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Old 03-19-2008, 09:06 AM   #22 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
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Gas tank Repaint

I repainted the gas tank this last weekend

I didn't really like the white. It looked like a really lame police cruiser. I tried white because I was thinking about a cowspot design, but that really wouldn't have worked very well on such a small area.

I stripped and sanded down to the bare metal. There must have been 6 layers of paint on there, plus bondo filling in dings and cracks!



Looked pretty cool as brushed steel like that. I half-considered just clear-coating it!

I painted the tank hi-viz yellow. It's easy to see and matches the Yellow Top batteries.



Heres what the cycle looks like right now with the yellow tank.



I haven't bothered to re-paint the plastic triangle trim pieces that go in back (the white things) I usually don't have those on anyways, but will paint them to match whatever color I end up going with.

I sort of think I like the metalic green (which can be seen earlier in this thread) the best.

If I didn't like the way the yellow turned out, I could just use it as the primer for a green top-coat. If I masked off part of the yellow, I could make a pattern in it. Like yellow lightning bolts on a metalic green tank!

Last Friday, I took the motorcycle down to our local electric utility. I talked for a couple hours with the guy down there about renewable energy, solar, net-metering, etc and showed him the cycle.

When I was leaving, it was end of shift for linemen. There were 5 or 6 big, burly electricians standing around the cycle. As I was walking up, I could hear them say "Look, that's an electric motorcycle", "Anybody know who it belongs to?", "Huh, well look at that..."

I showed them how it works, where the charger was, and did a test run in the parking lot. They seemed pretty impressed by the acceleration and quietness.

It's really fun when you get people's interest like this.

Tonight, there is a local "Green" meeting going on at the library. Part of the discussion is going to be about NEVs.
If this isn't a good night to bring an electric vehicle down to the library, I don't know what is. Just hope it doesn't rain or snow tonight!!!
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Last edited by bennelson; 03-19-2008 at 09:13 AM..
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