Big Screw Up On Gas Tank, Need Some Advice

[ctltmp]

I was going to post about how well the paint on the rolling chassis came out yesterday, but instead I have this.....

While doing dolly and hammer work on the hood the hood & tank slipped off the saw horses and put a big crease/dent in the tank. Options I can think of are:
1) Stud weld and pull (I don't have a stud welder and it's a no-no welding around a gas tank.
2) Slide hammer pull (will leave holes in the tank to deal with).
3) Fill with body filler (awfully deep to fill up).

This was my screw up, and a big one. I figure someone on the site had to deal with a dent in the tank before. I'd appreciate any suggestions.

[Rob in NH]

i'd use a stud gun. If you can't get one bring to your local body shop and see if they can pop it out for you. Or check out Harbor freight, they may have one reasonably priced. I wouldn't recommend drilling and using a dent puller.

[Eugene]

Hard to tell the extent of the dent. Didn't look that bad in the photo.

Auto body filler would be the least expensive route.

You can weld on a gas tank. You need to completely water flush the tank several times, then set in the sun for several days. Idea is to remove all traces of gasoline fumes.

[DRaymond]

I have heard that putting dry ice in the tank will displace the fumes with CO2 as it gasifies.

[ctltmp]

It's a pretty deep crease. Must have hit on the edge of one of the blocks I had it on. I'm not a big believer in a lot of body filler. If I went that route I'd use tiger hair.

If I'd drill and use a slide hammer does j.b. weld hold up to gas?

[Eugene]

If I'd drill and use a slide hammer does j.b. weld hold up to gas?

Visit your local well stocked hardware store and auto parts store. Epoxy rack, read the labels. There are epoxies suitable for mending gas tanks.

[Rob in NH]

i Wouldn't drill a perfectly good tank.

[Waif]

I'd just call it added character and move on.

[Super A]

My Super A tank had fist-sized dent in the top, one of those battle scars from 50-some years of use. The man who did the body work and painted it drilled a big hole in the bottom and then used a steel rod to tap the dent back out. Then welded the hole shut. If you have access to a stud welder I'd fill it full of water, weld your studs, and go to pulling. I'm not the world's foremost expert on body filler but if you go that route, I'd use the green fiberglass putty.

Whatever you do, don't leave it. If you've taken the time to go down to bare metal and do hammer and dolly work, it's gonna look like pooh when you paint it and you're gonna hate it!

Al

[k hutchins]

It's hard to tell from the picture, but it looks like it's on the back end that faces you when seated.
If you can get the angle, I'ld try a wooden or brass dowell rod through the filler cap and try to hammer it out from the inside.

[scotlem]

I would heat that spot with a propane torch and use a boomerang shaped bar stock through the fill hole to tap or push it back out. degas it as they said above first

[ctltmp]

It is on the back of the tank curved surface. I wish I could get to it from the fill hole. There's a partition in the tank that won't allow access with a tool from the inside.

[clm2112]

I hate to say it, but welding a stud to it and pulling the dent out from the outside is the ticket. I don't think one of the suction cup type pullers will have much luck with that crease in the middle. Drilling it out with a slide-hammer and screws is sort of a B.S. way to do a fuel tank, you end up with a lot of work plugging the holes and invariably some of the screws raise the metal. If you do it yourself, purge that tank of all the fuel residue before.

Or take it to a body shop and have them pull the dent, and shrink the metal to take the crease out. (I've seen that done using an acetylene torch and a pick ended hammer.. laborious work, but about the only way you can work on it without cutting the tank apart and welding it closed after.)

[gitractorman]

I think I'd just opt to take it to a local body shop and see if they'll pull it out and fill, sand, and prep the whole hood for paint. Something like that should cost less than $200, and would be money well spent in my book. You'll spend a week of screwing around with it, and potentially ruin the tank, and still not be happy with it. If your time was money, you wouldn't even have asked us. I'm learning as I "grow up" that sometimes, you're just way better off letting a professional take care of your problems rather than trying to figure out the right way to do it.

Another one in my book is putting new brushes in a starter/generator and rebuilding it. The new brushes/parts/bearings are $25, and I can spend 2 hours taking it apart, cleaning, trying to put it back together correct, then wondering if it will work..... OR, I can take the starter to my local armature shop and for $75, I can drop it off, leave it for 2 days, and come back to a perfectly operating, tested, and warrantied rebuild by a professional who has been doing it for 40+ years. That's a cheap $75 in my book, which is really only $50, because I was going to spend the $25 on brushes/parts/bearings anyway.

So, as I said, if it were me, the hood would be at a local body shop in the morning.

Good luck!
Bill

[Lt.Mike]

I hate to say it, but welding a stud to it and pulling the dent out from the outside is the ticket. I don't think one of the suction cup type pullers will have much luck with that crease in the middle. Drilling it out with a slide-hammer and screws is sort of a B.S. way to do a fuel tank, you end up with a lot of work plugging the holes and invariably some of the screws raise the metal. If you do it yourself, purge that tank of all the fuel residue before.

Or take it to a body shop and have them pull the dent, and shrink the metal to take the crease out. (I've seen that done using an acetylene torch and a pick ended hammer.. laborious work, but about the only way you can work on it without cutting the tank apart and welding it closed after.)

I'd agree with this. In my area we have a talented guy who removes dents like this in automobiles without harming paint.
Seen it done, without his talent though I'd do it the way described above. Its a fuel tank I wouldn't add holes.
Mike.