Last year I bought a '76, CB750, low miles, little used for the last few years. For various reasons the tank needed a re-spray. I didn't want to 'spoil' the original tank with it's special 1970's paint job
, so I bought a used one & took it down to bare metal, sealed it & did it myself, with RS Paints 'stuff'. Though I say it myself, it came up very well for a home done job
. It was the sort of finish, that when you parked it up, people couldn't resist giving it a little stroke. I was seriously chuffed, with the job & a little, with myself for doing it.
After a few runs, I noticed what looked like sticky stuff on the paint-job. My neighbour has a small leaved Acer of some sort which overhangs our drive, so I thought it was Sycamore sap, or aphid 'doings'. So I polished it off & thought little more of it. After a few more runs out on balmy evenings I noticed more of the sticky stuff, & as this cycle of polishing & running, it dawned on me that something was amiss. Careful scrutiny showed that the sticky stuff was 'pitting' the paint. In places it was pitted through to the primer
. It was then I discovered that the sticky stuff wasn't sap or aphid poo. It was "mist" from a failed brake cylinder seal
That, in itself was bad enough. It was made worse, given the peculiar design of the inside of the cylinder, when I replaced the piston & seals & filled the level up to the 'mark', by the fact that when filled
to the mark, it is
overfull, & overnight, fluid oozed up, around the threads of the lid & dribbled down the front cheek of the tank
This weekend, after sulking about it for several months, I isolated, as best I could the areas to be re-sprayed, rubbed the top & cheeks down as best I could without bo**ocksing up the £70 side decals & managed to get it back to a decent standard, which will pass muster from about 2 feet.
Lesson learnt.
