Removing a dent painlessly...I hope

[1olbull]

DOH!!..I thought I covered that part. My humblest apologies to everyone.

You have to drain it and rinse out all of the gas with water first and leave the gas cap off if you are going to use the heat/cold method. I sorta figured that was SOP for using any type of heat around any fuel tank.

BTW... I have seen people using a cutting torch near a gas tank on a vehicle before. And IMMEDIATELY backed WAY away! I guess some people don't realize that fuel vapors in a gas tank with sufficient air mixed with them will make a fairly good sized explosion if ignited properly, and the exploding gas tank will shower everything with burning fuel within a heck of a long distance.

Had a not so bright neighbor that lived about a block from me in 1olbull's town (Tacoma. WA) that was going to try to use an old poorly running gas powered compressor to paint a car inside an old garage a long time ago. Lucky for him someone stopped him and kept him from possibly blowing himself up.

So please be safe out there folks.

Thanks for your reply! Tis obvious to me you are aware of the potential hazards.
In my yute, I watched my father (from afar) many times repair MC tanks in his Indian MC Shop.
Even a "washed out" tank can ignite. He found filling the tanks with sand worked the best when using a torch.
Just sayin' . . .

 

[Joesmoe]

I saw a video when I was looking for approaches, where someone actually put a measured amount of fuel in the tank, and ignited it, and in the video at least, there was a poof, and the dent was gone.

 

[EasTexRIII]

I saw a video when I was looking for approaches, where someone actually put a measured amount of fuel in the tank, and ignited it, and in the video at least, there was a poof, and the dent was gone.

At 1:39

 

[Joesmoe]

Yeah, I'm still looking for a more conventional approach.

The one I want, was a YouTube video of a place in Florida that routinely works on motorcycle tanks, and they have a set of J tools that can go in the filler neck and work the inside.

I searched in vain for one of those.

 

[1olbull]

I saw a video when I was looking for approaches, where someone actually put a measured amount of fuel in the tank, and ignited it, and in the video at least, there was a poof, and the dent was gone.

This sounds like an exploding tire mount vid I saw awhile back . . . S-C-A-R-Y!

 

[EasTexRIII]

Yeah, I'm still looking for a more conventional approach.

The one I want, was a YouTube video of a place in Florida that routinely works on motorcycle tanks, and they have a set of J tools that can go in the filler neck and work the inside.

I searched in vain for one of those.

That dent was a little extreme due to the fact it was in a bad spot, on the corner or style line. much harder to work those. That's why after he pushed it out with the hook, he then was tapping the "outies" back down with that plastic spike because it had to be pushed too far out at some points to get it all out. that causes little outie dimples - you can buy those tools but it just about cost same $$$ for 1 tool as it does to pay the PDR people. Also there are so many different styles & lengths for the different dent situations, if you ordered a tool it would probably be the wrong one

 

[Joesmoe]

Costs are pretty dang high in this part of the country, making the tools look more attractive.

I paid $10,000 in tools and another $10,000 in materials redoing my bathroom -- to avoid the lowest bid of $40,000. I did it the way I wanted it, and had all the tools left over for the second bathroom. It's like pulling teeth around here to find anyone who knows what they are doing and are willing to do anything smaller than building the whole house.

 

[EasTexRIII]

It should not be that hard to find someone........ It's not roun here

Google

 

[Tumwatertaz]

I looked into a couple of PDR companies a bit, but it almost seemed like the cost of repairing the dent was going to be nearly as much as it would cost me to buy a decent used tank on eBay. The guy I talked to on the phone at one company I found online said that more than likely the tank would still have to have a little body work and painted again to completely cover up the dent to where no one could tell it had been ever damaged.

The guy that painted my tins agreed to repair and repaint it for around $200.00 - but he refused to try to pop out the dent and wanted to just bondo over it to cover it up. I really don't want to do that. I've seen guys do that, and then have a chunk of bondo and paint fall off later.

I got a great deal on this great running low mileage Honda Shadow VT1100C2 ACE and found a lot of great parts and accessories real cheap on Craigslist and a local bike junkyard to fix it up with, and I got it for me to ride around town here locally so I could save putting miles on my Rocket and keep my Rocket in my garage safe from harm as much as possible. But I just hate riding it around with an easy to notice dent in the darn tank.

If I can figure out a cheap and easy way to get most of the dent out then that would be great. If not, I guess it looks like I will have to track down another tank.

I swear...some days if it wasn't for bad luck - I wouldn't have any....lol

 

[EasTexRIII]

Dude, back in January I repainted my 05 - Only a couple of weeks after I painted it i was trying to fix an issue with the fuel gauge float assembly inside the tank. Thru a move that was 100% stupidity on my part (not going into details), I had the tank FALL OFF THE Effin bike & hit the ground I wanted to cry!
But I just had to regroup & say screw it. It's for riding - Not for showing.... If that ding bothers someone, so be it. Not gonna let it bother me
If you've gotta get rid of it & your man will do it for $200 - Do it. I've been at body shop since 2001 & have not ONCE seen any work come back for body filler & paint falling out, Ever
Post a picture or two of the ding