Gas tank exploded *pic heavy*

[LuckyLeprechaun]

I recently sent my tank out to a local shop to get a dent pulled. The dent was not that deep, but a little too deep in my opinion to just fill with bondo. It was not creased or anything, so it seemed like it would be a simple job. A couple days later I got a call from the guy asking me what year/make/model the bike was. He then told me that he needed to buy me a new tank because he blew mine up . I guess he had someone use a stud gun to pull the dent because he told me the tank was double walled(I don't know if this is true or not), and one of the studs burned through, ignited the remaining fumes, and blew the tank up. No one was hurt, and he agreed to buy me a new tank, so this is more of a warning/how to not do something/documentation of what can happen.

All of these pictures are the blown up tank next to a tank that should be the same size as my old one started out as.

 

[deadchef]

lol! why the hell would anyone weld onto a tank that obviously still had fumes left in it? i bet the guy shit his pants when it went off! lucky he wasn't severely injured. that tank looks crazy!

 

[neanderthal]

dont go back to that guy. he should know better than that. take more precautions.

 

[racerdave]

Extra capacity now

 

[weekendrider]

But you wanted a fat bob didn't you? He asks. (tongue in cheek)
Experience is a hard teacher. Glad he is standing up by offering to replace your tank.
Integrity and honor are a rare item nowdays. Went out the door with common sense.

 

[blackbetty]

Crazy!

But yea, I second jake. This dude is hamfisted.

 

[Demin]

Been there done that.It doesn't have to have fumes that you can smell to do that.

 

[unclesol]

On the bright side, it's nice to know that the tank "contained" the explosion :-O

 

[LuckyLeprechaun]

He figured that it had aired out long enough that it wouldn't catch fire, which obviously was not the case. If there is a next time for anything like this, he will be filling it with water before he does anything. He said it sounded like an M-80 or a works bomb going off and that it jumped about 4 feet in the air and landed 1/3 of the way across the paint booth.

I will go back to him in the future, but not for this kind of stuff, lol. This actually isn't his buisness or forte, he was doing it for me as a favor.

I do kindof like how the tank looks, and I even contemplated finding some way to mount it up. I am going to keep it, more for a wall-hanger, but some day maybe i'll get it sealed up and modify it to be useable.

 

[gggGary]

This has worked well for me. Rinse with acetone or other fast evaporating solvent, use a ground strap and compressed air to dry it out.

Back in the day dent pulling with oxy acetylene. I had a 5' blow torch roaring out of the filler opening that blew it's self out. The pause waiting for an explosion seemed endless.

I did that to a tank with compressed air one time, trying to pop a dent. It takes very little pressure to do that, like a couple of PSI

It's kind of smiling at you in a "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" sort of way.

 

[Curtis P]

I have welded alot of tanks, prince with water, spray with brake clean to stop any flash rusting on the inside. Then i run a hose into the filler and the other end in the exhaust pipe of a car/truck/bike. Never had one grenade on me yet...

 

[griinder]

you should run it!

 

[jdizon]

you should run it!

+1 on running it

 

[weekendrider]

I have welded alot of tanks, prince with water, spray with brake clean to stop any flash rusting on the inside. Then i run a hose into the filler and the other end in the exhaust pipe of a car/truck/bike. Never had one grenade on me yet...

+1 Curtis P the carbon monoxide removes any oxygen. No oxygen no fire.

 

[LuckyLeprechaun]

That is pretty ingenious to run car exhaust into there to displace any oxygen and replace it with a non-flammable gas.

Maybe i'll do a mock-up of the tank onthe bike today while i'm out working on the seat, we'll see.

 

[Paulrxs650]

Ive always used the exhaust gas technique on tanks from bikes to cars and wagons, never had a problem. Worth mentioning that the area around you should have a bit of decent ventilation