Hillbilly dent repair

[ThrottleBack]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9OGa9vB42Q

lol anyone tried this on metal? I'm sanding / stripping my tank shortly and theres a few small dents in it. Three, the biggest the size of a half dollar and all smooth. Normally I take weld then slide hammer to get them out or use a BP cuff but man i think i need to try this lol

[nvr2old]

The metal on today's cars is so much thinner then the gas tank on your bike. I'm pretty sure it won't work. You described the best method already. Stud gun and a slide hammer.

[ThrottleBack]

I dunno the tank seems pretty thin. It just looked like fun haha

[Gregory]

That did make me wonder if you could close up the petcock and float holes, then design an air tight gas cap with fitting that would allows you to put a compressor on the tank to pop dents out?

[rustybronco]

I suggest you don't try it unless you have a method of keeping the lower tank flanges from spreading apart. Keep in mind that air pressure will apply force to more than just the dent.

[Road Rash]

I have used that method on two different tanks. While it DID remove a portion of the dents, it did not remove all of it. In the case of my Yamaha Maxim, I'd say it removed 60%. On my GS750, it didn't even remove 25%. And in both cases, I went through about 4-5 cans, each. At a cost of about $4 a can, not a cheap solution. My cheapo HF paintless dent removal kit was much more effective. It uses hot glue sticks and a crossbar. The glue sticks are so strong that it broke the cheap plastic paddles you use to pull it out, so I had to weld up a few all-metal ones.

[HamamatsuSuzi]

I tried the heat/air cannister method twice on my GS400E tank. The dent was shallow and about 3" around. It didn't work.

[ThrottleBack]

Thanks guys

You can used compressed air but its not worth the work involved. The only safe way to do it is to weld up a jig to support the structural integrity of the tank. No reason to go through that.

[tkent02]

Dry ice and heat works on little dents like hail dents. Don't know about on tanks tho.

[jeffasaurus2]

I tried several methods on my 450S tank. The Dry Ice-Heat gun method seemed to be doing something, but in very little increments. The dent pullers that use hot glue seemed much more effective but still didn't completely remove anything.

The methods worked best on small, hail sized dents, as TKent said. I have a large one on one of the bend in the tank that they did nothing for whatsoever.

[ThrottleBack]

The best way is to tack a few welds and grab a slide hammer which is what im doing. I was hoping to be lazy lol

[nvr2old]

The best way is to tack a few welds and grab a slide hammer which is what im doing. I was hoping to be lazy lol

Agreed. A stud gun and a slide hammer makes it a snap..as long as you don't burn a hole in it..

[ThrottleBack]

Well...I haven't yet lol

[Jocalopse]

those silly methods work for thin mostly flat sections. Gas tanks usually have compound curves and are two to three times thicker than modern car body panels.

[Wingsconsin]

Think about hail damaged cars....Paintless repairs!

Contact a local Paintless dent repair business..Like the ones who do hail repairs...for a few $$ they can look at what they can do..experience and tools are required to do this..but the gas tanks on the older bikes are single walled and they can get at them from the inside through the filler neck...