Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Custom Corner Dented Gas Tank

I recently acquired a small dent in the top of my gas tank. It is not very deep and about as big as a quarter. anyone have any god ides on how to fix it? I'd hate to have to buy a new gas tank.

I had a pretty good dent on the grey "wings" part of the tank last year. It was repaired with bondo, or body putty and repainted, shop did an excellent job, but it cost me a few dollars. Some dents can be repaired by drilling a little hole in the dent, inserting a screw, popping it out, repairing the little hole, etc. I have heard applying dry ice can sometimes remove a minor dent, but that sounds like rumor to me. Anyway there's some real body shop guys here, so I'll be quiet now.

Good Luck.

JH

Well I hear this works for small dents, but I've never tried it so take it for what it's worth.

Take off the tank and empty the gas. Might want let it dry out for a day also. Get some dry ice(they sell it at grocery stores where I live). Now take a blow dryer(don't let the wife see you), or a heat gun with it set on low heat, and heat up the area of the dent. You don't want to apply too much heat or the paint might blister. Once you get it warm, apply the dry ice wrapped in a rag using a circular motion on the ridge around the dent. The dent should pull up where it's left a depression.

If that doesn't work, try to find a local body shop that works on bikes, or a good chopper shop in your area. Sometimes those guys have special body tools that can get inside the gas tank filler opening and they can tap the dent out from the inside. If you have trouble finding a shop like that, ask a good motorcycle painter. If they can't do it, they usually know somebody who can.

Check your area for Paintless Dent Repair. If you live in an area where there is hail there are folks that do that for cars. They have all the tools to reach in and rub the dent out.

I was going to suggest the dent repair guys as well.. the ones who claim to fix hail damage and other small dings and will even drive out to where you are to do it. Also, depending on the dent, you could try a suction cup puller. Obvious is trying to push it out from the inside, if you can get to it. I've never heard of the dry ice trick. I remember seeing a guy once, a really long time ago, put the tank in the freezer overnight. Then he sealed the tank air tight and let it warm up. The pressure from the warming air inside the tank pushed the dent out! He might of put something in the tank before going in the freezer.. can't remember (I was in elementry school when I saw this.. YMMV). Also, if the dent is on the top of the tank, can you just cover it up with a tank bra?!?

Cheers,
Brad

The "dent pro" people are the way to go if they can get the tools inside of the tank to push out the dent. If you have no paint damage they can usually push them out and not mar the paint.

This method was told to me by a HD guy so take it for what it's worth.
Get your handy dandy little hot glue gun out, hot glue a piece of wooden dowel to the dent. Let cool for one hour. Pull dent off. Heat with hair drier, glue comes off.

Sounds iffy to me, but hey, ya never know. Acetone won't hurt the paint, maybe hot glue won't either?
Maybe Pete can try this with the plethera of tanks he has.

I just had this done to my tank and it was done exactly as FriarJohn described. My dent was in the top of the tank also. There was no way for the guy to get to it with a tool. I went ahead and had the bike painted (from black to burgundy/tank and fenders) while I had it apart. If the dent isn't very deep, they can usually just rough up the area around the top of the dent and then apply a thin layer of bondo, sand it smooth, and paint it.
Kenny

Bullet hole sticker ...

That size dent usually responds well to the dry ice trick. I don't know if it can be done with the teensy EPA filler holes, but back when we had real gas and bigger filler necks, we used to stuff an inttertube into the tank and inflate it to pop out dents.

joelong_1, did you try any of these? did any work?

Gents, My bike is in the process of being shipped across country so I will try when I get there. Thanks for all of the suggestions. Joe