I heard of people fixing dents in the gas tanks with compressed air. Has anyone done this? Can anyone suggest a good method to do it? The dent I want to fix is big, like someone jammed a knee into the tank during a crash, so I don't want to use body putty or anything to pull it back out. Thanks, in advance, for any advice.
I dont really know anything about restoring stuff, just started, but would filling it up with water and freezing it help. The ice would pop up the dent wouldnt it. I heard this somewhere. Good luck with your tank
Freezing water in the tank isn't practical for me. I don't have a freezer big enough to hold the tank and, since I live in central Texas, Mother Nature isn't going to provide any help. It's been in the mid to high 70s this week. When it does get cold it doesn't stay cold long enough to freeze that much water. That's why I want to try compressed air. Any suggestions, anyone?
Compressed Air, at say 175psi and gasoline fumes, in a sealed metal tank sounds like a bomb to me. Even if you wash it out Im not going to be arround. An empty tank at enough pressure to remove a dent could explode. I would try to weld some studs to it and pull out the dent. Then the minor inperfections could be bondo d'
Actually, spark and boom are not likely. This tank hasn't been on a bike in many years. It has been stored with no cap and not petcock all that time. Even the old gas varnish has evaporated. That is not my concern. The only explosion I fear is the seams on an old tank letting go suddenly. That's why I'm looking for someone who has used air before. I need to know how to seal the tank and how much pressure I can safely use to pop the dent and not blow up the tank. I probably will end up trying to pull it out. Used to be able to pull dents from cars with a toilet plunger. Since this is an old tank, maybe I still can.
lol,,, u have a point but ide much rather have and open container light than have me nearby shoving air into a fuel tank and metal from a fuel tank end up in my stomach. I do not think the petcock could hold the pressure unless you heated up the dent. That would be the way i would go if i was using air. If the tank is dry, heat up the dent and only put in a low psi. Still will the petcock or the lid hold pressure
We removed the dent from an alum. RM 250 tank many years ago. We left the cap on, plugged the overflow with a bolt, and attached a small rubber hose to the petcock. We used a hand held bicyle pump and started pumping. It didn't take very long at all. We stopped when we noticed the letters in the word Suzuki were expanding a little bit with every pump. ( a little like a balloon ) You might want to put a belt around the tank to keep it from trying to expand out of its " U " shape. We removed all but the smallest imperfections. I'd be real carefull with compressed air, I think it would blow easily.
take it to a body shop. or borrow a stud welder (and the tank wont go BOOM) because there's not enought heat to light the fuel or fumes on fire. and its only like 2 seconds a stud. so weld some little studs in the middle of the dent and grab urself a slide hammer and pull out the dent. had to do this many many many many many times in autobody on cars. and after your done with the studs grab a pair of side cutters and cut the stud off then grind down the rest of weld of the stud. its fun to use a stud welder.
I used air pressure to fix one of my alloy tanks. While it wasn't perfect, you could see it because it was in the polished section of a husky tank it did look much better. One thing that I didn't do was put something to support the tunnel from expanding. It was very hard to fit the tank back on to the bike because the tunnel had expanded/contracted. The other tank popped back out with a broomstick cause I could reach it through the filler opening. If fire is a concern rinse with dishwashing liquid and warm water.
83mx80 is right get a stud welder, your gonna need A LOT of studs(just telling you if you have never used one before) dont start in the center though. Work from the outside of the dent in, just cut them as you work your was in, be careful, studs can rip and put a pit whole which would need welded