Cafeing a tank

[Dizzixx]

So I have seen some other posts but I havent seen alot of detail on how to do the knee inserts on a tank. I recently bought a cheap ($10) tank as a learning tool before I went all out on mine, only problem is I more or less failed. I used a ballpeen hammer and just kinda tapped it all over the place till I got the shape I wanted, only problem was I wanted deeper inserts and ended up hitting it to hard and putting a large dent further up.

The first picture is what I am going for and the second is supposed to give you an idea of what happend, the red circle is where I hit with the hammer and the red lines are where it pushed in that I didnt want it too.

[Dizzixx]

Second picture. Anyways does anyone have any tips as far as getting the two sides even, or the shape I want, and how much reporation can be done with bondo?

[pozzi]

beergood did a nice job of customizing his tank.

see his thread here
.

you could try PM'ing or replying to his thread for tips, but he outlines the process fairly well in the tread.

good luck with your project!

[beergood]

Second picture. Anyways does anyone have any tips as far as getting the two sides even, or the shape I want, and how much reporation can be done with bondo?

First, I masked around the area on both sides so that I had identical guides.

I think a ball peen hammer can help with some finer edge body shapping, but it focuses too much force on a smaller area to do large area shaping. Use something with a flatter peen and you won't get as much dimpling.

http://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Professional-7-Piece-Hammer-Dolly/dp/B000IAWLBS/ref=sr_1_1/102-0937028-4907351?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1176392735&sr=8-1

Don't be too heavy handed. It is way better to hit it twice as much than twice as hard. You can also bust a hole if you hit it too hard (happened to a friend, he had to get it welded, was a pain). That being said, ramp up the force until you get to a comfortable zone.

Don't expect miracles with what you can achieve. You can only reasonably expect to turn the shape if the metal around. The insert will only go in about as concave as it was convex. The more extreme tanks that you see are often achieved by cutting out the metal and welding in new inserts.

Bondo and glazing putty go a long way toward hiding mistakes.

Take your time and you should be pretty happy with what you can achieve.