Restoring Barn Find!

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NewRiderAgain

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Hello Everybody,
I’m new to the board. Been away from riding for some twenty-plus years. And really I just rode a small 250 crotch rocket back in my college days. Now with the kids getting older I decided I needed a hobby. I thought it’d be really cool to get a vintage bike and bring it back to its glory. I luckily found a 1971yamaha XS650 and am thrilled. I’m already having a blast just pulling this thing apart, cleaning it up, and basically learning how it tics. Note - I’m no mechanic, but learning on the go. Part of the whole experience for me!
So my first question (of what is surely going to turn into many) is I want to keep the bike as “pure” to its original state as possible, so outside of repainting, can someone give me some pointers on how to protect the raw spots from rusting over again? For example, I’m working the gas tank now and it has little spots of rust which will be exposed metal once I get rid of the rust. I’m assuming I’ll never find touch up paint that will match, so how do I protect these spots?
Thanks in advance!
Matt
 

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This is one of those "unicorns". Rare you find one of the early years this nice. I don't wanna give any bad advice either. If it was mine, I'd take a smaller painted part, like a headlight ear, and try a clear powder coat. I'm anxious to see what the guys say. Got some on here that are experts at restoring.
 
Matt, Congratulations on a great find. As for a suggestion on how to protect a cleaned up spot of bare metal from rusting I'm not much help. From the pic of the tank I'm guessing the area in question is where the tank and seat meet. Since this area is not visible when the bike is assembled maybe tape it off from the visible area and use a rattle can primer to protect it. :umm:
 
Cool bike welcome to the madhouse. The white you can get pretty close blending a touch of tan into some white til you get the tone. the gold is base metallic, candy gold, then clear. much harder to match up, but try some metallic gold? Slightly darker is less noticeable then too light. I mostly work with rattle cans and artist brushes on touch up, or the brush in cap auto touch up paints. Just use a bit of clear and preserve the "patina"... I recently picked up some airbrushes, but am still waiting on a new air hose before messing with them.
 
Nice bike!
I wanted to keep the original paint on my 72. It has a lot of rust and bare spots. I looked into clear coating it but most if not all react to ethanol gas. I talked to my powder coater and he suggested a product called Cerakote. He said that fuel would not affect it. He also mentioned there is one drawback, since it's a clear ceramic coating there are no chemicals that will dissolve it for removal. If I ever want it removed it it would have to be media blasted off. Sounded good to me. I had the tank done and have been very happy with it. Plan on getting more parts done in the future. The type he used on my tank was a cold process. 5 days of air drying.
upload_2019-11-1_7-19-27.png
 
New Rider: Yes, excellent find! Hope you have the side covers. About your tank, you could prime it and tell everyone that it's gonna be painted. Good luck with it.

GLJ: Yep, you probably saw that my tank is starting to wear like that, but on top.

GggGary: How deep is the snow by you?
 
Nov 1st, 29 degrees F in Mississippi.

I you just want to protect a few little rust spots until you decide on a permanent solution, you may use clear nail polish on the spots. You can purchase a precision tool to mechanically remove the rust or there is a Metal Rescue product you can paint on. Wipe the rust off once it’s job is done. It will not touch the paint.

I like the Cerakote suggestion.
 
Loving this board ...thanks for all the suggestions! I will look into the Cerakote option, GLJ. My tank looks a lot like yours ... for some reason the rust spots are more concentrated under the white paint.?. The clear coat nail nail polish sounds like a good temporary solution.
I do have the side panels, but not sure why they were off when I bought it ... hopefully they attach OK.
For the outside of the tank, I've ordered some Evaporust Gel ... which I'm hoping will take care of the situation. I'm very skeptical on what to use so as not to disturb the existing paint.
For the inside of the tank, I am planning on filling it with White Vinegar or apple cider vinegar and letting it sit for a couple days. And all the research I've seen has people taking the petcocks out, but I was just planning on closing them off and leaving them attached so I don't have to worry about plugging the holes. Anyone see any problem with this plan? Is there a particular reason to take the petcocks off?
I'd love to buy a bunch of that Evaporust and dump the whole tank in a big tote of it for a few days to clean inside and out, but that stuff is crazy expensive.
 
Well you will be taking them off. Cleaning, polishing, and replacing the 4 hole rubber "valves" and mounting o-rings. There are also small screens at the outlet fittings that will need attention.
 
NewRiderAgain said:
For the outside of the tank, I've ordered some Evaporust Gel
Click to expand...
The gel is what I used on the outside. As you can see in my pic I didn't get 100% of the rust off. That was by choice.
I left the petcocks on mine because I knew I was going to replace them.
There are quite a few threads on tank cleaning.
 
gggGary said:
Well you will be taking them off. Cleaning, polishing, and replacing the 4 hole rubber "valves" and mounting o-rings. There are also small screens at the outlet fittings that will need attention.
Click to expand...
Ah - OK. That's what I was trying to determine ... if the acid in the vinegar would cause damage to those pieces. Guess I'll need to figure out how to plug those holes! But I'm sure this has been discussed so I'll search the board for that answer.
 
GLJ said:
The gel is what I used on the outside. As you can see in my pic I didn't get 100% of the rust off. That was by choice.
I left the petcocks on mine because I knew I was going to replace them.
There are quite a few threads on tank cleaning.
Click to expand...
Were the petcocks easy enough to replace? Part of my problem is I don't know how available parts are going to be for this bike.
 
nah but old petcocks are ALWAYS junk.
The way these were painted, the candy goes on OVER the masked off white stripes,so the white is thinnest part of the paint job.
 
NewRiderAgain said:
Were the petcocks easy enough to replace? Part of my problem is I don't know how available parts are going to be for this bike.
Click to expand...
If you think you might want to save the petcocks, don't expose them to the acid. At your hardware store, buy a small sheet of rubber. And inch wide aluminum stock. Make two blank off plates. An old inner tube may work to make gasket. I prefer the thicker stuff I found in the hardware store.

A gallon of Metal Rescue is under $25 at Home Depot. It will easily derust the entire inside of your tank without eating at the good metal as the acid will. That would probably be my choice, unless the rust has taken over, in which case I would add two cups of phosphoric acid to a tank full of water. That will take only a few hours.
 
NewRiderAgain said:
Were the petcocks easy enough to replace? Part of my problem is I don't know how available parts are going to be for this bike.
Click to expand...
Petcocks no problem to replace. I used copper washers on the screws. Niche Cycle Supply has petcocks at a reasonable price.
I plan on rebuilding my original ones someday, till then these work just fine.
Finding parts is half the fun.:eek: Most everything you'll need to get it running is available. Cosmetic stuff is more difficult.
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