| Author | Message | ||
     Jamie04 |
With so many discussions on this site through the years regarding the infamous paint blistering on our nylon gas tanks, I thought I would give an update on the last M2 tank I painted, in 2016. So far, no blistering after 4 years, despite many days ridden and parked in the hot sun, and using ethanol-containing gasoline. (This was after painting a similar tank in 2012 that blistered in 2 years.) I am cautiously optimistic about this one. For reference, I am copying below the steps I took on the later paint job. (Your results may vary.) I'm no expert on the subject; Some of these steps, particularly the long cure times, were taken from suggestions by others on this site: 1) Sanded all of the numerous old paint jobs from the tank, down to the bare nylon everywhere. (I would not recommend chemical stripper here; traces may migrate into the nylon.) 2) Applied plastic adhesion promoter to the cleaned surface, and then applied 2-part PPG epoxy primer. I let it cure for several weeks, then wet-sanded smooth, and applied another coat of the epoxy primer. Let cure several more weeks. 3) Wet-sanded again, then sprayed with PPG Deltron sealer. Let cure for another month. 4) Wet-sand and applied typical basecoat/clearcoat paint job. Again, let cure for another month. 5) Finally, wet-sanded, buffed and applied new decals. Since the process took so long, I started with a second used tank, so my bike was not disabled for the 3 months taken to do this. Good luck.  | ||
| Kc_zombie |
Great stuff. Thanks for the update! | ||
| Ocbueller |
Thanks for taking the time to follow up. This is still an unresolved problem with these bikes. Been holding off on a repaint forever. SteveH | ||
| Tbolt98 |
Thanks for the update! | ||
| S1owner |
Key thing here is your patience and long drying time | ||
| Captainkirk |
Thanks for sharing that! | ||
| Tutte |
In the German XBorg Forum talks same folks how to made a carbon fiber tank cover like the X1 for the small Peanut and Manta tank for the S1S3, M2. Greetings Frank | ||
| S1owner |
Tatte http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/476 23/868404.html?1588014634 | ||
| Upthemaiden |
"In the German XBorg Forum talks same folks how to made a carbon fiber tank cover like the X1 for the small Peanut and Manta tank for the S1S3, M2. " Do you have a link to that forum? I googled but didn't find much | ||
| Mstrfrz |
another way to go: https://mdicarbonfiber.com/collections/buell/x1-s1 -m2 | ||
| Normthenomad |
After doing the external blistering repairs I've started to use Caswell coating to seal the inside of the tank. The bubbling is caused by gas/ethanol fumes migrating through the tank material. Hylomar is good stuff as well. It's still a 90 day job. Do not use Kreem or Red coat. | ||
| Captainkirk |
Just a meandering thought...do you experience the blistering/bubbling if the tank is always kept full in storage? Seems a tank full of (liquid)gas would prevent the fumes from being able to find their way through the plastic. | ||
| Jamie04 |
Well, It took 8 years, but the blue and white M2 tank shown above during my 2016 paint job finally did blister. Arrgh! It was a 95 degree day and I parked in direct sunlight for about three hours last Saturday. The tank was mostly empty too. Since it had been so long since I had a blistering problem, I thought it would not happen again, so I long ago quit worrying about keeping the tank full, or laying my jacket over the tank when parked in the sun. Either of those precautions would have probably prevented the blistering. Oh well. The blisters are relatively small and not noticeable from 10 ft away, but, as the original poster of this thread, I thought I should give an update. Sorry for the bad news; I was sure that plastic adhesion promoter, plus epoxy primer, plus long cure times would prevent the blisters... but it wasn't the permanent fix I had hoped for. (Message edited by jamie04 on May 25, 2024) |
