Saturday 28 May 2016

ER-5 rebuild - Stripping the tank



Stripping the tank

So I wanted to start out doing something that would get me in the mood. I removed the tank, and all the fuel lines and got out the pressure washer and the bucket of copper slag I had in the workshop and set about blasting the thing.



I did a test shot to see how long this was going to take as I was doing it in the depths of winter and wanted to get the whole thing stripped in daylight.


By the time the sun died I had pretty much taken the lacquer off and had started eating into the paint. You can see how quickly the rust gets to work.

 


The next day I set about it and removed all the paint pretty much and then washed the tank down with metal ready (well my version of it) to protect the steel.



I then shot 3 coats of UPOL grey primer and gave up for the day as the heavens were looking not too happy. 



I erected a tent thingy (can’t remember what they’re called) to save me from packing and unpacking stuff every 10 minutes.


By mid week I had painted the tank and stuck the Kawasaki decals on. The colour is Krylon NATO super matt olive. The decals were from a seller on eBay in the states as this was the only place I could find orange ones.







The tank then received 6 coats of matt lacquer and I then stored the tank inside for 2 weeks before touching it. It’s very important that lacquer fully cures at room temp or above before handling (for best results of course) 

The videos for all this can be found here -





















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