Result of the NH petrol tank pinstriping

[alan.moore]

I finally plucked up the courage to pinstripe the tank. I knew that if I cocked it up it would take a rub down and repaint to get the tank ready for another attempt...no pressure then
The first thing to do was to rub down the edge of the red paint panels as the edge was raised where it had been masked off. I applied some fine lining tape wither side of the paint edge then rubbed down gently with wet and dry used wet until the edge was removed.

Smoothing down raised edge of red panel

I used 3M fine lining tape, 1/4" and 1/8" in the blue and 1/16" from their multi fine line striping tape. This multi line tape is built up with a 1/4" piece of tape on each side and then 8 1/16 strips between. You can separate it to make it narrower to go round curves and then just pull out one of the 1/16" strips for the gold line mask.

Multi striping tape

I set out the location of the 1/4" wide gold line with a strip of tape which covered the joint between the red panels and the black of the tank. This tape was later removed in order to paint the gold line when each side of it had been masked off with more tape.
I settled on a 1/8" gap between the 1/4" gold line and the inner 1/16" gold line as a wider gap would have meant the 1/16" line was too close to, or under, the instrument panel. This 1/8" gap was set out with lining tape and was then bordered with 4 strips of the 1/16" multi lining tape, the inner strip being removed for the 1/16" gold line

Pinstripes masked off ready for paint

Pinstripes masked off ready for paint

It was then a matter of applying the gold paint. I used 1 shot signwriting paint applied with a squirrel hair dagger type pinstriping brush putting just enough paint to cover the base. It took two coats and they were applied with only a couple of minutes between as the paint skinned over pretty quick. I only left it for about 15 minutes (it was by now just touch dry) before carefully removing the masking tape, the idea being to allow the still soft paint to spread a little at the edges in order to reduce the hard raised edge you get next to the masking tape. It is important to pull the tape off by folding it back on itself and keeping it at as low an angle as possible to the tank surface whilst also pulling off at a 45 degree angle to the line of the stripe. By doing this the tape 'cuts' through the paint film and does not pull the paint up.

Paint applied

Continued

[alan.moore]

Having removed all the masking tape I left it well alone for 5 hours. The paint was now surface dry but still soft. I carefully ran my finger over the edges of the stripe which flattened off any areas that were still slightly raised.

Here is the result. It is not perfect, but then again I doubt the factory finish was always spot on.

Finished pinstripes

Cheers
Alan

[roger.fellows]

That's very impressive Alan!!

[steve.clarke]

That looks pretty damn good to me Alan, sets the black bike off beautifully, nice job.

[Steven.Carter]

That looks great

[paul.jameson]

Lovely job Alan. Well done, and I am sure you are pleased with it. I was particularly impressed that you rubbed down the edge of the red panels before applying the lining. This is something I have never bothered to do, and something that I am pretty sure the factory didn't do either. But then the factory didn't use stainless steel fasteners either so we all tend to restore our bikes to better than new standard.

[Leejm]

Looks excellent Alan, well done.

[Eero.Korhonen]

It looks so great!
Br, Eero

[malcolm.johnson]

Loved that post, very timely and inspirational. Well done!!!!!

[john.whiting]

years ago, I had a crowd next to me did the fancy signwriting and artwork on fibreglass boats....The painter used to just about cover the boat in wide masking tape.,then cut out all the painted parts,so all he needed to do was spray over the masking.Lot of work,but that is how they got one colour to fade into another.,and the sort of foggy effect......One mistake and the gelcoat on the boat was stuffed......The layup guy doing colour schemes in the gelcoat had to do everthing in reverse in the mould before the first resin was sprayed on.....They made me some Matchless guards in fiberglass that were so good,people though they were genuine,until they picked them up...........the guards from England were rubbish in comparison.....The guy said he used a "chopper gun" rather than hand layup used in the commercial ones....The also made me the rear on the VG that is so good,no one has ever picked it,without being told.