Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Jim]

I don't own a 1916 Indian... or ANY Indian for that matter, but I really enjoy reading & following your posts! Keep up the great job! The whole rebuild just fascinates me!

(I do however own 2 VLs and 2 Vintage 1965 Hondas)

[Tom Lovejoy]

Great post, really enjoying watching your progress - thanks much + keep it up !

[Shaky Jake]

Some time ago we talked about gas tanks. The original Powerplus gas tanks are mage of thin steel and are soldered together. The general consensus is that there's a good chance a 100 year old one won't go the distance without cracking. There have been some gasoline fires on past Cannonballs, and its heartbreaking to watch that old iron go up on the side of the road. So a friend of mine in WV found someone to make us some heavier gauge tanks that are tig welded rather than soldered. here's mine, right after I coated it inside with Caswell's:








Someone asked me if I'm going to try to paint it faux-old to match the old paint on the frame and fenders, or if I'm going to paint it shiny. I think my response was that it seemed like painting it to look old would take a lot of effort for little benefit. I was right, it was a lot of effort. It took a lot of time; time I didn't have, but it turned out to be an interesting process. I started off by taking the top tank in the picture below to a paint shop to see if they could match the old paint. They took a lot of interest in it, but in the end they said that there wasn't any one area on the tank that was covered solid enough to scan for color, and they didn't want to try matching the color and texture manually because the paint is so expensive and they were afraid I would not be happy with it and want my money back. The store manager really wanted to help me out, but the owner said no. So, like everything else in this project, it looked like I was going to have to figure this out myself. Off to the interweb, I did a quick study of practical paint chemistry and application. I dug out some scrap metal, and commenced experimenting. I guess you could say I developed a process. I had these two tanks for inspiration:








One of the things that stands out on the old tanks is the solder joints. If I just painted my new tank, no matter how crunchy the paint looked the tank wouldn't look right because of the lack of solder joints. So, I put solder on my TIG welded tank, for looks:



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Then, I applied my newly developed process, and this is the result:












I probably shouldn't have spent all this time on painting the tank, but I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the result. I may try to brush in some remnants if a Indian script, if time allows. Don't ask me what all I did to get the paint to look like that, because you wouldn't believe me if I told you.






Kevin


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[EricOlson]

Wow, just wow Kevin. Every post is a real treat. Thanks for sharing all your hard work!

[TechNoir]

Don't ask me what all I did to get the paint to look like that, because you wouldn't believe me if I told you. .

Kevin,

Thanks for the update to your build, the tank looks great.

I am just about to do the same sort of thing myself. I have a pair of tanks for my 1920 Harley, one half is old paint and one half is/will be bare metal. I was planning on trying to put some paint on the bare metal and then trying to make it look old or at least not brand new.

I know you said don’t ask but any tips or advice that you can offer would be most appreciated.

John

[Jim]

I am an autobody guy by trade... and even I can't make paint look that... eh, "bad"? GREAT Looking paint work! Looks so OLD. I also really liked you idea of adding solder joints to that "realistic" look. There was a guy that used to belong in our local AMCA chapter that painted his 1930 H-D to look like 'rust'. He is an artist I believe and he knew of some sort of process.

[Shaky Jake]

Kevin,

Thanks for the update to your build, the tank looks great.

I am just about to do the same sort of thing myself. I have a pair of tanks for my 1920 Harley, one half is old paint and one half is/will be bare metal. I was planning on trying to put some paint on the bare metal and then trying to make it look old or at least not brand new.

I know you said don’t ask but any tips or advice that you can offer would be most appreciated.

John

They say that Leonardo DiVinci experimented with mixing his old paint, and that is why some of his paintings didn't survive. I'm no Leonardo DiVinci, and I'm certain that this coating won't protect metal even close to as well as normal paint. I'll be happy if it's still on there in a couple of years. It's probably as fragile as actual 100 year old patina, and I'll probably have to take the same steps to preserve it. Only time will tell. So that's one of the reasons I don't want to share the process. I wouldn't recommend using it on actual old tanks, and I'm certain that any professional painter would be appalled at some of the things I did to that tank. I would feel really bad if some actual vintage tin got messed up because of me. Just to illustrate the fact that I'm still in the experimental stage, I've painted three pieces so far. The tank and the chain guard turned out great. I finished the third piece, the primary chain cover, about 14 hours ago and it's still not dry, so there's a good chance I'll have to strip it, make some adjustments to the process, and do it again.

I'll just say that I didn't use anything fancy or expensive, just stuff I found around the house, and other than that I spent some time experimenting on pieces of scrap metal, learning how to apply the paint wrong, and how to stress the metal and the paint to simulate the aging process. Hope that helps - and have fun with it!



Kevin


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[BoschZEV]

Kevin,

That paint looks great. Congratulations on achieving a look that matches the rest of the bike.

I'm reminded of a Bultaco Metralla I restored 20 years ago. When I took the sheet metal to a paint shop I told the manager I didn't want "perfect," but rather I wanted the paint to look like it had been applied in a shed in barely-industrialized 1960s Spain. He later told a friend who also used the same shop that I was the first customer who had ever told him he wanted their paint job to look like crap.

[painterdale]

I am an autobody guy by trade... and even I can't make paint look that... eh, "bad"?

I agree! Very impressive results. I do hope someday you will "appall" us with your technique. Dale

[TechNoir]

Jake, thanks for the reply, I have a few ideas myself so I will let you know how I get on.

John

[Shaky Jake]

Thanks for all the compliments on the paint. I'll tell you that the tank turned out way better than I ever expected. The whole time I was doing it I was saying to myself "I'll just do this, how bad can it be?" Then, when I took it out and saw it in the sun, I just sat there on the deck with a big cigar and a scotch, and I just looked at it and laughed for a long time.


Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

The gas tank mounts to the frame with these little nickel plated clamps. Someone told me once that they originally had a piece of leather under them that was sort of shaped like the Chevy bow-tie emblem, but rounded on the ends. I've never seen one, but I cut out a cardboard template based on that description and what I think they may have looked like:








I cut some out of a piece of leather and punched holes for the screws to go through:










The cuts around the outside aren't as smooth as they should be, but I figure once they get oily and dirty, they'll look fine:








The other thing that worried me was the bottom of the tabk wearing against the top of the shifter, where it clamps to the frame. I decided to glue a piece of leather to the top of the clamp, but the piece of leather I'd bought for the bow-ties was a little too thick to fit in that location. I have a stash of old left-hand leather gloves, because my right hand (chain-saw hand) glove always wears out first. The glove leather was just the right thickness, so I cut a chunk out of one and glued it to the shifter clamp with Barge Cement:












Before I installed the tank and clamps, I wrapped the frame with friction tape in those locations, to isolate the clamps from the frame tube. That would be a typical 'period' thing to do. the extra pieces of friction tape are for the auxiliary gas tank, which will be mounted there at a later time:










Little by little...

Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Quiz

I made this today, for the Indian. Anybody want to guess what it is?






Kevin

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[EricOlson]

An Indian peace pipe?

[Shaky Jake]

These came yesterday.








Kevin


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