Tanks a lot.

swooshdave · May 29, 2011

Here's the tank from the MkIII parts bike. The bike had been wrecked and from the look of the tank probably not long after it was new. The tank was hit hard by something.

I got the tank stripped and will be taking the dent out. It won't be perfect, just a nice Roadster tank when I get tired of stretching over the Proddy tank.

It got a little surface rust as it's was stripped a while ago. I sanded it all down and threw a coat of primer on it for now. Need to get the dent popped out, some bondo and a little paint.

T95 · May 29, 2011

Dave,
Do you think a paint-less dent repair guy could take most of that dent out?
Gary

DogT · May 29, 2011

For bucks, you could send it to the guy in Canada, Ross Thompson, he does real nice work I've heard.

Dave
69S

79x100 · May 29, 2011

That's one of the seamless Mk111 tanks. The fit of mine was problematical (I bought an undamaged one in slightly scuffed R/W/B and had it painted before I tried to fit it).

In my opinion, they're pretty crude underneath when compared with the earlier tanks. I'd recommend that you particularly check the fit at the rear, around the position where the cradle tubes join the top tube. I ended up with extra rubbers under mine.

builder · May 29, 2011

No bondo...please.

Send it off to Ross Thompson. The tank will come back perfect. I've used Ross a number of times, just got a tank back from him two weeks ago, always amazed what he can do with a tank.

Flo · May 29, 2011

Beat the high spots down, bead blast it & lead fill. Or spend a lot of money & send it away.

swooshdave · May 29, 2011

79x100 said:
That's one of the seamless Mk111 tanks. The fit of mine was problematical (I bought an undamaged one in slightly scuffed R/W/B and had it painted before I tried to fit it).

In my opinion, they're pretty crude underneath when compared with the earlier tanks. I'd recommend that you particularly check the fit at the rear, around the position where the cradle tubes join the top tube. I ended up with extra rubbers under mine.

I was just noticing how crude it was. Especially the seam. I was thinking that any sane person would clean that edge up. It's neither smooth or straight.

Sat next to a guy at the bike show last weekend. He does metalwork. I probably will give it to him to pop the dent out. It's much worse than a ding. It probably will need something welded to it and pulled with a slide hammer.

http://littlehorsecycles.com/

One of these days I'll be able to afford a proper paintjob, but not now.

Rohan · May 29, 2011

That dent looks like it fell onto someones handlebars next door. Or vice versa.

Solder a heap of tabs onto it, and use a slide hammer to gently pull out each tab in turn, working inwards. Afterwards, unsolder them, remove all solder and polish out. may take a few goes.
The last deep dent bit may need a bit of hammering, with something through the tank cap pushing outwards.

Easy, if you say it in one breath...
Thats why paint / tank guys charge so much...

davamb · May 29, 2011

Ah so that's how it's done. But won't the metal have stretched a bit? Can you get it back to the original profile Rohan?

Rohan · May 29, 2011

That is one way of doing it.

If it has stretched, thats where you need to get something in behind there and either hammer it or heat it / cool it, to shrink it back.

If it is too bad, they just cut a large hole underneath to get access to it.
Sometimes they just cut the whole seam open, since can weld it back up and barely show.

swooshdave · May 29, 2011

Rohan said:
That is one way of doing it.

If it has stretched, thats where you need to get something in behind there and either hammer it or heat it / cool it, to shrink it back.

If it is too bad, they just cut a large hole underneath to get access to it.
Sometimes they just cut the whole seam open, since can weld it back up and barely show.

Or pull most of it out and bondo the rest. :mrgreen:

Rohan · May 29, 2011

I can remember in a shop where they were all saying no bondo used here.

Big pail of bondo in the corner.....

maylar · May 30, 2011

That's a tough dent to fix. You'll be filling and sanding for a week trying to get the body lines right. Commando tanks are a PITA because you can't get inside with a spoon or dolly.

If you'd like to tackle it yourself, get a stud welder kit with a shrinking tip.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H-S-Auto ... veQ5fTools

swooshdave · May 30, 2011

maylar said:
That's a tough dent to fix. You'll be filling and sanding for a week trying to get the body lines right. Commando tanks are a PITA because you can't get inside with a spoon or dolly.

If you'd like to tackle it yourself, get a stud welder kit with a shrinking tip.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H-S-Auto ... veQ5fTools

For that price I could buy a new tank. :mrgreen:

bwolfie · May 30, 2011

http://www.harborfreight.com/stud-welde ... 98357.html

and studs are $10. Much more reasonable.

swooshdave · May 30, 2011

bwolfie said:
http://www.harborfreight.com/stud-welder-dent-repair-kit-98357.html

and studs are $10. Much more reasonable.

Saw that too. Or I could pay the guy I mentioned $100 and let him figure it out. :mrgreen:

swooshdave · Jun 25, 2011

So… give the tank to Little Horse a couple weeks ago. Obviously not a in a big rush to get it back. Met him at the PIR event today. While I had told them not to do too much work, just get most of the dents out and make sure it doesn't leak, they went well beyond that.

vintage-racing-and-more-pir-june-25th-t10007.html

The dent is gone, although there is some filler. The leak was welded up. And they even put some primer on it.

For $50.

Sometimes it pays to pay someone else. :mrgreen:

I'll get this on the bike very soon as I want to try out the stock configuration.

Tanks a lot.

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