Man, this is some tough paint on the tank. Here is after two rounds of stripping. The first being a supposedly very strong stripper that is a gel form. The second is the aerosol aircraft stripper. The final result is it after scrubbing what I could with a steel wire brush. As you can see it got a little more than half of the top coat off. The red is all of the primer below. In one or two spots you can see the steel below, but for the most part, this has to be the most resilient paint I've ever come across in my life.
I believe its the same paint that was on the chain guard which took
two coats of striper and an intensely long bout in the sandblaster with aluminum oxide to clean, which still had some specks I had to basically chisel off!
I'm planing on taking this to a radiator shop to have boiled. the inside didn't come out as clean as I'd hoped and I really don't want to half a$$ the tank. Just one less thing to worry about if its done right. Do most radiator shops need the tank's paint stripped or does boiling pull the paint as well? Because at this point I really don't want to waste the energy trying to get the rest of if I don't have to.
First coat of paint stipper:
Second coat of stripper (aerosol aircraft stripper) Just starting to get down to the primer:
I also stripped the bracket that holds the tank attachment in. That guy went without a fight. Just one coat of the aircraft stripper did the job. Of course I find rust underneath. Another testament to the workmanship I've found throughout the process.