I bought a used FXDWG yellow with black flame gas tank to replace the dented one that was on my bike when i bought it. The paint on the new tank was almost perfect but I am not a fan of yellow so I bought it with the intentions of stripping it. Unfortantly the tank won't cooperate.

I have rough sanded the paint to open up the pores in the paint. I have applied five seperate coats of aircraft stripper, and then wrapped the entire tank in plastic each time. I have let the tank stew in the stripper 1 hour, two hours, and the last coat eight hours and the paint just won't budge.
I have used aircraft stripper many times. The way it seems to work is the vapors work their way between the surface and the paint, thus making the paint bubble up. The paint is so well adheared to the steel that the vapors aren't doing anything.
I should also mention that I live in Phoenix. I am mentioning this because I know Aircraft stripper becomes in effective above 90 degrees because the vapors just evaporate before they can do their thing. I have been stripping at night and the temperature has been at around 86 degrees so I wonder if it is still to hot for the stripper to be effective.

I know I can take it to a professional but there goes the savings I'd get from doing it myself, which is why I bought a used tank in the first place.

If anyone has any tips or knows of a better product to try your input would be great appreciated.

Here are rhe results after the fifth treatment. There us a few spots of bare metal but not what you woyld expext after five treatments.


I wish i liked the color yellow because minus one tink chip the paint was perfect.

 

I'm guessing doing it inside the house is out of the question?

 

I've painted every bike I've owned except for one. I never used stripper on any of them, the parts are small enough that they can be stripped with a sander. I used 80 grit to get the paint off then smoothed it out with 180 afterwards so the metal wasn't all chewed up. Of course the edges where the sander can't reach have to be done by hand but for a small part it's not too bad.

 

I see the problem......you're not using it on an aircraft!!!

 

The truly funny part is-your are not allowed to use it on AC.
LOL

 

I hit the tank with 60g sand paper. My orginal plan was to sand the tank smooth and paint over it. The only problem is that I pretty much have to go down to bare metal in the area where the flames were. No matter how much I sand the flames keep showing through. After a few attempts of sanding I switched to the aircraft stripper.
I am making one last attempt with the stripper and if that doesn't work I'm just going to either media blasting it with walnut or take it to a local place here in AZ that will hot tank it for 40 to 60$.
Before I applied this last coat of stripper I tried using a heat gun, it had very little affect. It could be done but it would take a full day or two of steady heating and scraping.

Kinda looks like a Thanksgiving Day Turkey with jaundice.


EDITED, the lastick and final coat did nothing. It almost feels like the stripper is baking the paint on more. I hit it with a metal scraper and the paint is extremly hard
Time to try something else.

 

well, thank you to big brother, the VOC reg's has degraded a lot of things and yep, the crapola they sell now days does not work like the old. you can media blast for the quickest and it leaves a perfect base for primer. second, go to an electronics outlet and get some epoxy remover used to remove potting material. also, some regions with laxer regs will have better stuff. paint of old would last the life of the car, no so today, i hate the water base paints but it is what it is.

for your amusement.

 

Just came across this old thread. I am trying to strip a sportster tank with aircraft stripper. The paint has shown literally no sign of budging. Must be different stuff than they used to sell