So I bought this tank from Dave.  
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1357845594



I am in the process painting the tank and adding a speedometer from Dime City Cycles.

I bought some 16 Gage sheet metal, made some measurements, and cut out my bracket with a ban saw using the metal cutting blade.  
I used my grinder and buff out the edges.  I then drilled the holes and painted the bracket.  It mounted perfect.  





I was able to complete the wiring for the led lights on my new speedometer by replacing the 9 pin connecter with new male and
female ones from Radio shack.  (I could have connected the wires permanently with solder and shrink tube, but decided to use the
connecters in case there is a reason to ever go back to the old tank.)



Doing a rattle can paint job.  I have completed several coats of black,
wet sanding with 1500 grit sandpaper in between coats.





I will be adding some color, a design of some type, but not sure.  
I was thinking either racing stripe one large and one small ..off center,
or a flame type job like this one.

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1338248877  

Any suggestions........

Am I supposed to wet sand after the color design I do?
Do I wet sand in between clear coats?  Won't that dull the clear?

Wonderful, GDRSeeker ! I have the same speedo, albeit with km/h reading.

What kind of cable do you plan to use ?
I was told an old Suzuki tachometer cable from the old GS/GSX of the '80s was a good option.

Let us know if you have any speedo issues  

Here is what I decided to do.





So now that I have the tank colors complete do I sand before adding my clear coat?  or will it mess things up?

Do I sand in between clear coats, or just lay one thick clear coat down and be done?

The tank looks great!

I have nothing to offer about spray can paint....I use a clear coat with an activator that is applied with a spray gun.  The good news is that the black paint won't show fuel staining like a lighter color would.

Looks great! Especially for a rattle can.

Jeff Jopling wrote on 02/23/13 at 14:22:36:


I'm pretty sure that guy made just one of these; i don't think it was too complicated; cut out the stock speedo sleeve, and weld it over. Then patch the bottom of the tank too. Only the top part needs to be pretty. I'm willing to bet that if you found a tank; especially one that's cheap and not pristine to begin with, you could find a body shop guy willing to do the welding pretty easily. Then it's just bondo and sanding....

Update:

I sanded the tank again to get rid of more orange peel before doing my clear coat.

This is part of the way through, I continued to sand until all the specks were smooth.



I used 1500 grit wet sand.  I would have used 2000 as a final if I could have found it locally.

I applied 4 coats of clear SprayMax 2k.  after it dried a few days I sanded again using the 1500 grit wet sand.

I then buffed using rubbing compound, then polished with a high gloss.

Yeah! That looks great!
All that sanding is a lot of work, but it's what really makes the difference. I'm sure that looks totally professional in person.
Are you going to paint the fenders to match? It would be cool to see that red strip carry through across both of the fenders...