My tank and fenders are at the body shop for straightening and paint. I'll be ordering the paint from John Pierce this week and hope to have the sheet metal back in about a month or so. One of the first things that my painter immediately asked is whether or not I had a template for laying out the tank side panels, which I do not and I'm going to have a problem I'm having is laying out the correct shape of these tank panels and the 1/2" wide border stripes.
This is actually more tricky than I thought. Looking at photos of restored bikes, some look better than others as the panel shapes vary a bit and even small variations cause very noticeable differences in the overall look of the painted design. Even looking at photos of factory-painted tanks is quite tricky, as the angle at which the photos are taken can confuse the actual limits of the applied design. Furthermore, the front ends of the panels wrap around the front curve of the tank and this must be exact, as should the height of the panel near the gas cap.
I'm hoping that somebody has an original-paint tank that they could take some measurements or photos of. If so, please respond - I just don't trust my ability to correctly lay it out going by 'eye' and its quite important.
Thanks
This is actually more tricky than I thought. Looking at photos of restored bikes, some look better than others as the panel shapes vary a bit and even small variations cause very noticeable differences in the overall look of the painted design. Even looking at photos of factory-painted tanks is quite tricky, as the angle at which the photos are taken can confuse the actual limits of the applied design. Furthermore, the front ends of the panels wrap around the front curve of the tank and this must be exact, as should the height of the panel near the gas cap.
I'm hoping that somebody has an original-paint tank that they could take some measurements or photos of. If so, please respond - I just don't trust my ability to correctly lay it out going by 'eye' and its quite important.
Thanks
Comment