Cheney tank problem.

[GMC]

The dent in the middle of the L/H side is one I'm not sure if I welded or not.
It was a sharp edge type dent that had gouged in a bit.




Possibly the little dent by the bottom seam I welded too?




It's the dent at the front that I remember filling as it was too awkward to get to to push out.

[ksiderek]

Hi Firko

         It should be screwed onto a threaded boss with a thin washer used as a spacer to centralise the cap. However I can remember Eric using araldite apoxy glue if he couldn't get them to fit  The same guy that made Eric's tanks used to make ours and sometimes they came with a plain boss and no thread. We had to glue the caps on as well. Good luck!

[Marc.com]

I get the impression Eric made more frames than tanks 

[VMX247]

 Firko-wondered if you have squeezed in anytime to remove the cap and how ?
cheers

[firko]

No Alison...I tried everything I could without buggering the tank and it's still stuck there. I'm guessing that dear old Eric super glued it on as Derek aluded to. Geoffs talked me out of anodizing the tank because of the variation in alloys causing a blotchy finish so I don't need to remove it now.

[albrid-3]

Mark send the tank to Burnie willett in Vic, to remove all the dents.

[ola_martin]

Has anyone looked into the best way to paint it looking like stock anodising then?? I have the same problem too....

[firko]

Dave, have another re read of the thread. GMC has already straightened the tank quite beautifully.

[LWC82PE]

anyone looked into the best way to paint it looking like stock anodising then?? I have the same problem too....

candy apple/see through coloured paint are is the only way your going to get the annodizing look. It should look pretty damn close although the paint will be thicker.

Lots of careful and thorough cleaning of the tank surface will be required though as the colour would have to go directly onto the alloy. Im not aware of any clear etch primers.

[ola_martin]

Mabe it could work to prime it and a coat of silver metallic first? I don't know, but wouldn't the paint chip of easy whithout primer?
Is candy apple something every car painter should be able to fix or is it a speciality??

[LWC82PE]

Yes you could do that. It would be a metallic colour though and wont look exactly like annodizing. Annodizing is a coloured die over the alloy basically. To get the same effect with paint you need to use a see through coloured paint.

You can paint directly onto alloy no probs. Many people clear coat fork legs, engine cases, hubs etc. Its just that if these parts have been polished then extra work has to be done to remove polishing waxes etc. The paint wont necessarily chip off if its done right. How hard and fast do you ride? are you really going to be riding hard and fast that your going to be all over the tank and messing it up??? i doubt it but if that is the case why not get a spare rough 'race tank' that you can afford to get a few scratches on and keep the beautiful tank for show and shines or what ever. A 2pack clear over the coloured paint will also give a longer lasting protection and will be fuel resistant so o would recommend that. Many people have painted clear over alloy tanks before like TT500 and B44 tanks. You just need someone good to do it. In my opinion you want a specific motorcycle painter who does a lot of tanks. I have never seen any good stuff come from car painters. They are usually a lot cheaper and the quality is crap and it really annoys me with the stuff many do/dont do. The only good car painters would be ones that do a lot of hot rod type of stuff, air brushing, custom paint jobs, have an interest in or own bikes themsleves etc and have an apprieciation for what they are doing. Most of the car crash repair type painters do a job to a price and thats it. So many of them either dont strip the tanks back bare and paint over old paint (which always causes problems later on) or they dont paint under the tank, leave runs and have overspray etc. They miss vital areas and lack attention to details. I have lost track of how many cheap paint jobs on bike parts i have seen from car painters that i have had to re-do, fix etc etc.

[ola_martin]

Ok, thanks LWC! I don't think I'll be riding the bike at all, so that won't be a problem. But I guess it won't be dent-free when I get the current paint off, so if i need to apply some body filler it won't work with the polished background. Therfore the metallic silver.

On my past restos I have done the base job, stripping/sanding/straitening/filling etc. myself, and had my uncles car bodyshop do the spraying. I have been very satisfied with their work, but just wondered if the Candy Apple colours would need special equipment/experience...

This is probably a long shot, but has anyone found a good colour match to the red anodised Cheney??
 

[LWC82PE]

No theres no special process involved. Its just a straight colour but 'see through' so it will be like a clear red paint. the thicker you put it on the darker the shade so once you got it to the shade you want then stop.

if you do a google search you will find out more about it. A lot of the 70's jap road bikes used those candy colours, gold, blue, red, gold, green etc but over silver base.

The cheney red looks like a pretty standard sort of red. probably the red used on some T140 Triumphs would do or a red from  one of the 70's jap bikes like a T500 suzuki or what ever. There is a place in South Australia that sells genune Triumph colours matched to the original colours. Well i guess they arent 'genuine'? i cant remember now, i know theres something on the tin about it because they have triumph lables on the tins, i just know this guy only specialises in selling the old triumph colours. There is also another place here called Spray Chief who do a lot of candy colours and are well known. This is what you want http://www.hotmoke.com/schief.htm
Note how it says over silver base OR alloy OR chrome

No 2 annodized tanks will be identical though, so there would be varitions. just speak to your local paint shop and they can point you in the right direction. basically with one particular candy colour you can vary the final colour to suit by the amount of coats you put on.

[ola_martin]

Great, thanks!

[dfisher]

These just came up for sale on Ebay UK.  They apear to be a resonable reproduction.  More pictures available on links below.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190387034888&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190387041121&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT