Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Dry Ice

Guys......trying to repair my bike after a spill. I have heard of people using dry ice in an attempt to remove dents from an indented tank. I would greatly appreciate any input on how to accomplish this "it may work" repair. I am not buying a new tank.........either I will gry to remove the current ding or I will continue to ride with this substantial ding in my bike's beautiful tank.

Thanks,

Jason

This Dry Ice issue comes up regularly around here, Jason.

From what I've read, this method mostly seem to fail those who have tried it.

My suggestion usually is to try to find one of those "Paintless Dent Removal" places for autos.

The good thing about the dry ice method is that it's real cheap to try and won't damage anything. I use it once and it worked. Others have not always had success. I had a silver dollar sized dent on a car that was caused by hail. On a very hot summer day I parked in the sun for a few hours and let the car heat up. At about mid afternoon I put a small piece of dry ice on the dent and within a very few seconds the metal under the ice contracted and the dent popped out without a trace. It only works if there are no creases in the metal so it obviously has limited applications. Oh, when the dent pops the dry ice goes flying and you don't want it landing on you.

My wife has a door ding that I'd like to get out. No creases, just a dimple. No affects on the paint? I have never heard of this before.

Another trick for tank and door dents that works a little more often than dry ice is to stuff in an inner tube and then inflate it.

Nice to know it works sometimes.

Probably depends on the type of dent. I would imagine if there's no metal creasing, or just a minimal deformation it should work.

I have used compressed air carefully with success on dents where there were no creases or stretching. Seal the tank up and blow air in with a blow gun but have to be carefuk as not to split any seams.

Isn't dry ice the big "secret method" the paintless dent shops use?

Nope. At least not as far as my experience with one it isn't, Paul.

Last year I had a small ding removed from the front fender of my Chevy Silverado and the guy actually put a heat lamp up to the area for a while before he went in from the backside with a couple of long skinny hammer-like tools and then banged the ding out.