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Montesa 349 tank painting?


jools
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Hi, going round in circles with this one. I have an MH 349 and it is mint apart from the tank needs a little 'refresh'. I tried the sticker set that available on eblag and within a couple of days it had blistered and bubbled. This indicated the tank is some what porous.

We have been trying to find out if any paint would be suitable - as it looks painted/printed originally - and thought the cellulose (sp) type would be most suitable. However, we just phoned a company and the guy said it would bubble and peel off. We're back to square one again.

To clarify, the MH 349 had the orange/red seat and tank unit, with 3 white flashes down the side, plus the MH circle logo at the front. It is just the white flashes I want to tidy up for now.

Anybody got any suggestions on methods/types of paint/materials etc.?

Many Thanks!!

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You will get different opinions on this but this is my experience

My mate has a 240 Fantic that had the tank painted years ago and it is still fine, no paint has come off.

I had my Bultaco tank painted about 4 years ago and it has been used regularly and taken a lot of abuse. Only in the last few months have a few bubbles appeared but what the cause of that is I can't say. It certainly didn't blister or lift everywhere as soon as petrol went in it. At the same time we had another Bultaco tank done, this one hasn't been used since and still looks brand new.

Another mate had his 330 Cota tank painted a couple of years ago and no lifting/bubbles yet.

Recently I bought what I thought was a red Cota 349/4 tank off ebay as it looked like the fibreglass tank from that model. When it came it turned out it was a plastic MH349 tank that had been painted. The paint finish made it look like the fibreglass tank. I've no idea how long the paint has been on it but the finish was good, no bubbles etc. However, it was the wrong red for my bike so this is now being repainted. The durability of this one will only be as good as the original prep work which is unknown.

The tanks we've had painted were done by friends who are car painters by trade (except the Fantic as that was already done when he got it over 6 years ago) The tanks were prepped well, plastic primed with the flexi additives and whatever else they use and finished in 2-pack.

I'm still convinced that most of the problems in the past with painting these tanks is because of poor prep and wrong paint. Done properly they seem to last well (based on above experience) but obviously this is not a 100% guarantee. However, if they last 4 or 5 years I can live with that and I'll just have it done again.

Hope this helps

Having just realised you said it was just the white flashes you wanted to tidy up, it probably doesn't.... I'm pretty sure that if you just brush painted on some Humbrol enamel as used in plastic model painting it would stick ok. If these tanks do 'breathe' there is plenty of surface area for it to do that if it is just the white flash that's painted.

Edited by Woody
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  • 3 weeks later...

I painted my 348 tank with two pack car paint.

it was a quick job I just wanted it tidy.

the previous owner had already painted it but I washed all that off, filled some damge to the gelcoat with polyester body filler, then a coat of ordinry cellulose primer.

its been fine for two years, I had always emptied the tank to put the bike in the back of my car.

I now have a bike rack and do not bother draining the tank.

Over this hot summer my paintwork has blistered really badly and noteably only on the areas that are tank rather than the none tank areas of fibreglass.

I am fairly sure its petrol fumes forcing through the GRP. This may be due to the rumours of modern additives not being compatible with Fibreglass.

I have now bought an alloy tank and cover off Ebay so will not bother trying to fix mine.

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I had the same problem with blistering and bubbling on a 348 fiberglass tank. I tried fixing it myself but the problem came back after a few weeks. I ended up taking the tank to a fiberglass specialist and he re-coated with a fiberglass mixture which is used to repair fiberglass petrol tanks on boats. All I needed to do when I got the tank back was to give it a smooth finish, painted it in two pack and it has been fine for the last couple of years.

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