Painting Gas Tank

[hughes]

I just got my over sized tank today for my 87 500. It's an used IMS in great shape but it's a transparnet green. I would like for it to have been clear(white) instead of light green. My question is can I paint it kawasaki green and it look good or will it like crap and bubble up like the decals do on tanks.

[Torch654]

I would think it would get ugly when gas gets spilled on it but there could be some type of paint that would work well. perhaps some two part paint would resist the chemicals?

[hughes]

I'm going to contact IMS and see if there is a dye they use and if I could use it.

[GDubb]

Transparent green? Never seen one like that before? Can you get a picture for me of that thing? Just curious what that looks like. Cant be as bad as my purple nurple gas tank!

[alan]

Krylon makes a paint that is specifically made for plastic! I us some on my YZ490 restoration!

http://www.krylon.com/main/product_template.cfm?levelid=5&sub_levelid=10&productid=1751&content=product_details

here is mor INFO

http://www.rustoleum.com/product.asp?frm_product_id=341&SBL=1&OVRAW=plastic%20paint&OVKEY=paint%20plastic&OVMTC=standard

Alan

[hughes]

Thanks for the info. I have sent IMS an e-mail about restoring the color. This thing might be sun bleached. I fear that if I paint it the paint is going to bubble up from gas vapor.

[hughes]

I talked to the poeple at IMS today and they can not dye the tank it's in the molding. They offered me a discount on a new one if I send them my old one. But I got $50 in this tank. Might just try a couple of things first.

[afritts4u]

Dudes, I used that Plastic paint on my stock green tank and it does not work! It started bubling. From what I hear you can put almost nothing on the tank, even most graphics will bubble. The plastic realeses fumes that destroy what ever is on it. I was able to use paint remover/pressure washer to get mine back to stock.

[hughes]

I'm going to try that plastic renew stuff I used it before for sratches. I'll wet sand it and clear coat with plastic renew and live with the results.

[Johnniespeed]

I had a nasty looking red plastic tank on a red bike that had many many coats of nasty red paint. Nothing I did would last. So I stripped all the paint off and found that someone had  cut out zebra stripes  ( probably from masking tape) into the plastic with a razor blade.  These razor thin lines were black from years of dirt. So I used a buffing wheel to get the plastic to shine like new, and those very thin ghost lines looked extremely cool, many compliments. The plastic would dull from time to time, but three minutes with the buffing wheel and back to shiney red. Good luck with sanding, but I would use a buffing wheel.

[hughes]

The plastic renew stuff didn't work on this tank. I am going to try to paint just the top half in hopes that the vapors can still pass through the bottom. I going to use an auto plastic primer and use kawasaki green. I have talked to some poeple that hade good results in painting a tank. I going to try and if that's fails I'll take IMS up on their discount.