Tank painting

[usirkaf]

Hi dear fellows

I live in Portugal and I recently bought a tank which I itend to paint so I'm asking for help tips and sugestions and counsel on paint, method and procedures for obtaining best results.

The tank is tested and approved and it has a little bit of superficial rust when boot is removed

Thank you

usirkaf

[Prästen]

make some nice custom paint.

painted as a submarine? a torpedo? a shark?

[John A]

The key is to properly prep the surface before painting. Talk to an auto body shop for tips and paint. Just DO NOT bake on any paint. I just painted an Alum 80, cleaned off all the oil/silicon, very light sanding, shot it with primer and then sprayed it with 3m paint. Has held up pretty good so far.

John

[Yidaki]

Hi usirkaf, first of all, u got a clean all rust off then primer and paint like John said.. U need to sand bad spots, this depends on how bad tank' surface it is. U can use 180 grid sand paper to make it ready to primer. If bad spots too deep first 100 grid than 180 grid.. For the primer u can use any kind of metal primers. But, I highly recommend zinc cromate marine primers. U can buy one of them in spray can..Than regular car or boat paint.. If u have compressor and gun two or tree part mixture paints is the best for good result..They last longest..Don't forget u can not use baked tecnique to paint. It is very dangerouss for tank to put in oven.

[garth]

i am thinking about doing the same thing to my Alum 80 but how far down should i sand it? till the ruff spots are out or till i see the bare metal? also is their any certain kind of paint that is preferred for this? i know regular metal primer is good but any more tips about it?

[Yidaki]

Hi Garth, U shouldn't go too deep when u r sanding. Basically, after cleaned all rust, u can spray primer..When, u r chosing primer, it has to be sandable primer. In this way u can shoot and sand again and again..So, at the end u r gonna get good finish and all low spots filled. Just need little patience and work. I am in marine business so we have a lot of primers for metal kits for the boats.. Petit and Interlux are the main paint producers. U can get metal primer from one of them..
For the paint, I am using Concept three part mixture paint..Again, u have a lot of paint choices from marine and car sector..
Good luck and happy holidays..

[land shark]

I'm kinda a novice at this but here in the states I thought it was illegal to paint a high pressure tank. Only the certifier can paint and stamp them. Who would wanna cover up a bad spot on a failure point. I think I would rather like to keep an eye on it in case it gets worse. It gives the guy doing a visual a much better assement. Dont they make tank sleeves anymore for the fashion worried? As far as sanding? ok so like you could be the best lookin corpes in the sea

[Yidaki]

is it illegal in Portugal too? Also, this fella's tank passed hydro so little touch-up cosmetic paint hurts nothing.
In states, my tank's hydro done in a company that also doing for firefighter's tanks but they don't do paint job..
Cheers,
Burak

[Jon]

In the USA you can sand and paint a tank, but must have it HYDROED before you have it filled again. I would suggest sanding it but not painting it- I have seen some nice shiny tanks done this way. Any heat applied to the tank job risks explosion on aluminum bottles.

Jon

[Yidaki]

Originally Posted by Jon

In the USA you can sand and paint a tank,

Jon

As a matter fact, I already did 4 years ago and still using it.. All of a sudden, I felt guilty myself..

[omega3]

I have painted a few tanks(steel only). Never sanded them though....always wire brushed to bright shiny!