Does anyone have any top tips for painting plastic tanks? Specifically I have a plastic tank for my 199 Sherpa which looks pretty tired but is structurally sound. Is it feasible to re-paint it and how do you make it stick?

Does anyone have any top tips for painting plastic tanks? Specifically I have a plastic tank for my 199 Sherpa which looks pretty tired but is structurally sound. Is it feasible to re-paint it and how do you make it stick?

This might help http://www.torquecars.com/styling/plastic-painting.php

It will never work. all the early plastic tanks from swm, fantic and bultaco were permiable. that means the gasoline evaporated throgh the plastic. You can sand, key, prime or whatever you want to do to the tank surface, but as soon as you paint and seal the surface, you will stop the gasoilne evaporating. but only until the first bubbles appear and then the paint will peel off in sheets. if you really want to do it, you must seal the INSIDE of the take first with a non-permiable sealer. Then you can paint the outside.

The sealers for the inside are often used on rusty tanks but I have no names

HTH

Lee

It will never work. all the early plastic tanks from swm, fantic and bultaco were permiable. that means the gasoline evaporated throgh the plastic. You can sand, key, prime or whatever you want to do to the tank surface, but as soon as you paint and seal the surface, you will stop the gasoilne evaporating. but only until the first bubbles appear and then the paint will peel off in sheets. if you really want to do it, you must seal the INSIDE of the take first with a non-permiable sealer. Then you can paint the outside.

The sealers for the inside are often used on rusty tanks but I have no names

HTH

Lee

Hi Lee

Thanks for the response which makes sense of what happened on my 315 which was fitted with a big tank when I bought it and the tank was painted but within a couple of weeks the paint just lifted off in a big sheet. I'll have a look at sealers.

Cheers

Penno

Does anyone have any top tips for painting plastic tanks? Specifically I have a plastic tank for my 199 Sherpa which looks pretty tired but is structurally sound. Is it feasible to re-paint it and how do you make it stick?

NEW Sherpa Plastic Fuel Tank

Does anyone have any top tips for painting plastic tanks? Specifically I have a plastic tank for my 199 Sherpa which looks pretty tired but is structurally sound. Is it feasible to re-paint it and how do you make it stick?

NEW Sherpa Plastic Fuel Tank

Penno,

Everyone including Bultaco UK say it is not possible to make the paint stick, but I have successfully got my 199B plastic tank resprayed by an expert (three years ago) and completed many trials with no defects appearing. The reason that I risked a respray was due to the fact that the decal arrangement was not for 199B on the new tanks.