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Having my Versys parts painted - Gas Tank?

4K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  tenover 
#1 ·
I have a buddy who owns a body shop, and he's offered to prep and paint all my parts, including the gas tank for $180.....I am stoked. I have a 2009 green Versys, and the color just doesn't do it for me. I'm looking for a deep yellow or possibly orange. Anyway, I will be removing all the parts next weekend, and was wondering if there's anything I need to worry about in regards to the gas tank. Can I just remove it (I have the service manual), drain it, and remove the cap assembly?
 
#3 ·
X 2 on orange (candy-apple tangerine???). :goodidea:
I have a "screamin' yellow" Mazda P5. GREAT for finding in parking lots, but, not nearly as great when the aphids come out in the fall. It gets covered! :badidea:
Also attracts bees and wasps.
 
#5 ·
Um, tell your pal that if he wants to set up deals for people on the forum he'd have my business. That is hella cheap. Keep us posted and share pics as soon as you have em!
 
#7 ·
as for the gas tank, disassembling is not very difficult and the only thing i would have said to watch out for was not to scratch it but since it's being repainted there shouldnt be any major problems. bought a second gas tank a few months back and ground off the brackets and smoothed it out everything with some major fabricating mods and then had it repainted cause im about to go the streetfighter route. and you are getting a killer deal for $180. good luck, hope it turns out great, and make sure to post some pics once its done.
 
#9 ·
Tenover, about the swatches. I'm sure the viewing of it on the computer versys paint stick versys actually on the bike will be quite different. I like the one on the right a little bit more, but when it is actually on the bike and done I'm sure you won't really tell too much of a difference.

What is the actual color code from Kawasaki for their orange? Are you going to match it, or try to make it a little different?

(Misspelled versus purposely)
 
#12 · (Edited)
I would ask what kind of paint at that price. I shoot Dupont Centari, acrylic enamel. Very durable and polishes out like glass. A quart of paint, hardener and reducer will run almost half of your quoted cost. And are they going to include a wet-sand and polish for that price? To get a professional high-gloss finish this last step is required and adds to the labor time.

The gas tank removal is a bit of a chore, but nothing extreme. The pump is on the bottom of the tank with a quick connect fitting, press the tang and it pops off, fuel flow stops. And there's a quick connect for the power lead for the pump. Same thing, press the tang and remove the lead. There is a vent hose and an overflow hose on the left front area under the tank, has the cheapy spring type clamps, can be re-used as there is no high pressure or anything on them.

Remove the hold-down fasteners and you can lift the tank enough to remove all the plumbing, then lift the tank off.

The cap assembly ring is unbolted and that includes the cap itself, set aside and dump out any remaining fuel. The tank color goes under the cap assembly so you need to mask off the opening and plug the overflow vent. That way when you open the fill cap you don't have the old color showing.

The other parts are very easy to remove, just press-pin fasteners and a few 6mm bolts. Clean prep the inside faces of your fairings, front and under the seat, and have them sprayed too. Otherwise you'll see the old color inside the front fairings and under then seat. This may add some cost as you have to shoot both sides, but well worth it for a professional look.

Mine was green, wanted black, so I did mine in my garage at 120 miles. :thumb:


EDIT: if you use color rite or house of color they are decent acrylic enamels that use a proprietary reducer. They should still be polished on completion. A cross-liner harder makes enamels fuel proof and improves durability.
 
#15 ·
Thanks for the link Fastoman......After looking at all the BMW yellows, none of them are even close to what I want. I'm after that deep, rich yellow that almost has a little tint of orange to it. My buddy says he has about 50-60 different yellow color chips that I could choose from as well, so hopefully something he has will already be a close match.
 
#16 ·
CJBROWN-
THANK YOU very much for that detailed post, it helped very much. Just got the fuel tank off.....Like you said, not too extreme. The last thing I have to remove is the piece under the gas tank, kinda in the middle (not the pump). Looks easy enough to unscrew, but looking into the tank, I see a piece of metal that fits into a rubber piece on the inside of the tank......I'm sure it's easy enough to remove, but how to I get that metal wire to fit back into the rubber piece in the tank???? Sorry, don't know what it is or what to call it. There's one electrical connector coming off it and for bolts.
 
#17 ·
I'm not sure, I thought just the pump and level sender was there at the bottom. Maybe try the exploded parts diagram on bikebandit or similar.

I didn't remove anything from the bottom, just masked it off and shot around it. You can't see any of that once mounted back on the bike.
 
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