Refinishing a motorcycle gas tank

[Louis]

Hey folks,

Anybody out there had any experience refinishing a motorcycle gas tank? A buddy of mine at work has an '86 BMW 800 R80 GS (Paris Dakar). He has one estimate of about $500-$700 for the job. That seems way high to me - any thoughts? He's already spent $300 on decals (so ~$1000 total - wow!). Also, when he removed and drained the tank there were quite a few flakes of stuff in the bottom. We're assuming that the inside also needs to have some sort of cleaning / re-coating. Any info would be helpful.

TIA
Louis

[L84dinr]

I reckon 'cause he owns a P-D BMW they reckon he has the money.

I have lined a fuel tank before. Look for Kreem, follow the directions and it should work. Worked OK for me. I ran a hand held blow dryer through the tank for about a day to make sure it dried well. Getting the inside clean is paramount.

As for painting the fuel tank. I have a Ducati GTL that i had a buddy at a auto body shop paint for me. Didnt care if it was the correct paint or matching... He used paint which he had lying around and i think i had the fuel tank painted for less than a hundred. In other words, shop around. Any body shop can paint it.

BMW's are nice. I have owned an '84 RS100R, nice bike. Wife couldnt stand it. Traded it for a K75 Luxo boat. Very nice to ride in the winter time, loved the heated hand grips.

take it easy

[dancinkozmo]

ive never painted a gas tank, but ive lined a rusty one. I used a product called POR-15, it worked terrific. A kit to do a motorcycle gastank costs
about 40 bucks.
heres a link to some instructions /pics you may find of use...

http://www.ducati.ms/forums/showthread.php?t=1553

[maunahaole]

I used the Kreem product a long time ago. It works well, but it is finicky stuff to use, and like the prior post mentioned, doing it according to instructions is the key. It is a two step process, etching the rust out first and then putting a coating of some kind on the inside of the clean metal. If you pay someone to do it, I would expect it to be expensive, as it is a time and space intensive project. The P-D gas tank is big, so you may need to get two kits to do the whole thing.

You may also want to look in the direction of ebay or a BMW forum and see if you can find a replacement tank to put on. Sell the old tank to someone willing to put the work into it. If it isnt dented or leaking, it has value.

[gone]

The estimate seems very high to me as well. I had a side panel, side bag and top case painted for $400 and the end result was perfect.

My suggestion would be to ask around at various motorcycle shops. They almost always "know a guy" who does painting. This is how I found the painter who did mine.

[rphetteplace]

Send it to Spectrum Powder works and have it powdered for 1/3 that.

[Charles M]

Define the work...


If it's a simple sand prime and respray that price is stupid...

If there's more too it, maybe not.

[Louis]

If there's more too it, maybe not.

Nothing more - just refinish the outside and probably also the inside (as described above). No dents or leaks or anything else fancy.

I thought the price was way high, so I thought I'd check here. Sounds like most agree that that is high for this type of job. Where he goes from here is up to him. I think he should get a few more estimates then decide what to do.

Thanks guys
Louis

[ti_boi]

It is not that bad if you want a pro job. It is a nice bike and certainly deserves as much care as a nice bike frame. I was going to redo and old triumph tank and the money was very similar...included stripes though.

[Ken Robb]

If he intends to ride it on/off road as BMW intended I wouldn't think an expensive paint job would be a smart investment.