Painting My 100

[TomE]

I would like to find someone to paint the tank, airbox and sidecovers for my 1974 Berkshire 100. Any help in this regard would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Rocket]

Tom
What condition is your tank in?  What I usually do for the fiberglass tanks is use a power buffer with a wool wheel and use McGuires (sp) cleaner, polish and wax.  The gel coat on tanks usually cleans up and looks great.  I do the same with the airbox.  You will be surprised how nice they turn out.  Air box covers I have been painting with spray cans, usually Krylon.  If you want it to look totally perfect, a body shop would probably be the way to go.
Rocket

[TomE]

Rocket,
Thanks for the reply, and your suggestion is right on, but I am trying for a better than showroom look for my Penton. I would like to find someone that has had experience with motorcycles and would take the time to do the job right. I have the desire, but lack the ability.
I was hoping that someone here had some experience with a quality painter.

[pentonpal]

TomE,

I agree with Rocket on attempting to clean up the original gelcoat tanks.  I recently purchased a Bershire with a reasonable tank and airbox, that I was considering painting. The paint store questioned my sanity.  After some buffing and polishing, I'm glad I did not spend the money to paint.  Your airbox cover will be a different story, but with a cleaned-up tank/airbox, they will at least have something to color match.

Good Luck,  Scott

[dirtbike]

I'm into this fiberglass and plastic painting on my bike right now!
I have borrowed some ideas from the marine industry and these ideas where confirmed by Dr.2Stroke who suggested basically the same procedure without knowing anything about my ideas. He sent me some pics and it seem to last many years too.

Prefferably blast (or sand) the surfaces carefully. Use epoxy as primer. either real epoxy such as west, system 3 or something equally good. Forget about the epoxy in the local gas station, that doesn't work for anything. Another good idea is to find a dedicated epoxy based tank sealer (a good marine shop should have).
DO NOT CONFUSE EPOXY WITH POLYESTER OR VINYLESTER RESIN! The world is full of people that will sell you polyester when you ask for epoxy. A good rule of thumb, the epoxy resin is, at least four times as expensive and will always mix at (25/75) to (50/50) while polyester usually requires only 1-2% hardener. That resin with the intense smell is polyester too.

Prime the tank with the epoxy at least two times. Then you have a good base for paintin. You will need to sand the epoxy layer to the finish you're after, don't sand through it. You are supposed to have a epoxy layer between the polyester based fiberglass and the paint.

The problem is this! The polyester based plastic isn't watertight and certanly isn't tight against gas vapour. It will go right through the tank wall. It will take time and the amounts is so small that you won't realize that it's actually happening. It will vapour many 100 times faster on the outside than what's coming through.  
Interesting enough, if we buy a new luxuary yacht for millions of dollars, the chances that the boat is watertight form a chemical point of view is practically zero!

Epoxy on the other hand doesn't contain solvents as a base. Therefore hardened epoxy has the same weight and volume as floating resin. It won't try to shrink itself off the surface applied to. Epoxy can bind chemically to most materials except some ABS plastics. Polyester can only bind chemically to polyester.
And most important of all, epoxy is tight against liquids and vapours.

[SCOTT CURTIS]

I restored a 1974 berkshire.  I polished the tank and I found a very good matching paint for the side covers.  GM 249 Medium Orange made by Dupli Color.