A Fuel Tank for Dolores...

I built Dolores the first time with the help of my long time buddy Brandon (TwistedWheelz). He came over a few nights a week and we worked on her like that until we got to a stopping point. This was her "Orange Period." She was a fine looking scoot, but she still had some issues such as no front brake and wiring gremlins. She had a custom seat made from an outboard motor cowl and some scrap steel. I taught myself some basic bondo skills with the seat project.



When my clutch cable broke, I thought that was a fine excuse to tear her down again and do some things differently. I had bought a beat to shit 72 cb750 tank from a member here for like $30.00. I got that tank to try knee dents and not worry about ruining my nice stock tank. There was some rough unfinished bondo on one side of the tank and when I pulled all of the bondo out I found lots of dents, including a bad crease dent right in the curve on the side.


I watched Sully's video several times and then I learned everything I could from this site. I made a tool out of a 2 inch wooden dowel with several layers of leather wrapped around the end of it and zip tied to the dowel. I also had a rubber mallet and a regular claw hammer. Brandon came over one afternoon and after some ice cold mountain dew we got to beating on the tank. It looked pretty cool, but the side with the crease dent had caved in a good bit.


First coat of bondo over the nasty crease dent.

and the rest of the tank.

More bondo...

And more sanding... and more bondo...



At this point, at Brandon's suggestion, I started to sculpt the rest of the tank a bit. Making bulges in the curves, making new body lines, etc.

Next I got the tank ready for primer. This took a LONG time.

Then primer...

Then a horribly bad attempt at painting a two tone job. The humidity ruined the paint and the colors didn't work on my bike at all.

Then Brandon came over and we found a new color and Brandon, being the rattlecan guru, laid the paint on. It's a rustoleum paint again... So no 2k clear this time, but I'm going to be more careful with this one...





Here's a mock up of the tank on Dolores.

Who says you can't get a good pait job from a rattle can! and thats rustoleum! Those pics are with no clear or wet sanding done, that is just the final coat of a color and dried! I painted that whole tank and seat with one can of paint!

wow that was with no clear! was it still wet!? that is unreal, nice work man

No joe, that is not still wet, it is dry!

wow insane! great work man, just great!

Thanks Joe....I have done a lot of spray bomb work....once you get a good feel for it, it is pretty easy!

That is impressive

hey Twisted, did you just bondo over the strips (where the honda was attached)?

lok222 said:

That is impressive

hey Twisted, did you just bondo over the strips (where the honda was attached)?

Click to expand...

Loc...I can only take credit for laying the color on this bueaty, Deviant1 did all of the body work (bondo, filler puddy, priming, and blocking)!

But he did use body filler to fill the old badge mounts.

Yep, Bondo over the badge mounts. It was actually kind of a motherfucker truth be told...
I gotta say that I am starting to hate the green. More paint will come soon, I've got two options in my head right now, but both involve a color change and some old school stripes. Maybe the rattlebomb guru will ride in from the sticks and help a brother lay some color again!

Deviant1 said:

Yep, Bondo over the badge mounts. It was actually kind of a motherfucker truth be told...
I gotta say that I am starting to hate the green. More paint will come soon, I've got two options in my head right now, but both involve a color change and some old school stripes. Maybe the rattlebomb guru will ride in from the sticks and help a brother lay some color again!

Click to expand...

Great job!

did you remove the little metal strips? or just bondo over them?

I'm about to do the same soon

I bondoed over them. It ended up taking a few coats as the badge mount was a little bit higher than the rest of the tank. It was still easier than trying to remove them though.

Can you describe your technique for creating the knee insert on your tank? I understand you hammer it in but whats the proper motion and tools so i don't botch it up?

Thanks! love it.

Go to the how-to video section in 800 Cafe Help and watch Sully's video. The only thing I did different was to use a two inch wooden dowel with the end wrapped in leather. I hammered the dowel with the hammer to help make smoother dents. But you're going to do a ton of bondo work!
Good Luck.

Found it! Awesome. Thanks.
http://www.dotheton.com/forum/index.php?topic=3709.0