Tank Dent Repair?

[TrikeKid]

Anyone know about pulling dents out of tanks? My 70's got a big fork dent like this (only a little deeper) in one side and a shallower one in the other
http://i5.ebayimg.com/04/i/000/79/a0/79a8_1.JPG
I know I could take it to a body shop and have them do it, but that's probably going to cost more than just going and buying a plastic tank (I prefer the look of the steel tank). I know how to do a little bit of metal work, but sheet metal is kind of a foriegn art to me.

[Cody]

Try and fill it with water and freeze it.

[XTrumpX]

...or, seal it off and hook up your air compressor. Then, take a torch and slowly heat up the spot while raising the pressure. I also tried the paintless dent remover kit while doing the above.

[TrikeKid]

...or, seal it off and hook up your air compressor. Then, take a torch and slowly heat up the spot while raising the pressure. I also tried the paintless dent remover kit while doing the above.
How well did that work for you? You just put air in through the petcock hole I'm guessing? I just see forming a diffrent problem putting water in a steel tank.

[traxxasx]

How well did that work for you? You just put air in through the petcock hole I'm guessing? I just see forming a diffrent problem putting water in a steel tank.


If he heats its there goes his decals and paint, also just try the water. Fill it with water cap it stick it in the freezer water expands when its frozen so you get the idea then let it melt and dry after.

[DeePa]

bondo it up

[XTrumpX]

If he heats its there goes his decals and paint, also just try the water. Fill it with water cap it stick it in the freezer water expands when its frozen so you get the idea then let it melt and dry after.
I'm guessing by the looks that he may end up repainting it. If so, you do hook up the line to the petcock. But be careful and heat it slow, slowly build pressure in the tank as you heat and you'll see it start to release the dent. A dent like that, you may end up using some filler because you may need to tap the end part of the crease in a bit.

If using water, he could end up busting a bottom seam if weak or popping the top of the tank up a bit. But I guess that depends on how much water you put in. Never tried it since I learned the other way some 20 odd years ago and only messed up 2 tanks (thinned from rust or too much damage).

[traxxasx]

I guess i sa leave it. Its a beauty blemmish. It shows its age. ahaha

[XTrumpX]

Or he could dent the other side to match and say it came from the factory that way... a place to put your knees:crazy:

[TrikeKid]

bondo it up
Yes, an inch+ of bondo, thats how you're supposed to do it.:rolleyes: There's a reason there isn't even bondo in my shop.

I'm repainting the thing, my dent is worse than the ones on that tank (that one isn't mine, just a pic I grabbed), plus have surface rust because it sat outside for a year

[SYKO]

send it to me, I'll fix it, and send it back, jsut pay the shipping, I will use my stud gun to pull it out and I will do some hammering to get the shape back , it will have a very light coat of filler on it and primer, you can paint it from there

[jason 32]

sky is right , i would suggest pulling them out and heating and shrinking-
sandblast it fill prime /seal, and paint-
bondo isn't good over a 1/4 in thick-lol- i dont even want it that thick

[ClayW]

I have repaired a tank or 2 in my time.... Freezing it and Inflating it with presurized air will do nothing except ruin the seams on the edges of the tank. I would also caution you on trying to pull the dents. That prob isnt going to fly either. Oh the dents will come out, but the metal will be drastically weaker and VERY likely allow gas to come thru the metal. The tank wall is very thin, and when you Pull a dent out, the outer edge of the original dent is going to bend the most. From one direction to another. This metal fatigue stretches the metal and causes it to become poreous. When you put gas in it, it will weap thru the sidewall of the tank. Your ONLY realy option is to fill it with body filler and repaint it.

Clay:beer

[Macs]

gas will seap out if the metal if it is streched a great deal. Even shrinking it will not help. I have always used my stud gun, shrinking hammer and got it pretty close. I would then use an epoxy style sealer ( i use to use duramix but i have had a hard time finding it ). Sand it, use a little poly putty, spray sealer, sand , spray primer, wet sand entire tank till perfect and spray some base coat. Good as new.

[XTrumpX]

I have repaired a tank or 2 in my time.... Freezing it and Inflating it with presurized air will do nothing except ruin the seams on the edges of the tank. I would also caution you on trying to pull the dents.
Then I take it you never tried air. You're not putting in 1k lbs, just enough for it to push. If it busts the seams, then it was junk in the first place. The most I used for pressure was 40lbs. If that busts a seams, then you have more problems then just a dent.
If you get real good at it, you don't even bother the paint. Not sure how many times I dented the old 80's and 125's back in the day, only to have to fix them again. And no, not because they were weak, it's the bad spills we took :cry:

Everyone has different options. What ever you do, let us know what you did and how it turned out.

[ClayW]

Yeah, but when you put A $175 dollar paint job on it, you dont want it to bubble up on you. It will bubble up eventually. I did that on one of my tanks once. The first one. Took a year... but it bubbled. It was also lined with Red Kote tank liner. Your just asking for trouble.

Clay

[XTrumpX]

How would it bubble? Never had any problems. Like I said, many options... just a matter if you do it right or not.

Also, if you use air, you can check for leaks while you're repairing.

[ClayW]

It would bubble from the gas leaching its way thru the metal and what ever you put on top of the metal. Eventually it would reach the back side of the paint. Then the paint would bubble. Im sure I can find some pics if you would like to see. If you want to cause more problems than you already have, use air or freeze it. I have litterally done about 15-20 tanks in the last 5 years for folks all over creation. The amount of air that you would have to force into that tank to get the dent out, would blow the weak bottom rusty seams right out. Then you will have to trash the tank. It will be beyond repair. Dents of that size are not worth the trouble of doing anything other than filling them. If they were Knee craters, I would recommend something else. But they are not.

[XTrumpX]

Point well taken. But you must realize, if air blew out the rusty spot, then like I sdaid, you had bigger problems then the air itself. I've been doing tanks since the early 80's and never had one complaint. Sure, the big dents need some needling... and if they're way too big, you have to draw a line as to what you can do safely. To each his own I guess. Everyone has their own way of doing things, we're no different :beer

[TrikeKid]

I think I'm going to go with the air if I do anything like that, just so I can control it and where it bends.