Giant dent

[Guest]

I know there are millions of threads about dent pulling, but they all seem to target small to baseball sized dents... What we've got here, is a mama dent, metal isnt creased I dont think. What ive tried so far is a modification of the dry ice method using a can of compressed air (when turned upside down the can sprays liquid air... very cold) and a blow dryer. Next I'm planning on getting a crowbar with some rubber on the end and trying to leverage it out from the inside, any other ideas?

It looks like I could almost just use a plunger...

[tkent02]

Slide hammer?

Big suction cup?

Slabs of Bondo?

All of the above?

I like the plunger idea, go for it.

That one will probably never be perfect, do what you can, ride it while you keep an eye out for a straight tank.

[goggles]

time and patience

I had a larger dent in my tank.

I used one of those dent pullers (pops a dent, I think). Started at the outer edges and worked toward the center. I removed a good portion of the dent. But it pulled some of the paint off.

As you mentioned there are a lot of different methods mentioned on this site. Search, read, and pick one to try. The most you will lose is some paint and hopefully most of the dent.

Time and patience are the key.

[donnyh]

Fill it with water and freeze it?

[Adler]

Fill it with water and freeze it?

This is one of those methods i was thinking would be really great to try but I read somewhere that it can stretch the whole tank and cause leaks.

[almarconi]

Buy another tank

[SqDancerLynn1]

You only way to fix that is to make friends with a body man. Have him weld some pulling pins on the outside of the tank and pull it out with a slide hammer. Finish with a light coat of bondo.
DO not freeze it

[Jagir]

get a curved steel bar with a rounded end and work at it from the inside through the gas hole. Be careful how and where you brace the bar for leverage - don't use the edge of the gas filler hole or it may warp.

Start pushing up at the outer edges of the dent and gently apply pressure upwards. Work around the perimeter, eventually towards the centre of the dent. This will take time - don't rush it. If you do, the paint will crack. You will be (I was) tempted to push up from the deepest part of the dent just to see some progress, but what you are doing is gently stretching the metal back into the shape it wants to be in. If you look at the reflection of light shining on it as you push, you will get the idea.

Eventually, you will get a sense of where to push the dent out from and progress will be faster.

While it is on the workbench, buy a new tank or simply tackle it in the winter.

Good luck.

[Kyoritsu]

Bad Idea.

Fill it with water and freeze it?

That would do lots of damage to the whole tank.

[crazypaint]

go to a body shop supplier and rent a stud gun. i welds little studs to the tank then a slide hammer goes over it and tightens around the stud then u use the slide. if its not a double walled tank u need to get the inside resealed. just make sure u got some water in the tank so the gas fumes dont make u go bald lol. o ya work from the inside out u want to remove a dent in the reverse order it was made

[Kyoritsu]

I had one and a half of those.

PO liked to ride sideways a lot. You will now have to worry about rust on the inside of your tank, use a mirror and check it out. If you are rust free fix them dents and do a coating treatment. That suction cup thing sounds good, but I think the tank metal is too thick. If you absolutely need to have that dent out get a puller, it will put some holes in your tank but you and bondo will end up being friends no matter what you do in this situation. If you manage to find a heavy thing with a hardened rubber end and a bend that will allow you to strike one end and transfer enough force to get some of the dent out, I would try something like that. Remediable bondo likes to be multiple coats, it dries fairly fast and and if you take your time you'll never know it was there.

My dents were on either side and bondo'd over with out proper priming or inner tank coating and that caused almost all the issues I've had with my bike to date (rust sludge Crap). I had to wire brush it off and spent quit some time chasing rust lines, but now i get to show off my body skills and do some paint work. Now if it would just stop raining

[Kyoritsu]

That's The way to do it!

go to a body shop supplier and rent a stud gun. i welds little studs to the tank then a slide hammer goes over it and tightens around the stud then u use the slide. if its not a double walled tank u need to get the inside resealed. just make sure u got some water in the tank so the gas fumes dont make u go bald lol. o ya work from the inside out u want to remove a dent in the reverse order it was made

This is probably the best answer for you, if you have access and money
good luck man.

[ukilme]

Clean out the tank with soap and water-several times. Then get some wd-40 in there to coat the tank.

Now get yourself a stud gun as mentioned before. That is how I got my dent out.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=152511&page=4

See if you can rent one as the cheapest is about 250 bucks. Now if you have any type of coating inside, you will have to recoat it.

Read up on how to use it because it can and will put hole in the tank if your are not careful. If it is a small hole, you can use the stud welder to fix it but larger then the stud and you may have to get it spot welded.

[rustybronco]

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

***NOTE*** has a 2% duty cycle!!!... definitely not heavy duty...

[donnyh]

That would do lots of damage to the whole tank.

Really? Huh.

I've seen it work a couple times on RD tanks, but I haven't heard of anyone trying that trick in 20+ years.