Painting Tins. No really...

[Jim]

Is the solution here as simple as just using body filler to cover all of the little dings?

Pretty much. What I did is basically a skim coat. Bondo over an entire surface, then I'll knock it down with a semi-hard sanding block. If it were just the dings, I'd prolly just fill 'em individually, but there's a very slight amount of waviness to the flat (ish) areas. 2 birds and all that... waviness and dings all in one shot.
Everything Thu said is "spot" on... pun intended. I use the 3M white acrylic putty and like Thu, normally I'd use that for a skim coat, but a few of the dings were deep enough to need the bondo. So rather than go back and forth 'tween the 2, I just did the bondo. It's kind of what past experience has told you and what tickles your fancy in the moment.
Yes, I'll use a dent puller too, but when there's waviness involved, you're just kinda pissin' in the wind with it.

 

[thuban]

What Jim said, Perzactly! Mine don't turn out as "Purdy" as Jim's work but no one would know but Jim, so...

 

[Paul Sutton]

Mine isn't as good as Jim's either, but its mine and I am not too concerned if I damage it. Still took a lot of work but that was just plain fun.

 

[MaxPete]

...and I feel so fortunate.

 

[thuban]

Mine isn't as good as Jim's either, but its mine and I am not too concerned if I damage it. Still took a lot of work but that was just plain fun.

...lot of work and I had to do it twice! ( Because some let it fall over in the trailer. WOOF!

 

[Jim]

So, taking down a bondo skim coat. I said earlier to use a semi-rigid sanding block. I decided to go with a hard wood block instead 'cause of the waviness. A flexible block could follow the contours of the waviness and we'd be back to square one. So... a hard block with an aggressive paper. I used 60 grit for the initial cut. At this stage, you want to constantly change the sanding patterns. With the block lengthwise to the area, I'll do a 45° cut up and down and fore and aft for a dozen or so swipes then reverse that so you have a crosshatch pattern another dozen or so and then I'll switch to just fore and aft.... then to just up and down. Finally I'll go to a circular pattern for another dozen or so then repeat the whole process over and over until you start to see a change in color as you get close to bare metal. During all that I'll also change the block from horizontal to vertical and back. The idea here is to constantly change things so you don't sand a depression or such into the bondo. As soon as you see that color change... STOP. Now we know there's no waviness and about 90% of the bondo is laying on the floor.

Now it's time to switch to a semi hard block and a finer paper. I usually switch to wet sanding. I'll try either a 240 or 320 paper. But first I'm gonna finish off the other areas and then I'll put another pic up after wet sanding.

 

[Jim]

Quick video after 320 wet sand. Don't know why my camera kept losing focus.

 

[Mailman]

Those tanks are nice, it’s gonna be a looker for sure!

 

[2XSive]

Looking great as usual Jim. As to xs paint, do you know if there is a good replacement paint for the Yamaha black that has the subtle gold metal flake?

 

[Jim]

Looking great as usual Jim. As to xs paint, do you know if there is a good replacement paint for the Yamaha black that has the subtle gold metal flake?

I don't. A while back I sanded one down and discovered that the tank's painted black and the metal flake is added in the clearcoat.... so it shouldn't be too hard to duplicate.

 

[MaxPete]

Looking great Jim - really nice!
Thank you.
Pete

 

[Jim]

Been doin' house chores and such these past few days. 750 cafe tank is now epoxy primed inside and out.

 

[Mailman]

Been doin' house chores and such these past few days. 750 cafe tank is now epoxy primed inside and out.

View attachment 163327

I don’t know, that already looks so good, I’d slap a Yamaha sticker on it and ship it back to Pete...Done!

 

[MaxPete]

I don’t know, that already looks so good, I’d slap a Yamaha sticker on it and ship it back to Pete...Done!

 

[MaxPete]

Been doin' house chores and such these past few days. 750 cafe tank is now epoxy primed inside and out.

View attachment 163327

Looks beautiful Jim - so smooth....

 

[Raymond]

Loving that tank.

 

[cra-z1]

Looks great to bad you not closer, I would send some paint work your way.

 

[MaxPete]

Looks great to bad you not closer, I would send some paint work your way.

Try it Cra-z1 - I just boxed everything up and mailed it to Jim using the USPS. It all arrived safely in just a few days.

 

[2XSive]

Looks great to bad you not closer, I would send some paint work your way.

I'm 100% positive the added shipping cost would be a good investment. If I wasn't so much of a student of Jim and if I wasn't so stupidly hard headed in trying to learn to paint on my own, I'd definitely be beggin Jim to paint my tins.

 

[MaxPete]

I'm 100% positive the added shipping cost would be a good investment. If I wasn't so much of a student of Jim and if I wasn't so stupidly hard headed in trying to learn to paint on my own, I'd definitely be beggin Jim to paint my tins.

Well, I will certainly admit that I was headed that way too, but I reread Jim’s thread on his own paint job on his red Special - and I just realized that a half-baked amateur crap job by me wouldn’t hold a candle to this....

and this....