Lockdown Velocette
With various electrical and suspension components in the process of being sorted out, the petrol tank was packed up and posted to Mansfield, for a bit of professional looking-at.
While James had initially had thoughts of the tank being painted in a bright and vibrant red, he’d finally decided on a more contemporary, and classic, black with gold detailing. And it was up to the team at Vale Paints to deliver the goods, once the tank was levered off the shelf in James’s office and sent to Nottinghamshire.
When it came under James’s ownership, the tank had a BT yellow pinstripe around its perimeter, and the faded TT Winner transfers on each flank too, and the idea was to replicate the style (albeit without any BT sponsorship) with a Velocette logo. But, of course, initially it had to be stripped and checked over to ensure its integrity so that it wouldn’t either be filling up the carb with detritus or splitting its seams and dumping cold fuel over hot engine components.
Initially, a tank that is due to be painted will be stripped with paint stripper, and this is a process that can sometimes mean that it’s left in the stripping tank for some days, as the age of the tank bears no relevance to how many layers of paint that it may have, and some paint will release its tentative hold on the surface of the fuel tank easier than others.
While the use of paint stripper is a delicate process that doesn’t harm the surface of the tank, it doesn’t necessarily result in a pristine surface – there can still be some stubborn paint left, and corrosion isn’t removed by paint stripper.
Which is where blasting comes in or, to be slightly more specific, media blasting. While some folk think that blasting only involves sand or grit, and is used solely for cleaning up rusty old cast iron gates, there is actually various more subtle varieties that can be applied to those parts that are rather more delicate than garden furniture. Vale Paints can call upon a variety of different media for their blasting, to suit the parts being worked on, from the more abrasive material to remove the likes of powder-coating, to softer materials.
Once the stripping and/or blasting
process has been completed, the tank is dried and air cleaned, removing all dust and detritus from both the outside and inside (and, yes, a vacuum cleaner is used to clear the inside), and it can be closely checked for any leaks or pinholes and, if any are found, the remedial work undertaken.
The tank that James has sourced was in amazingly good condition, with none of the welded seams proving bothersome, and with no evidence of them being re-welded, brazed or soldered. Which is something of a result with any tank of that age.
Vale Paints’ head honcho, John Wilson, doesn’t especially like fitting tank liners
(and yes, the term is ‘fitting’) although he is happy to do so if the client requests or requires it. While tank liners will solve/ prevent some problems (such as pinholes) they do also have the potential for future issues, especially given the concern with modern petroleum, the increase in ethanol and the fact that none of us know what additives will be mixed in with our fuel in the future…
And, with all that checking and preparatory work out of the way, it was time to move on to the paint. It’s worth pointing out now that no paint is petrol proof. No paint at all! So it’s vital that the filler neck is masked up in such a way as to prevent petrol vapour from edging underneath the paint and causing bubbling. If necessary, if a tank liner has been fitted, the liner fluid can be used to seal the neck’s bare steel.
With the masking done, and any imperfections in the tank’s surface filled, a coat of primer can be applied. Those folk that have undertaken any painting will know that it is a process that may seem a little counterintuitive at times, what with the application of a layer of paint being followed by the removal of some of that paint by subsequent sanding down, only for the process to be repeated time and time again.
But this is the only way that a premium finish can be attained (and also explains why my methods of corner-cutting and repeated applications of paint with no flatting back between applications results in a finish that can only be described as ‘pitiful’).
By becoming aware of the time and effort put in before even the base coat is applied, you start to gain a recognition of why a professional paint job costs more than just a couple of rattle cans of paint…
So, while the phrase “a coat of primer can be applied” sounds like a quick and simple exercise, in actual fact it’s far more involved, culminating in a dusting over with a ‘guide coat’ that it then sanded down to prove the absence of imperfections.
With the primed surface ready, the base coat can be applied. In this case it was a base coat of gold, over which the black (which most would assume would be the base coat) is applied, after the masking of the pinstripes.
The fine line tape that is used for the masking of the pinstriping around the side of the tank is a really thin tape, but it still leaves a ‘lip’ of black paint along the side of where the tape was when it is removed. This can’t be sanded down, as it would scratch the gold in the process (all metallic paints have their metallic particles close to the surface, and sanding them down would make them a base colour rather than a metallic). The lip that remains after the fineline tape is removed can be lifted by using masking tape – thanks to the fact that it is a very thin lip.
For many classic motorcycle tanks, it isn’t just a pinstripe that defines the shape, with bike tanks such as the T160 Trident that was on display at Vale when I visited having panels of a contrasting colour as well as the base tone. For these, John stocks a wide variety of stencils made in a heavy paper that he can refer to when needed. It’s worth bearing in mind that the size and shape of these panels didn’t necessarily remain uniform throughout a certain model’s life, and they can vary from one bike to another. But John has taken these stencils directly from bikes with factory standard paint, so they are as close as possible to the original.
But James’ tank doesn’t have any panels, so it was time to apply the Velocette logo, and John turned to Robert Derrick at Classic Transfers (classictransfers.co.uk, 01454 260596), although as John didn’t want an actual transfer for the logo, but wanted to have it painted on, he asked for a stencil of the specific size suitable for the Velo’s tank.
The stencil was then applied to the tank, taking care as to assure that the logos on each side were matched equally, which isn’t something that’s as easy as it sounds, given that the logo isn’t symmetrical. The rest of the tank was masked up with masking paper, and gold applied to the stencil in a couple of gentle coats. No need to apply a heavy coat, for that would only result in a build-up of paint against the stencil’s edging, with a nasty lip being the result.
With the masking paper off, and stencil removed, a careful bit of fiddly scalpel work was needed to remove the parts of the stencil that made up the enclosed area of the logo, the tank is really looking like a motorcycle tank now – but there’s more to come. Again, the raised lip around the Velocette writing is removed with some masking tape, and the tank goes back into the booth ready for the top cover of lacquer. And it was amazing to see how the tank actually changes from a flat finish to a high gloss within just two passes of the gun.
While the lacquer, as applied, gives a smooth high gloss finish, that’s not the end, as it’s flatted off with 2000 grit wet and dry, to take off any ‘nibs’ (high spots caused by a dust particle or two) and to give the very smoothest of finishes. Once flatted down, it’s buffed with a proprietary polishing agent using a rather neat rotary buffing gun and pad, giving the impressive, mirrorlike end result.