Tank refinishing - Mototrans 250 Road

[Rbranst]

I have a 1973 Mototrans 250 Road - i have done a fair amount of searching here and also fairly extensively on google and I cant find much feedback on how to properly restore the gas tanks. I have acquired 3 "earless" tanks, which all seem to have chrome sides under the paint I have removed. Yeah the one that was on here was rusted and I found two more on the bay so I would at least have one good one to work with. Is anyone familiar with the process of refurbing a chrome sided tank?

[Duccout]

What I do know is that having a tank re-chromed will cost a fortune; it may be easier and cheaper to spray the chrome panels silver.


Cheers,

Colin

[Rbranst]

I have heard the prices for that are nutso these days. I have the same issue to attend to on the Telesco front fork lowers. Was thinking chrome finish powder coat or that vastly improved chrome paint, or even silver. Is it me or are all these telesco parts very lightly chromed?

[Duccout]

They are usually rusty, but they are over 40 years old, so there is an excuse.

[A.I.M]

The chrome finish on the sliders of my Telesco forks was badly rusted too. I managed to remove the rust with an "ecological hydrochloric acid substitute" and a bit of elbow grease. I just checked if the bottle lists ingredients, unfortunately not, but it could be used with bare hands. There are still pits in the chrome, but they are not unsightly.
For a 50-year old bike the sliders now have an acceptable "patina".
I'm using the bike in a much drier & warmer environment nowadays than when I bought her in the 1970s so I think this will work for me, but if I was planning to use her in damp weather or if my garage was humid I'd probably go for the powder coating option.

Cheers,
Al

[Rbranst]

That helps a bunch, thanks. Are there any documented processes for disassembly of the sliders from the tubes? I see diagrams on the marzocchi, but nothing on telesco.

[Duccout]

Pretty simple: at the top of the slider is a threaded ring that holds the oil seal, this is unscrewed and then the fork tube and damper slide out. The threaded ring is very tight and will require some ingenuity to unscrew (usually involving pipe wrenches!) but the walls are thin and easily damaged.

There is some info and pictures on this site, do a search.

Cheers,

Colim

[Eldert]

telesco fork info : www.moticosroyo.com/ducati-desmontar-su ... -delantera

Eldert

[Rbranst]

That is EXACLTLY what I was looking for. Thanks Eldert!

[themoudie]

Aye Eldert et al,
Rather than getting "lost" in a thread about tank refinishing, I thought that by having a specific thread, this valuable information could be "Searched" for and found. Maybe the contents should be screen dumped and stored in the "Technical Information" section?

telesco fork info : http://www.moticosroyo.com/ducati-desmo ... -delantera

Eldert

Good health, Bill