine since the trunk paint didn't sit right next to the original paint but if it had, it wouldn't have looked too great. The trunk was painted silver and burgundy to match the bike and the silver was an exact match but the burgundy was off a shade.

in doing some research on paint for the z1,I have found that the orig tri coat system used had 2 colors of primers, the shade of primer will change the finish color alomg with application of top coats.
Dsmn I miss the good ole paint