[MENTION=21887]lawlberg[/MENTION] is the guy to ask. He did a great job plastidipping his fz6(75r). His bike looks great!
Check out his thread here:
http://www.600riders.com/forum/fz6-mods/51960-teaser-my-pearl-white-plastics.html
And to answer your question, removing the gas tank is very easy. Even easier if it's empty!
Okay - you're convincing me - I need to do an actual thread about how to plastidip a bike the right way.
In the meantime:
Step one - Cleaning/Prep
Clean everything well - you can do this better with parts off the bike, so empty your tank by riding as much as you're comfortable, it'll be easier! Then pull it off along with all of your plastics. The tank is connected with 2 bolts up front and one at the rear, be careful as you lift it up, there are two wire connections and a the fuel hose that need to be carfully undone. You can leave the vent hose and overflow hose connected or take them off, depending how tight they are going into the frame. The rear plastics are easy to get off once you take off the seat - just held on with an allen screw and some rubber bushings - so just undo the screw and pull them off.
Use a good cleaner, like simple green or anything that can cut grease. THe idea is that you want absolutely nothing between the painted surface and the plastidip - since it's a mechanical bond it's really important that you have 100% surface to surface contact.
Step two - Spraying.
After the surface is prepped well, you get to paint! There's tons of videos about how to spray plastidip on YouTube - it's just like a normal spraypaint - do lots of thin coats from 8-10 inches or so away, making sure to go completely past the surface before making a turn - you don't want it to pile up and run, though it's not the end of the world if it does. For my coverage, I went with ~4 or 5 thin coats of white and then 2 or 3 light mistings of pearlizer. You can put subsequent coats on pretty quickly, even quicker if you keep your coats thin. The first couple coats you do you'll definitely still see color through, but once you get to 3 or 4 it'll have pretty thick and solid coverage. The more coats you do, the easier it will be to remove if you want to in the future, and the tougher it will be. If you're covering with a gloss or plastidip enhancer (metalizer, matte clearcoat, pearlizer, etc.) let it dry completely before doing that.
Step three - Special considerations for the tank
I was conflicted about design when I picked colors - specifically for the tank. One thing to know is that GASOLINE KILLS PLASTIDIP - that said, you can still be fine using it on your tank- as long as:
-You are careful with drips (I shake the nozzle before putting it in my tank, when I pull it out of the tank after filling, and any time it is over my bike I have a gloved hand underneath it to catch anything) In the 5 months it's been dipped, no spills (knock on wood)
-You protect the finish - either cover it with a two stage clearcoat (real spraypaint) *the problem here is that it will make it harder to remove the dip in future, should you change your mind. The method I use for protecting the finish is Turtle Wax Ice - It's a spray on wax that will cover any surface, and works great on PlastiDip - it toughens the surface to make it easier to clean, harder to scuff/scrape off if you hit it with your zipper - and also gives it a bit of a shine. This is a requirement for any bike with plastidip - cover it with a good coat of wax, wash it each week and rewax it. You'll thank me later.
*another thing to note on the tank is that the seat does rub down at the base (or at least mine does) I didn't do a good job protecting this area, and the rubbing is what takes dip off. I still have to do a bit of work here to fully protect that area, but the good thing is that if you have an oopsie and some dip peels off, or gets really filthy, you can always spray more on, it'll fill in the hole and bond with the existing dip. I just re-coat that area that rubs every once in a while and I"m fine - I could just coat it in some clear scotch tape to keep the rubbing off, and probably will after my next touch up.
*just like any painting project, do it in a well ventilated, dry and clean space, you don't want anything landing in your perfect finish.
