Tank Moody

I spent all weekend watching paint dry. This little project was pretty tedious, but I like the result. I tried to loosely model the new tank after older Triumph tanks I'd seen with a horizontal split two-tone. This thing is in no danger of being mistaken for a '60 Bonneville, but whatever.

Here was the process - I emptied the tank, let it air out, then sanded the old topcoat and orange paint down to the metal. Then I used a grey primer. After that I painted the whole thing white. When that was dry, I measured and taped off the bottom half and painted the top black. Once that was dry, I carefully sanded out any imperfections (and probably created a few in the process) and sprayed the whole thing w/ a clear coat. Then I laid down a thin line with "imitation gold" 1shot along the divide. I may eventually make this line a little thicker so it can be seen better, but maybe not. The best part of the whole process was hooking back up the fuel lines, putting some gas back in, and actually having the the beast start. Up close, the paint is definitely not professional body shop grade, but nothing on this bike is in show-quality, nor do I care to make it so - I think a rattle-can job done in the garage fits the Hornet just right. Not a bad weekend.