Tank repair

Ok what is the best way to get dents out of a tank?

Depends on the tank:

Sorry - couldn't resist.

A paintless dent repair place maybe?

BFH

I used to straighten tuned pipes by filling them with water and sticking them in the freezer. I don't know if it would work on a tank.

In reply to Toyman01:

I don't know. It is an idea.

ST_ZX2 wrote: BFH

?

Big berkeleying Hammer.

One thing to not do is put some gas in it and toss in a match.

That idiot who can't spell wrote:

ST_ZX2 wrote: BFH

?

Big Freaking Hammer.

The only thing that would worry me about the freezer trick is where the top bar runs through the tank. The tuned pipes I was doing were cylindrical so you get fairly even pressures. The tanks, not so much. I think I would try in on a junk tank first. Splitting a seam would suck.

Toyman01 wrote:

That idiot who can't spell wrote:

ST_ZX2 wrote: BFH

?

Big Freaking Hammer. The only thing that would worry me about the freezer trick is where the top bar runs through the tank. The tuned pipes I was doing were cylindrical so you get fairly even pressures. The tanks, not so much. I think I would try in on a junk tank first. Splitting a seam would suck.

Good point. I don't have a junk tank. The problem with the big hammer is the tank is dented in not out.

Bondo.. However it you wish to pop them out you need to do a few thing to do it right. Wash out the tank with an acid wash so you can heat the dent with out worries of a BOOM. Next grease up the frame tunnel and use cardboard and duct tap on the ends of the tank. Fill with plaster of Paris or thin layers of dry wall joint compound until its full. Then you heat the dent and add some compressed air. CATION on the air make sure you have a hole that will bleed down the pressure. you don't want a boom...

On the street tracker project I had a sizeable ding in the tank just above the petcock opening. I used a piece of wood doweling stuck through the hole to push it out from the inside. Standard Bondo and sanding techniques after that.

I have also been a participant in repairing bent/dented expansion chambers by sealing both ends, adding a little air pressure (around 5-10 PSI) and heating the dents with a small torch till the dent comes out. It doesn't really take a whole lot of heat, a propane torch might even do it but a real torch would be faster. Plug the fuel cap opening with one of those rubber and bolt expansion plugs and make a blockoff plate for the petcock opening which has an old Schrader valve from an old tube, add air pressure, fire up the torch then de ding at will. Of course you need to empty and thoroughly clean the tank first... unless you like watching a plug sail across the room! We fired a rubber expansion plug about 20 feet (residual premix coating the inside of the expansion chamber ignited with a loud pop).

Thanks for the help. Hopefully by the end of the week you will see painted fenders, oil and fuel tanks.

I turned a gas tank inside out once when trying to remove a dent with compressed air, so be careful with that method. :)

I talked to a paintless dent repair place once about remove dents from motorcycle tanks, and they said in most cases they can't help - the metal is too thick for their methods to work very well, unless the dent is in a really easy spot to reach through the gas filler.

Jensenman wrote: On the street tracker project I had a sizeable ding in the tank just above the petcock opening. I used a piece of wood doweling stuck through the hole to push it out from the inside. Standard Bondo and sanding techniques after that.

So I did this and it popped out perfectly.

I'm interested in how they flipped that tank in the picture above...

I don't know - found it here: http://www.strangemilitary.com/content/item/116763.html

Steel tank? Spot weld on studs and a slide hammer. of course you will have to repaint.