Hi all im looking at painting a tank up but whats the correct paint to use to ensure that petrol is not going to strip it straight back off again.

will lacquer protect it or will it react whatever the paint.?

Do you mean a Fantic thermoplastic tank? If so, use the search facility as this subject has been done before and has some good info and links.

If it is a 300 or earlier, it wont work. The 301s onwards can be painted. The earlier tanks are permiable, ie the gas evaporates through the plastic. Has to do with plastic grain size in a network. Nevermind, if you seal it from the outside, ie paint, it wont work

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Im not talking about fantic's but petrol tanks in general, as when your filling a tank there will be times when the petrol will spill on the tank do you need special paints to provent the paint reacting with the petrol and stripping it off.?

Cellulose or 2-pack are fine and aren't affected by petrol. Acryllic will lose it's finish the moment it comes into contact with petrol so don't use Halfords paint.

No real successful way with polyethylene dont bother, perforated stickers just about work.

Cellulose or 2-pack are fine and aren't affected by petrol. Acryllic will lose it's finish the moment it comes into contact with petrol so don't use Halfords paint.

To late for that already bought the paint and painted the tank. However i did find a petrol resistant lacquer in Halfords so going to give that a go. If all else fails it looks like I will be stripping it all down and starting again.

Oh dear.... when I did a Bultaco tank they didn't have any petrol resistant lacquer so fingers crossed it works.

I was really hacked off when it happened to me as I had spent ages prepping the tank, managed to knock out a few dents and skim filled the rest. The paint sprayed beautifully out of the can with a really good finish which cut back into a nice gloss with cutting paste. I was so chuffed. On went the decals and in went the petrol for the first ride - out came the petrol over the first few bumps, off came the decals and dull went the paint.....

As regards painting plastic tanks, a mate of mine has a 240 Fantic which has had the plastic tank painted. This was done years ago, before he got the bike and it hasn't lifted anywhere yet, so someone found a way of making it stick. Also, Bill Pye paints 200/240 tanks, I saw some at a trial earlier this year and none had lifted.

I have a plastic Bultaco tank which has been painted although I've yet to fit it onto the bike and put petrol in it. It was done 12 months ago or more and the existing vapours in the tank haven't lifted the paint yet. It was done by a professional car painter in plastic primer with flexible additive and something else that effectively melts the primer to the plastic (or vice-versa). Then two-pack painted. I'll put petrol in it when I get around to it to see if there is any affect over time.

I'm not saying categorically that paint on plastic tanks won't lift as I am not qualified and I've seen some disastrous efforts in the past. But based on my mate's Fantic tank, I'm saying it has been done successfully.

I have used Halfords petrol resistant laquer over halfords rattle tins and it works.