White Plastic Tank Restoration

[PEZBerq]

Has anyone been successful at getting the white plastic tanks used on KTM's, Huskys and maybe YZ's back to something resembling a white colour?  The Acerbis tanks used on Huskys stain to a light brown colour and I know KTM's do likewise.  I havent yet seen a brown Yamaha tank however - maybe the Japs used a better plastic than the Euros did? 
Anyway what do you try once the sanding and scraping has got the worst of the stained plastic off?  If it stained brown then I guess it should be possible to bleach it white again.  Is Janola or White King the go or are there other ways?  I dont want to paint it.  Cheers

[YZ250H]

Try a 1.25 litre of white king in enough water to cover and fill the tank in the wash tub.  Soak overnight and see what happens.  Take a before and after and show caps once you are finished    He doesn't believe me 

[PEZBerq]

Thanks YZ man.  I'll try it and see.  Might throw some socks in with it too   Just need to wait until my finger prints return now after sanding the tank all afternoon yesterday while watching Bathurst.

Does the staining return in time or does the bleach least well?  I'll be draining the tank after each day ...and hoping it doesnt split from drying out.

[YZ250H]

My resto guru LWC reckons to drain the tank (refer VMX mag).  Hopefully he will chime in here soon and offer some credibility  .
I found the best invention ever for sanding is rubber gloves.  I used to sand until my finger prints were gone too and my fingers got really sore - not any more .  I get coles brand ones - a dollar for 3 pairs.  Just turf them when they wear through.  I've still got quite a bit of sanding to do on my tank as well.  It seems to have come up well.  It had some deep crazing.  Most of the staining was from UV I think as when it is sanded it comes up very white.  I'm going for the bleack before the polish.

Don't throw red socks in other you'll end up with a pink tank like a Honda 

[cappra]

Check out my fuel tank resto.
http://ozvmx.com/community/index.php?topic=2362.0

[PEZBerq]

Cappra
Awesome result!!!!  Any idea what was done to it?  Looks like the brown stain colour was removed somehow.  With the Aussie dollar being what it is I wont be sending the Husky tank to California!

[caps 999]

id also like to know

[E74]

OK,....Fuel is what stains the tanks, look at most YZ ones and you will generaly find a fuel line where fuel has been sitting for a long time leaving the bottom half of the tank stained,

 here is a little trade secret,.......... UV is what will make them white again, if you set your tank up with mirrors underneath, and beside it slightly layed outward in the sun for a month or more, it will become pure white again, those guys in california are using artificial UV to get those results.  

[LWC82PE]

oil also causes staining. i left some strange purple 2 stroke oil in my TS 250 oil tank over a period of a few years and when i eventually got to clean it i found the oil had stained the translucent plastic to a light purple colour

[cappra]

The guy who did it for me has a sanding process that he would not tell me about.. :'(
I took it out on trade with him, but I can just imagine what it would have cost me!
Somehow the final step made it very smooth with no sanding marks at all.

[LWC82PE]

my article in VMX mag tells you how to do it. you can pretty much get them with no scratches and ultra glossy but as soon as you start to handle them, wipe over them with a cloth and use them in the real world you will get fine scratches from just dust and your hands. How fussy are you? your kidding your self if you look at your tank a few mm away from your face and think you can keep a tank absoloutly scratch free unless you dont actually use it and keep it in a glass display cabinet

[PEZBerq]

E 74 you're joking right?? What about putting it in a sun bed and turning it up to max .  I know babies nappies (diapers) can get white again if you hang them out on the cloths line in the sun after washing - also a brown stain we dont like   Would you be pulling our collective tits or is the UV treatment the real deal?

[E74]

I am not kidding, its the real deal, My company has spent a lot of money and time on R&D to formulate plastic that is UV stabilised to try and slow the UV deteriation process down,eliminate it we can not!

I manufacture shopping trolleys, they all have plastic components and spend a lot of time in the sun, eventually the colour is stripped from the plastic leaving it in its natural state if not adequately UV treated (which is expensive), Tanks are not UV stabilised as far as I know especialy not vintage ones.

 

[RMJJ]

my article in VMX mag tells you how to do it. you can pretty much get them with no scratches and ultra glossy but as soon as you start to handle them, wipe over them with a cloth and use them in the real world you will get fine scratches from just dust and your hands. How fussy are you? your kidding your self if you look at your tank a few mm away from your face and think you can keep a tank absoloutly scratch free unless you dont actually use it and keep it in a glass display cabinet

Interesting. Which issue was your article in ?

[LWC82PE]

hmmm you got me there. 33 i think? i know it has a YZ on the front cover