How To - Quick and easy paint stands...

Not sure if this should be here or in the mods section...
There seem to be more and more members takling painting the tanks and fenders so I'd thought I'd share a quick , cheap and easy way to make paint stands for doing motorcycle tins.
About $55 and 4 1/2 hours and I made 2 fender stands and a tank stand. I made the tank stand so I can adjust it to fit different size tanks. Not familiar with HD tanks so I'm thinking this might apply mostly to metric bikes?!?. Here's the break down on cost for the stands:

Roller stand - Big Lots $10 ea x 3
1" square steel tubing 4' - $10.47
Slotted 2" flat steel 6' $6.51
Screws $.98
Pipe insulation 1.38
plus tax 53.30









I also added a peg at the tail of the spine so I could slip the tank mounting hole over it..added some extra holes for adjustability...



For the fender stands I took a piece of the slotted 2" flat steel and cut it about 3/4" shorter than the width of the fender and ground the corners on one side. Mount this where the roller used to mount to...



Put the pipe insulation on..



The fender then just slides down on top of the stand and with a little pressure is pretty firmly mounted on the stands.

I used these for painting and buffing both bike tins I painted


When buffing I take a bungee strap and run it from one mounting hole on the fender, under one of the leg braces and back up to a mounting hole on the other side of the fender. Hold the stand down with your foot (or a small child ) and it works GREAT!

 

Wow thanks. What great timing. Though it's getting a bit cold for outdoor painting.

Can you post some more "parts" or assembly pictures of the stand if you have any?

I don't have access to a welder, but I can cut stuff and epoxy it. Bending not so easy...

 

And the cost for you to make them up for XJBikes members?

 

After looking at the pictures again, they are probably EASY to make. I'm just not exactly sure what STOCK roller stands look like.

*plans to head to big lots on Monday Evening* GRIN

EDIT: How do you paint the bottom of the tanks? Or do you just do that first and not worry about overspray later?

 

They have them at Harbor Freight

 

Glad you brought that up, Bob, I find I have to at least stand the tank on end to make sure the paint gets up around the bottom seam.

 

The stands I used are adjustable in height, so I can get the tank almost 40" from the ground. That gives me enough room to squat down and shoot the bottom of the tank with no problems.
Wiz has a good approach. With the stand I have I guess I could rotate the tank up on the front mount like a hinge, shoot down each seam, then lower the tank and finish the job. No need to worry about over spray in that situation since the paint would still be chemically wet when the color coat is applied.

 

Good info. I hope my local Big Lots has at least 1 stand. Additionally I hope my replacement tank deal works out... If I'm really lucky it won't need a paint before use/spring.