The Zephyr Zone

Richard wrote:Added the last few pictures above. Now waiting for some decent temperatures...

Looking good Richard It has been really warm today in the UK so I think it was easier for me to get something done in my shed

Did some shopping this week...

Nice pair of Ohlins


Radial mounted brakes


Original Brembo brakes

Bought an original triangle so I can keep on riding my bike while I figure out the next steps...


OEM one is a bit smaller


Then the new one:

Hi Richard.
Have you decided what to do with stem.
I have found that early rsv1000 (98-00) have 800mm
Forks that can be used in 1100. The triples are different than yours but stem is same.
Very nice looking öhlins by the way.

@jrkk: I will come back on this subject later as I haven't done much with it yet...

Anyway, I started dérusting my tank in preparation for the coat job I want to do. I went the vinegar way with a bunch of screws to loosen whatever rust is still in there. What came out was incredible dirty after which I started flushing with water and later on I added a strong detergent to basically wash out te remaining rust particles. But since I don't have warm water near my garage I took the tank home and redid the last procedure with hot running water which greatly helped as the water coming out of the tank is now crystal clear.

Looking through the fuel cap hole all seems to be perfectly fine now, however when I rub the inner bottom side with my finger through the fuel level sensor hole I still have a dirty finger meaning there is still some sort of rust film on the bottom. I'm not going to perform the coat job under these conditions so I'm looking for some good advice as in how to get rid of this film layer???

Any comment is as always much appreciated

Blast sand in and good shake. Lot's of water and compressed air to remove sand.

Thanks JRKK but I didn't like the idea of blasting sand in my tank. I have a sand blasting cabinet and often noticed the sand deposited at places very difficult to reach to remove it afterwards.

So I did another round of internet study and decided to use a special déruster containing phosphoric acid which did the job perfectly well. I used half a litter with one liter water and shook the tank regularly during 30 minutes. I then flushed out the tank with a vast amount of running water and took the tank home to do the same with hot water. I've used the wife's hair föhn to dry the the tank, it actually became very hot which is good as I now know it's perfectly dry

So we'll first have dinner first after which I will do the coating job as you can already see flush rust building up inside the tank

Will keep you al posted...

Yesterday I finished my coat job on the fuel tank. I had to wait for warmer temperatures as the ideal temperature for coating lies between 20 and 30 degrees Centigrade and this year Spring is arriving late in Holland. Last week temperatures went up to some 10 degrees and since the Eastern Weekend was coming up (allowing me to work on this for a couple days in a row) I decided to turn on the heater in my garage and was able to reach just 20 degrees

I've used the Red Cote Tank Sealer from Caswell, ordered a kit for a 15liter tank directly from them. You can find more information here although I currently don't see the 15l red cote version any more. I've especially chosen the red colored version as it is much harder to check the coating coverage with a transparant coating.



En of summer last year I ran into fuel clogging issues causing me to strand on the highway, not nice... So I removed and drained the tank and sure what came out was full of floating rust particles. Our tanks have by design large flat bottom areas and in combination with the modern fuel containing ethanol which is hygroscopic these areas form a perfect place to store water causing the tank to rot from the inside out. In my case the tank became very thin indeed and further close examination showed tiny bubbles underneath the paint which in fact were pinholes covered with only a layer of paint

Using a sharp nail I've found at least 10 of these holes varying in size from 0.1mm to 3mm. So I sanded those locations and had them hard soldered by a friend. This was where it ended last year thinking all I needed to do next was dérusting and coating the tank. Well not! If I had to do all of this again I definitely would cut out large parts of the tank's bottom and replace them with new sheet metal. Reason being is I found many more pinholes while dérusting the tank. The bottom is so thin that I just hope it still has some structure left able to withstand the fuel weight during a bumpy ride...

So I turned on the heater Friday evening. The picture shows a second heater behind the radiator from which I only used the fan to get some circulation going in the garage. I can't use them together as it will blow my main fuse (only 10 Amp).


On Saturday I started the dérusting but nothing starts without coffee


I ordered a new fuel gauge as the old one did have a connection issue and the sealing rubber had shrunk like all other rubber parts on my bike. So I cut off the floater and reinstalled it to close the hole...


...and I used duck tape to cover the petcock hole.


Next I threw a bunch of drywall screws into the tank, am using these because they have sharp points and the fact that they are metal so I can remove them with a magnet. I've read recommendations to use gravel but I think I would have had a hard time removing them afterwards...


For the acid I used 2 bottles of cleaning vinegar which is a bit stronger then regular vinegar, it has 6% acidity.


I closed the filling hole using a lid from some jam jar and next the physical fun started with ongoing shaking, turning, leaving it at rest for a while (while I regained my breath) and redoing all of this several times during some 2 hours. What came out after the treatment was a very smelly brownish gunky sort of liquid so at least the cleaning seemed to have worked


I guess I have been very thorough as during the shaking the tank started leaking again through several new holes which I covered up with some more duck tape.



Some of these holes were very tiny, I guess the metal became too thin on certain places as you can tell in the following picture. There is a pinhole but the whole area around it is showing signs of deep rust.


Since there was no time to bring the tank to my friend for another round of hard soldering I decided to solder all holes myself, in some cases I used a thin sheet of copper (
brass-lamella?) for more structure.


Next I mixed the two components together and while stiring it I noticed it was pretty thick, not really as a liquid I mean. I only had 15 minutes in total so after 2 minutes I poured it in the tank and after closing it started to slowly rotate the tank. The whole procedure is a bit weird, you can only imagine how the coat is flowing inside the tank as you can't see what it's doing...


After 15 minutes I opened up the holes and let out the excess coat which wasn't much at all. Next time I either will use a larger amount of coat or maybe use some thinner to make it behave more like a liquid. When I opened the filling hole I noticed that I missed a few spots so I used the excess mixture to cover those as well. I initially concentrated on covering the lower parts inside the tank and I just hope those areas are fully covered...


Finally a look inside the tank


UPDATE: Forgot to include a picture from the bottom after having it coated with some anti rust paint. It will get another transparant layer of tectyl, I know it smells and will get sticky but don't want to give rust another chance

The good weather finally has arrived so time to do some paint work on my fuel tank. Due to the soldering work to all the holes in the bottom this area became paint-less and I decided to do a full repaint job on it myself. By the way I do have a spare set of all painted parts including a fuel tank which will be done by a professional painter later this year. Earlier I ordered hopefully the same red color in a spray-can but there are so many red colors and it is a bit lighter red than the the other painted parts...

Anyway I sanded the original paint layer (dark blue) and noticed at the paint edges it has been painted over (in the factory) as originally it was red. This edge area became a problem as it reacted with my new layer of primer and was forming blisters. Had to sand down and re-apply primer to those areas several times before I could continue.





Next I started spraying the red paint and now I can tell you one need at least 2 cans of 400ml as I quickly ran out of paint and could only apply two layers after the first tack layer, so another good lesson for next time





And finally I applied 3 layers of clear coat with a canister I had in my possession for several years, another lesson as its spraying capabilities were greatly reduced and it dripped clear coat while spraying, obviously also on the fuel tank itself So always use new canisters!



I've now ordered fine sanding paper (1000 - 1500 - 2500) and hope to be able to polish the top layer to how it should look, if not I will order a new canister of clear coat...
This is how it looks now and I hope I will be able to ride my bike next weekend