Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner I have a problem with my tank, can anyone help?

Ha, well now you can see it is not an easy fix!



Last night I dived into a project I have wanted to do for a while, which is remove the tank console, filler goose neck and brakets. I want an old school bobber style with my bike so I will use the pictured gas cap when the tank is complete.


Other plans while it is off the road are black fork lowers and black upper shrouds with gaitors, and a 21inch (? - not yet purchased) softail steel front fender.

Now for the problem I said that I had with my tank, what paint colour / style / finish should I use???? I was going to leave it all black but now that I really do need to paint it I was thinking something different, like maybe black satin with polished alloy engine parts......hmmmm

I would say keep it Black, but also fill in the tank badge holes and have "America" sprayed on the sides in Silver. This way it keeps the price down as you will not have to do the rear fender and side panel and "BLACK" is so much faster than any other color

why fix it? Looks like it would be easy to put gas in. Maybe a little duct tape to prevent sloshing....

Good point, a 2 second refill with a bucket of gas is now acheiveable!

I do like black because it is faster like you mentioned, but I was thinking maybe some simple white scallops with red pin stripes around them? That would fit in with my plans to build a girder fork in the future, once I get all the plans / measurements sorted.

I agree, keep it black. I just bought a spare tank on e-bay with the same intentions. I also plan on removing the seam on the bottom. I may do mine w/ flames ,we'll see.
please post pics as you weld in your gas cap bung. I'm interested to see what you do

Tig and just run very short beads at a time leaving space between them then once you go all the way around like that do it again until you fill in so there is 1 continuous weld. That will keep the heat to a minimum to keep warpage to a minimum.

I will post pics as it goes together, I'm going to get some steel today and then on the weekend i will fit it and stretch the front concave back out. I plan to get a good boilermaker at work to finish weld it for me, I don't trust myself enough to attempt it!

No the shop rags are for use as a suicide bomber, you light the rags as you get close to your target!

I can't help you with your tank but I was curious about the 21" front wheel you want. Anyone know where I can get one with out having to make serious mods to install it?

Landon, you miss-read the post. It is a 21" front fender (same circumference, but slimmer and made of steel) I plan to use, not a 21" wheel. You can read about 21" wheels here

Thank you for the clarification and the info.

Well today I got all that I think I'll need to get it ready for welding over the weekend: Oxy/acetylene to heat up the front section before hammering it back out, some 1.2mm cold rolled steel to fill the hole and go under the seam at the front, and a new panel beating dolly that will fit between the tunnel and concave section so I can get it pretty smooth. I will post more pictures in a couple of days when i get time to do it!

Step by step I plan to;
1. remove paint at the front
2. heat up the concave section and hit upwards with ball pein hammer.
3. Place dolly under front section and tap lightly to panel beat as smooth as possible. I think I'm suppose to use sideways moving blows (?).
4. cut out steel sheet to fit slightly larger than hole, and beat this in middle on sandbag to get the correct shape to fit lines of tank.
5. cut out steel sheet to make a ring to go underneath seam where weld will go, tack weld to under side of round peice.
6. place a screw in the panel to hold in place and then tack weld with TIG into tank hole.
7. check ok, then finish weld with TIG on the round section and down the seam I cut at the front.
8. drill hole to fit bung and silver solder bung in place.
9. grind/sand welds, flush out and paint inside (Tank liner, where do i get that?) and out probably black again so the missus doesn't suspect anything has changed.
10. put back on bike and ride!


Any tips for me from those who know panel beating before I get started?

You have some good ideas there, Chris. I like the sounds of your plans here.

Yep, please post some pics of this project as it goes along.

And I'd say keep it black too, but that paint idea of yours also sounds pretty good to me.

(BTW, I'm thinking of going the all blacked-out forks route also, along with the gaiters too, and maybe covered black and chrome retro-looking rear shocks while I'm at it. I think it definately would give the bike a more traditional "Triumph look", alright)

Chris

I have no experience as a panel beater what-so-ever, (so I may be talking utter bollocks) but would it not be easier to also cut out the concave section as well, and use a bigger infill piece shaped to fit the whole lot?

Shaun

Well I got home this afternoon and had 1.5 hour to spare, so needless to say Igot stuck into getting another 1/2 litre out of the tank!

Nobby,
It was easier than I thought to get it stretched back into the way it shouldbe, as pictured above. I did think of doing it the way you mentioned but it would really be a difficult task to get the tighter bends into such a small isolated peice of sheet metal. Someone may prove me wrong, but this way worked for me! 17.5 litre now, yeryer!!

Thanks Ray,
I should try to mention a few tips for each step as I go incase someone else wants to have a go, so here are some:
- The easiest way by far to get the dint out initially is to place a peice of flat bar (I used 100x200x4mm bar) on top of the tunnel to protect it, then have your wedge dolly sitting on the flat bar ready, heat up one part of the tank at a time until almost orange then with welders glove on push the wedge in (tank pressed against wall) as your tapping smoothly with a hammer on the outside. There is no way to get hammer on the inside to do anything.
- get everything set up and ready before you heat it up, or get someone to help you because this thin metal cools very quickly!
- the cut you have to make in the front section needs to be about 3mm wide before you start, then the gap will be almost joined when at correct level. I had to cut mine a bit wider half way through.
- you will need to re-cut the round hole when finished panel beating, so don't cut too much out in the first place. The diameter of my hole ended up being about 122mm which was pretty good. Remember tin-snips work just as good as jigsaw on this stuff.

The fender project should be interesting.
I have a SM fender on my BA, but it's still a little husky for my taste.

Hats off to ya, I am no sheetmetal man. That looks pretty darn smooth and well shaped. I think you are going to have a great look there.

Thanks mate, I hope it goes ok in the welding stage. I could stuff it up at anytime so finger crossed!

Wow, nice job! that's a lot of work. Much harder to do right then just to do. I can't wait to see it finished.

Well just an update, I finished making the extra peices required to fill the hole in my tank this wekend as pictured. I also worked the front section a little bit smoother.



Today I plan to find out when my TIG welder at work (mate of a mate) can weld it up for me, probably cost me a few beers! Oh, and I will also be taking the forks to the powder coaters for some black powder so hopefully I'll have a different looking bike later this week!

I'm there! I have my tank and I'm chompin' at the bit. If I have this correct, your plan is to drop the lollipop shaped piece in through the slice and weld it inside the tank like a shelf to avoid butt welding; great idea. You are the man! Keep posting,I don't want to miss a trick. Wonder if you're planning on doing anything with the seam?
check out the fenders I did on the two triumph choppers in my photo gallery "Triumph Twins" the raw fender is $29 and the fab is a walk in the park for a guy with your talent. If you're interested I'll give you the run down.
Paul

My granny used to say motorcycles and coffee should be strong and black.

If you can get your hands on a pair of '02 Bonneville America side panel decals or get someone to airbrush a similar design on the tank, it would look great.

Good on ya Paul, hope your tank goes well. Regarding the fenders I think I'll keep my bobbed stock fender for now, cheers anyway.

Your correct about the lolly pop peice, I used it to shelf the other disk. It also helped a little bit to prevent warping when welding, and probably also helped the strength a bit. The round panel stayed pretty flat, but I did get a little bit of heat sag where the front seam was TIG welded. When i drill the hole for the bung I should be able to lift it back up with oxy acetylene and the tank upside down.



I also got my forks blasted & filed off defects ready for powder coating, so i should be able to pick them up in the next few days.



Overall happy with the result so far, nothing gone wrong so it should be smooth sailing home from here. Just undecided on decals, but see my thoughts on this below....

Thanks Ed, it seems most comments regarding decals are keep it black with simple decals.

For some reason I am still thinking about keeping my eyebrow tank badges... I did have one consideration to an idea that was inspired by a bike in the horse mag, maybe I could cut Triumph lettering out of brass plate (1.2mm thick) and silver solder it to the tank, then paint black and file back lettering to brass and clear coat?

your thoughts on this anyone?

Looking good. Are you considering doing anything about the seam that runs along the bottom of the tank? That seems to bother a lot of people.

Thanks, I have thought about filling the seam to smooth out, but not sure how it will look because it runs up around the front which is more visible now with console removed. I'll think about it but it doesn't bother me that much so it's unlikely I'll touch it at tall.

I drilled hole for the fuel bung tonight, move it forward from the original position a bit. Here are some photo's







I can't wait to braze it up and take to the painters. I will have to hurry up and buy a front fender so I can take it to the painter at the same time!

I was talking about the front fenders which I cut and shaped from Harley Softtail 21" slugs. I absolutely wouldn't change from bobbed stock rear fender. Take a look.

Oh yer, thats pretty cool. I think I'll go and get a 21" fender today, then when forks are back together I'll mask it up and see how it looks.

Do you know how well the bolt holes line up on a TBA Paul?

Thanks for sharing the process Runner, its been really cool to see it coming together. Class A job! Can't wait to see what it looks like when you're done!

I'm not sure how bolt holes line up. I'll take a ride to my climate controlled storage area(winter life in New England) and take some measurements. The raw fender gives a large mounting area that I usually trim away to sit the fender right down on the tire. Then I drill my own holes. You can bob the length by making a straight cut across the fender right behind the front and rear curves then move the piece back to desired length,mark and cut(I use the piece as a guide for my plasma cutter). Also weld the mount to the fender (fills the gap nice and smooth),drill the rivets and weld holes. flip fender over and cut out inner mount piece(lets you sit right on tire). Skim coat of filler over welds and you've got a killer custom fender, sounds like just what you're going for.

I actually went and bought a 21" softail fender today, I'll post photos when I get the chance. Looking at it compared to stock fender the bolt holes are just about 4mm too far apart so should fit with a bit of a file. It may also sit about 10-15mm too high for my liking so I may have to trim and re-weld the side arms. I will give feedback when i get my forks back together.

In regards to the tank, no work on that yesterday but thats ok because I won't get it painted until the front fender is ready for paint also.

Chris..Im jealous you are doing all this work yourself. I do not posess the skills or ability to do work like that.
You have also motivated me to get my tank out and get it to the shop. Thanks!

Cheers to you also Zmillin, hope yours goes well!

Well progress on my tank has slowwed a bit, but I will fill you guys and girls in on a few things I did over the last few days.

Today I got out the oxy acetylene and smoothed the front section over a bit, you can see where in the photo below. I managed to lift all of the dips by using an S shaped bar (bent to suit) after heating area up with oxy. The biggest dip that needs to be filled is now <1mm so I'm pretty happy with that! One point to note is that when you start welding / heating everything up the rust starts very quickly so I have to keep WD-40 sprayed on it each night.



A bit off topic, but I have also started to fab up a bracket for front indicator like Martin did in another post. I hope to get all these mods complete in one go rather than progressively.



Now for the bad news, my forks won't be ready at the powder coater until Tuesday next week so that will hold me up a bit because I want to fit my new front fender to forks prior to painting all panels at same time. The plan for next week is as follows:

1. pick up forks from powder coaters and re-assemble.
2. fit / modify the front guard to fit how I want it.
3. sand blast guard and tank, including the inside of tank due to rust.
4. Braze in the fuel bung.
5. line the inside of tank with tank cleaner/ liner solution.
6. get them ready for paint and drop at paint shop.
7. Pray for the painter to get it done quickly!
8. Work on front indicator braket and re-wire indicators.
9. Pick up tank and fender to install.
10. Put everything back together and go for a ride!