'81 CM400T Street tracker "Comstar Love"

Some of the aircraft guys use zinc chromate primer or zinc phosphate primer on bare aluminum. One source is Aircraft Spruce.
 
Hmmm... interesting. I think I might have some of that kicking around from an aluminium gate that I made a while ago.
 
So I stipped all the paint off the front wheel and look what I found! Gorgeous! Too Bad.... ::)

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Re: '81 CM400T Street tracker "Comstar Love"

flyswat2006 said:
So I stipped all the paint off the front wheel and look what I found! Gorgeous! Too Bad.... ::)

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What about leaving that goldish finish on the spokes and painting the rim alone flat black? That would look very good with your RFY's out in the back

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I would but the rear wheel is from a different model Cm400 so the finishes wouldn't match. The rear wheel is bead blasted with a silver anodized finish from the factory.
 
So I got the paint on the front wheel figured out. After stripping, washing, sanding, washing, priming, sanding, washing, and painting..... It turned out nice and I'm happy.
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I was planning on keeping the badges until a buddy of mine told me they were ugly. I couldn't get that out of my head so off they came. I used this little grinding wheel on my dremel to carefully grind the spot welds on the mounts. Then I prefilled the holes with JB Weld.
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Re: '81 CM400T Street tracker "Comstar Love" - PROBLEM!

A lot of bad words came out of my mouth this afternoon.

While sanding the primer on the tank I noticed that some of the primer just wiped clean off. Looking closer I noticed a small pin hole at the bottom edge. Then I noticed another one...... then another :mad:

I enlarged the holes with a flat head screwdriver to see how thin the metal was. Looks like it has rusted through.

When I got the bike, inside the tank showed a slight layer of rust residue inside. So five months a ago I got some rust dissolving fluid and pored it in the tank and let it soak for a couple hours. Then drained it, flushed it with water, dried it, and sprayed a sh!t load of WD-40 inside.

So I'm not sure what happened. Looking inside, I can see that just the floor of the tank is in fact very rusty. Either way I'm going to try welding up the holes. If that goes well, I'll treat the rust again and POR15 it. Else, I'll be looking for a new tank. :-\

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Yep Working on a 80 cm400t cafe, Same crap with the tank. Bead blasted it, enlarged rust areas with burr bit, and welded the holes up. :-\

Down the road you might need a new tank :mad:
 
So welding up the holes went OK. Ordered some POR15 sealer to complete the job.

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Meanwhile......

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Got these pegs off ebay (Bob Moto $25). I have to say - I'm impressed. Came from China, nice quality, and fast shipping. They had a different set that I really wanted, more like a flat dirtbike style, but they were out of my price range, $120.

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Re: '81 CM400T Street tracker "Comstar Love"

I know that woes of having to re strip, repaint, paint imperfections and redoing.. I feel you pain.

Hey are you in calgary?
 
Still poking away at this thing. Been struggling with the paint. Having a hard time getting an even base coat.
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In between coats I've been working on my dummy lights. Started will a piece of aluminium, mounted some LEDs and soldered in some resistors and wires.
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Then I epoxied a piece of irrigation pipe to it and pored some more epoxy into it to keep everything sealed.
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The whole thing fits nicely in the existing key ignition mount.
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Nice work on the lights, the black will help in sun to see them I bet. I left my aluminum raw and it glares a bit on me.
 
Progress has definitely slowed. Painting the tins have been a total pain but I have learned a few lessons in doing so.
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