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thoughts on dent removal?
- Thread starter DogBunny
- Start date
That brought back a memory from the mid 90's. At that time, I was a powerplant engineer at a high head hydro power plant, and we were having the inside of the penstock (large, high pressure steel pipe leading water to the turbines) sand blasted and painted with a special epoxy paint. Given that the paint should last at least 20 years, the requirements were pretty strict. Wet film thickness, dry film thickness, temperature and humidity, pretty much every relevant parameter was monitored and checked during the entire blasting and painting process.
And adhesion as well. A round steel disc was epoxy glued to the already hardened epoxy paint. Then a kind of a puller with a strain gauge was attached to this disc. Then the specified test force was applied. If the paint peeled off, it would have been a fail. IIRC, the epoxy glue broke before the paint film, when they kept on increasing the force on a test sample until something gave.
In 1992 I had a dented tank
being the redneck I was
I filled it with water, put in freezer for a few weeks.
water FROZE,expanded, knocked out dent.
then I put out in the yard, ice melted, draining and cleaning tank
not saying it gonna work for you, just a redneck maybe..LOL
So then, 10 months after starting this thread, I finally got around to working on this dent.
I made a pry tool by bending an auger anchor of the type used to tie down sheds, etc. At 7/16" it's pretty stout, and has a nice rounded head. I also used a 3/4 x 3/4 angle iron, and a 1-1/4 x 3/4 piece of wood.
What I wanted, was to pry against the tunnel, rather than the tank neck. But the geometry is wrong. So, I was pretty much prying against the neck, using the wood as a protector. (In the video, the pro has a purpose-made tank neck protector which is nice.) BTW, I learned that you need to secure the tank -- in my case, by mounting on a frame. The pro in the vid has a fancy clamp table set-up.
The smaller angle iron could be inserted way farther into the tank, so that some of the prying pressure was transferred to the tunnel. I was able to exert considerable pressure with this set up. Unfortunately, the tank neck started caving in before there was any dent movement at all. BTW, fixing a caved-in neck is quite simple -- I demonstrated it back in post # 39.
So, complete failure.
I went back and re-read this whole thread. Next up would be one of the glue pullers -- I particularly like the slide hammer glue puller that Jim posted -- but I just don't see it working without ruining this tank's patina. Glue is intended for nice, shiny paint jobs, I believe.
So, I reached out to a local dent puller, one that mentioned motorcycles. I texted him pics, along with this message:
"Estimate please to remove this dent. I am trying to keep the patina. Not looking for perfection, just something that's a whole lot better than it is now."
The message I got back was "150".
So, I guess he's not very hungry, and trying to weed out tire-kickers. I'm betting that if I talked to him in person, or if I shopped around, I could get a quote of $100, but I doubt anyone will touch it for less than that.
That's it experiment over with a big FAIL. I really only bought this tank for the cap and lock. Will be putting it back on eBay. It's a real shame, this would have been an excellent patinaed tank.
Yeah, those Dent Wizard guys generally do nothing else. The ones who have what it takes to fix the motorcycle tank are few and far between and can't live off that work. So, it goes.
My other thought on dented tanks has always been this:
Cut a hole in the bottom of the tank where it won't be seen. Block and dolly the dent out -- something I can do and have the tools for. Weld the hole back shut.
If I could weld good enough, I'd be all over this idea.
Cut a hole in the bottom of the tank where it won't be seen. Block and dolly the dent out -- something I can do and have the tools for. Weld the hole back shut.
If I could weld good enough, I'd be all over this idea.
If I could source a little liquid nitrogen I'd fill up the dent with it. Or maybe a bit of dry ice.
Hey, DB!
I see you have your heat gun there.
Please consider these charts, metal temperature vs strength.
And, for steel:
As mentioned in post #80.
My tank dent was in the same place as yours, on the left side.
But, *much* worse. Deeper, with 2 creases.
You remember my shop?
I clamped the prybar in the 6" vise (red line).
And dangled a plumb bob over the prybar foot (orange line).
The prybar foot was ground a shallow convex, like your thumb.
Slide the tank over the prybar, dent directly below the plumb bob.
Press the tank down, dent on the prybar foot, and hold pressure.
Then, using a plastic-tipped hammer, tap around the dent, directly on the bent periphery metal (red squiggly).
Those convex surface bends will gradually flatten out, and the dent center will slowly rise. Continue ad-nausium 'till it looks rite.
Too bad I'm not there, or you here. Easier with 2 guyz to knock that out.
Call if need be...
I see you have your heat gun there.
Please consider these charts, metal temperature vs strength.
And, for steel:
As mentioned in post #80.
My tank dent was in the same place as yours, on the left side.
But, *much* worse. Deeper, with 2 creases.
You remember my shop?
I clamped the prybar in the 6" vise (red line).
And dangled a plumb bob over the prybar foot (orange line).
The prybar foot was ground a shallow convex, like your thumb.
Slide the tank over the prybar, dent directly below the plumb bob.
Press the tank down, dent on the prybar foot, and hold pressure.
Then, using a plastic-tipped hammer, tap around the dent, directly on the bent periphery metal (red squiggly).
Those convex surface bends will gradually flatten out, and the dent center will slowly rise. Continue ad-nausium 'till it looks rite.
Too bad I'm not there, or you here. Easier with 2 guyz to knock that out.
Call if need be...
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Good idea, but the dent is slightly creased, so I don't think it would "pop" out.
All great ideas there. A second person would definitely help. And yeah, that last pic is exactly right. That's exactly how you use a block and dolly. Seems somewhat counterintuitive to hammer the out side, but that's how it's done. I was over it, but now I might give it another try. The plumb bob is also a great idea. In my pics, I was pretty much working blind, just guesstimating where the pry bar head was.
By the way, the heat gun is more to soften the paint so it doesn't crack when the metal moves. Not so much to soften the steel. Another pro tip from the video.
Whew...when I saw "Dent Removal" I thought we were kicking Jim off the forum! 
Fantastic! Couple thoughts:
First, I once tried to pop a dent in an Aluminum XT500 tank, by simply pressurizing the tank. I thought that being made of aluminum, it might be soft enough to pop. However, the pressure got pretty high, and I became afraid of popping a tank seam instead of the dent, so I gave up. I think the video guy's use of the inner tube allows him to localize the pressure, I think that's key.
Second, when he so easily popped the Honda dent, I thought, well sure, that's a modern tank made of thin steel, not like our vintage XS650 tanks made of thick steel. But them he starts to pop a dent in an XS650 tank!
I'm definitely going to try this!
Me too!
Yep....I once tried to speed up draining the Autolube tank on my first RD350. It somehow ended up slightly more rounded than beforeIt sure will, um so I've heard......
