installing grease fittings on the rear suspension

[Me]

Hello All, I've been reading the messages here for sometime but this will be my first post. Last summer I painted all the plastic on my 2000 KLR650. I first applied 2 coats of Krylon's All-Purpose Gray Primer (1318). Then I applied 2 coats of Krylon's Khaki Non-Reflective Camouflage Paint (8141). So far the plastic is holding up well. Now I want to tackle painting the gas tank. I removed it today in preparation of this task. I intend on using the same Gray Primer followed by Khaki Camouflage paint. My questions are: Should I remove the paint from the gas tank first or can I just paint over it? I know from experience that the camouflage paint does not hold up well when fuel is spilled on it. I tried this out on a scrap piece of plastic previously. Now, this leads into my second question. What would anyone recommend to protect the paint from any fuel that may get spilled during refueling? Would a spray on clearcoat protect it? My last question is reference rust in the tank. After removing all the fuel from the tank. I noticed that there is quite a bit of rust in the tank and some small pieces fell out when draining the fuel. Would leaving the tank as is cause any problems down the road? Thanks Rob

[Ronald Criswell]

I would recommend buying quality car paint from a store that specializes in suppling bodyshops get guidance from them as I did. I repainted all my plastic with a black bedliner paint I got at Walmart after preparing the surface by sanding and using a plastic cleaner, a plastic prep bought at the car paint place. I sanded the metal on the tank and used primer bought at the car paint place plus painted it base black with red and yellow scallops and clear coated the whole thing (the clear coat was bought from the car paint store also). It looks professional and the tank is holding up great. You will need a compressor and spray gun to do it his way but it will stay on. The bedliner paint holds up good but it will scratch (easily touched up by a can of beliner paint). Getting paint to stick on plastic (especially the KLR type is the hard part). You can buy a spray gun, a high volume low pressure gun at places like Costco pretty cheap like I saw one the other day that will probably work. I bought a good one (Iwata) from the car paint place. The paint store I used is called English Color with a number of stores in the Dallas / Ft. Worth area. If you want good results, that is the way I would do it. Criswell

On Mar 15, 2007, at 7:47 PM, Me wrote: > Hello All, > > I've been reading the messages here for sometime but this will be my > first post. > > Last summer I painted all the plastic on my 2000 KLR650. I > first applied 2 coats of Krylon's All-Purpose Gray Primer (1318). Then > I applied 2 coats of Krylon's Khaki Non-Reflective Camouflage Paint > (8141). So far the plastic is holding up well. > > Now I want to tackle painting the gas tank. I removed it today in > preparation of this task. I intend on using the same Gray Primer > followed by Khaki Camouflage paint. My questions are: Should I remove > the paint from the gas tank first or can I just paint over it? I know > from experience that the camouflage paint does not hold up well when > fuel is spilled on it. I tried this out on a scrap piece of plastic > previously. Now, this leads into my second question. What would anyone > recommend to protect the paint from any fuel that may get spilled > during refueling? Would a spray on clearcoat protect it? > > My last question is reference rust in the tank. After removing all the > fuel from the tank. I noticed that there is quite a bit of rust in the > tank and some small pieces fell out when draining the fuel. > Would leaving the tank as is cause any problems down the road? > > Thanks > > Rob > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[E.L. Green]

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Me" wrote:

> Now I want to tackle painting the gas tank. I removed it today in > preparation of this task. I intend on using the same Gray Primer > followed by Khaki Camouflage paint. My questions are: Should I remove > the paint from the gas tank first or can I just paint over it? I

Sand the paint lightly with a wire wheel to insure adhesion, then paint over it.

> My last question is reference rust in the tank. After removing all the > fuel from the tank. I noticed that there is quite a bit of rust in the > tank and some small pieces fell out when draining the fuel. > Would leaving the tank as is cause any problems down the road?

Yeah, eventually it'll rust through. Before you repaint the outside, it's probably a good idea to use a fuel tank sealer on the inside, such as at http://www.por15.com/ (there's a kit they sell for motorcycle gas tanks). This particular one happens to be a water-cured urethane and thus is not affected by gasoline additives (unlike some which are basically airplane glue and are dissolved by MEK-based additives), there's other good ones out there too, this just happens to be the one I know. Now I hear you saying, "if it is gasoline-proof, why can't I paint the outside of my fuel tank with it?" Well, you can. The problem is that water-cured urethanes a) don't go on particularly smoothly, and b) are not UV-resistant so eventually fade and become rather ugly (unless they're a light color, in which case you can't really tell they're faded). This (water-cured urethane) BTW is also the same stuff sold as "roll-on bedliner" though the "bedliner" formulation adds chunks of rubber to make it "chunky". But you don't care if your pickup truck bed gets ugly as the paint fades. The other guy's suggestion to go to an auto paint store is a good one. You may be able to rent the compressor and other equipment needed for a professional looking job from a local tool rental place. It'll cost a bit more than the Krylon job, though.

[James W. Flower]

Hey Bill and all- The URL for the flushmount grease fittings at MSC is http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNPDFF?PMCTLG=00&PMPAGE=9000>. I have zero knowledge of all this, I'd just like to do this mod someday. I could find them so emailed MCS at random. They got right back to me with the URL. --James [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]