Yes looking forward to the P4's Darren.
Today I set about sanding the paint off the Monster's tank.
This was achieved within 3 working hours with a break in the middle for a stonking ride on dry roads in 14 degrees of February heat. No heated clothing and I even switched the heated grips off. I wonder how long it will be before it's back that warm again?
I used my Festool sander with just 150g pads on a soft backing pad. With extraction attached there was no mess and tank is all clean and back to metal.
I think it took about two weeks with stripper and scrapers to do the other one, not to mention the mess and destruction of my soul! Lesson learned.
It has revealed a big dent repair on the right side. It has been nicely done as there was no hint of it before. This is why the decal on the right looked untouched as it was re-applied on new paint. They obviously blew the whole tank over with Rosso without prepping the left hand decal and just re-applied one over the raised original. I thought the left side would have a dent. I do have a dent of my own to fill on the left though!
I've also prepped the filler cap. The outer ring will be polished and I've cleaned the ribbed inner ring up with a little Dremel wire brush. I hoped it would polish it up and retain the ribs, but the finish is not even, although it is clean. I've tried Autosol with the wire brush, but no improvement. I figured that a bare polished finish could not be affected by petrol, but I may have to resort back to paint on the inner ring.
I'm trying to think of something different to Silver, but stumped as to what.
Gold would be out as it would be too similar, but not the same as the cap. Red would look horrid. I might try some metallic grey I have that I used on the dash, it was a good match for the original on that, but not sure on my ring. Looking for suggestions, including how I can polish the ribs.
Incidentally, I put the ring on my turntable at 45rpm and it played the intro to Breathe from Dark Side of the Moon. How cool is that?