Removing Red Kote from Painted Gas Tank

RTR

Well-known Member
Hey guys. I restored an IH Cub tractor about 3 years ago and parked it in the barn as soon as I got it back together becuase I found out the tank repair putty I tried using didn't hold. I just got around to
getting the gas tank off and soldering the holes shut. I also used Red Kote in the tank and accidentially while I was letting it dry in the sun, some extra Red Kote material drained out of the bottom of the
tank and the tank sat in it for about 3 hours before I found it and pulled it off.

Now......this is a yellow and white Cub, therefore the hood & gas tank are WHITE. I had the best paint job ever on there (had spent many hours priming and wet sanding) and now it has a PINK TINT STAIN on it. I
can send pictures, but how do you guys recommend fixing this?

Do you think I'll have to repaint it? If so, what would be the easiest way without sacrificing quality. It is just acrylic enamel paint with hardener.

THANKS!
 
Ok. you say strip the area. I have the decal on the side of the Cub hood and everything. Wish I had a picture to attach. I will have to get one later this evening. Should I just sand it down to the primer where the Red Kote got? or do you mean strip it with stripper to bare metal?

I thought I could just sand the affected area good and then tape it off around the bottom edge of the decal and shoot more paint. I really don't know and That is why I'm asking the pros!
 
Well I have no idea, but I do know when I painted the gas tank on my "H" I was so particular, I tried to get the entire gas tank perfect, and I worried so about the top, sides and bottom. I now realize you don't actually see the bottom, you just look at the tractor, the engine, the top and sides of gas tank, and so the bottom doesn't matter. To make it simple, if it was mine, I'd just sand the stuff off pretty good, prime it pretty good and paint again.
 
As you can see the red kite got on the sides from front to back. I actually was able to pull it off (like rubber) before it dried within a couple of hours after I coated it. You can see that it stained the paint Pink. What do you all think??
 

Pictures....
48530.jpg
48531.jpg
 
Tell you what I found, after I Red-Koted the inside of my "H" tank. I found the red dye leached out of the coating into the gas for some time, maybe a few months, then eventually stopped. No problem, it just leached a slight red / pink tint to the gas. What I would do now is just wait. Give the stuff a few months to cure, then repaint over it.
 
(quoted from post at 04:19:04 05/05/17) Tell you what I found, after I Red-Koted the inside of my "H" tank. I found the red dye leached out of the coating into the gas for some time, maybe a few months, then eventually stopped. No problem, it just leached a slight red / pink tint to the gas. What I would do now is just wait. Give the stuff a few months to cure, then repaint over it.

How would you guys recommend painting it and blending it back in with the rest of the painted surface?
 
I would stop sanding when the Red Kote was gone. If you don't go through the primer you could just mask off the decal and restore the topcoat.
 
x2 what Stephen said,

when masking off the area lift the edge of the tape on the painted side and you won't get much of a line.
 
(quoted from post at 04:53:33 05/07/17) x2 what Stephen said,

when masking off the area lift the edge of the tape on the painted side and you won't get much of a line.

Exactly what I was wanting to know. Thanks for that tip. I will try it!!
 

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