I bought the whole set if you wanna use it.
I bought the whole set if you wanna use it.
I bought the whole set if you wanna use it.
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XS2 tank. Hard to tell from this pic, but the filler neck is very noticeably caved in. (Note the welded seam lines indicated by the blue arrows -- more on that in a bit.)
The next three pics are ganged up for comparison, showing before, during, and after my dent repair.
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The repair began with this piece of scrap metal I found in my Big Box O' Bits and Pieces which is perfectly sized for inserting into the neck opening. All I had to do is drill a hole in the middle.
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The hole was drilled and then angled so that I could put it on my slide hammer and then get it into the tank. Just a few whacks got me to the middle pic in the comparison sequence above. (The slide hammer hook tool on the left was used for a little fine-tuning later on.)
The problem at this point was that the welded seam area did not want to pop up.
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So, I did some spot-prying and spot-squeezing along the seam with channel locks.
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The channel locks had a nut taped to the end of the inside jaw to get past the extended inside lip of the neck. And the piece of scrap metal had a bit of inner-tube taped to it to protect the top of the neck.
Didn't take long at all, and the final result just needs a little light glaze coat of filler to be perfect. Very satisfying for a first attempt at dent repair by an amateur. The metal was surprising easy to move. Gives me a lot of confidence that the various glue pullers, pry bars, etc., can actually work.
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.The glue won't pull a nice neat circle of paint off the tank? Just wondering.
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Is it possible to remove this dent without damaging the paint? This is the only dent. It is otherwise a nice tank. I like the patina, and want to keep it as is, if possible.
Good idea, but the dent is slightly creased, so I don't think it would "pop" out.If I could source a little liquid nitrogen I'd fill up the dent with it. Or maybe a bit of dry ice.
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.Hey, DB!
I see you have your heat gun there.
Please consider these charts, metal temperature vs strength.
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And, for steel:
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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?
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I clamped the prybar in the 6" vise (red line).
And dangled a plumb bob over the prybar foot (orange line).
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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 dent down 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).
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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...
Fantastic! Couple thoughts:
Me too!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!
It sure will, um so I've heard......A friend of mine tried to un-dent a tank on a CX500, iirc.
He bunged the filler up and applied an air line.
"It ended up like an amusingly-shaped potato," he said.
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......