$50 Project started!

[greatnw]

I posted a while back that I picked up a 1980SG for $50 and was hoping it wouldn't be a nightmare.

I've been gathering parts that needed replacement and undoing some hacks that weren't as bad as they looked.

It has been unusually cold and I've been extremely busy BUT today was able to dump some acid in the tank and clean the rust out by the manual method with the help of a handful of nuts.

Removed the octopus, did the dual fuel filter mod plugged in the new ignition, jumped it to my dual battery diesel suburban, used my long screwdriver across the solenoid to turn the starter and after just a couple of cranks that sweet sound of POWER!

Awesome, what a great sounding bike! I was surprised how well it was running. Warmed right up and idled right down.

Then I noticed the bad news. Must have had more rust in the tank than I thought. I had gas leaking. It was mostly a drip or two at first. I let the bike run for quite a while. By the time I shut it down I had a fair amount of gas dripping. So I pulled the fuel line to the petcocks and removed the tank. Had three pinhole leaks.

I'm guessing that a tank coat will solve the problem? It sure looked good when I was done cleaning. Must have had more rust than I thought. I was trying to clean good and not have to seal if I could avoid it.

All that to day I'm excited to have it to this point. More work to do but I had to know what the engine would do before going further.

So in the words of my favorite Americans, I'm going to Proceed On!

Thanks for all the information you guys have put up on this board. I've put a bunch of it into use already.

Dick

[RUSH]

I dont know much about sealing tanks, but has anyone ever tried soldering them? BTW I'm not too far away from you if you want a hand on a weekend. I was just in Bothell on the bike today. First ride of the year!!

[cajun31]

Just my two cents, I took mine to my local radiator repair shop and had them seal it for me. They charged $40.00. Of course they don't worry about the outside finish. If the paint is a concern you might want to discuss that with them prior to leaving it with them.

[greatnw]

Cajun31, I'm thinking that same thing about the radiator shop. It'll cost me about that to do it.

[fredintoon]

has anyone ever tried soldering them?

>
Hi Rush,
up to the 1930s Norton gas tank seams were factory soft soldered.
But that was then, right?
Anyhow, rust pinholes are easily sealed with soft solder, the fix I did on my Special tank was still sealing when I swapped the tank for one off a Standard.
Find the pinhole. Flip the tank so the pinhole is uppermost. Sand the area so it's nice & shiny. Gently hit the pinhole with a centerpunch to make a dent. Use a high capacity soldering iron and acid paste flux. Flood the dent with solder and she's done. So long as you use an electric soldering iron you need not even drain the tank.

[greatnw]

Got the soldering iron out and did just that tonight. What started as 4 holes ended up being about 20! All pretty much along what must have been the level of gas left in the bike. I will strip the paint when I redo the tank and look for more. I found one I missed after putting some gas back in the tank and when I sanded it down a little a couple more showed up! The paint still had them sealed.
So, yesterday I tried to find a local radiator shop who would seal the inside but none were doing it. One would ship it to a place that might but wouldn't give an estimate but said $150 was the minimum. So I ordered the $40 POR15 kit and will do that. I think the solder would be enough, but I'll just double my peace of mind.
Rush, anytime you want to stop by is good. I work in Everett and live in Bothell. I've been commuting most of this year on my son-in-laws 84 Honda Sabre V65 which is a lot of fun! That's why I was looking for something of my own when I stumbled across this project. I'm liking the simplicity of the big air cooled inline four without too many valves.
If it is above 32 I'm good to go. If it is raining really hard in the morning and expected to all day I might wimp out, too. But other than that I'm riding!

[fredintoon]

- - - So I ordered the $40 POR15 kit and will do that. I think the solder would be enough, but I'll just double my peace of mind. - - -

>
Hi GNW,
there's two parts to do the job right. The solder will seal the existing pinholes and the POR15 will seal the inside of the tank so it won't just keep on rusting.
Note that 90% of the effectiveness of any tank sealing job is in how well the prep. work is done.

[turbo3g]

sick man. I see you've started the project.
when that tank is done take some pics so we can see what you got.
$50! that a steal.
good luck with it man.
I'm doing a paint job on mine right now and its taking a long time.
air brushing...... lots of prep..