Looky looky!

[daveyg]

Found this baby at a local bike junkyard! Best part is, only $15! and she came with a fuel sending unit. So, if anybody wants a maroon, dented Special tank with a sending unit, or just my spare sending unit, either is available. Will be revising my FS thread... Only problems with this tank is 3 pinholes on the underside, just in front of the U shaped mounts... JB weld to the rescue!

[DiverRay]

I the pin holes are on the underside of the tank, I would SOLDER the pin holes. It WILL outlast JB Weld, and keep it from rusting. Bad part is you DO need to go down to bare steel, but you will have to for JB weld as well. I did repair a carb with an epoxy that was made to seal fuel tanks. picked it up in an auto parts store. Cost a little more than JB, but it IS made for direct contact with fuel.

[madmax-im]

Found this baby at a local bike junkyard! Best part is, only $15! and she came with a fuel sending unit. So, if anybody wants a maroon, dented Special tank with a sending unit, or just my spare sending unit, either is available. Will be revising my FS thread... Only problems with this tank is 3 pinholes on the underside, just in front of the U shaped mounts... JB weld to the rescue!

Slight correction that is a Standard tank not a Special and by the color it looks to be off a 1980 XS1100 BTW it does not look Maroon to me...Otherwise thats a good find!

[cowboybob998]

gas tank sealer

Found this baby at a local bike junkyard! Best part is, only $15! and she came with a fuel sending unit. So, if anybody wants a maroon, dented Special tank with a sending unit, or just my spare sending unit, either is available. Will be revising my FS thread... Only problems with this tank is 3 pinholes on the underside, just in front of the U shaped mounts... JB weld to the rescue!

Here is a link to a good gas tank sealer, seal up all the rust, kind of high prieced, 35 plus 15 shiping.
http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/epoxygas.htm

[fredintoon]

Slight correction that is a Standard tank not a Special and by the color it looks to be off a 1980 XS1100 BTW it does not look Maroon to me...Otherwise thats a good find!

Hi Madmax,
the pic is of Davey's new-found bargain Standard tank. It loks like the tank he's making available is his existing Special tank.
And Hi Davey,
the Standard's fuel gauge sender is the float & rheostat type that works the Standard's fuel level gauge and it won't work with the Special's red fuel warning light. You can swap in the Special's thermistor type sender. Note that as the Standard tank has the sender cut-out on the other side of the tank tunnel the thermistor needs to be installed with it's connections pointing forward or it will be upside down and give bad readings.
Also the seat won't fit unless you crop about 5/8" off the front of the seat pan.

[fredintoon]

Fixing tank pinholes

Only problems with this tank is 3 pinholes on the underside, just in front of the U shaped mounts... JB weld to the rescue

Hi Davey,
best you make sure there's only 3 pinholes to fix before you re-paint and negatory JBWeld! Good as JBWeld may be, tank pinholes are best fixed like this:-
Sand them down to shiny steel. Put a centerpunch in each of the pinholes and give the punch a light tap with a hammer to make conical dents around them.
Use a big powerful electric soldering iron (no Bernz torch around gasoline, eh?) to fill the dents with soft solder.
A fussy bloke would file them flush but they won't show under there anyway, right?

[daveyg]

Fred, you are correct, that the tank I was referring to getting rid of is my previously used Special tank... And thanks for the pointers on how to use solder, never thought of that... Also, many thanks about the fuel sending unit info. Will keep that in mind as I progress with this project. No need to trim the seat down since... I have no seat. Sold that big ol' gargantuan banana. Gonna build a fiberglass cafe seat eventually.

[daveyg]

Well fred, following your advise, I've found several more little holes, about 25-30 of the little bastards! Looks like soldering is gonna be the more cost effective way to go to seal this baby up And since about 20 of them are on the upper side, definately going to be filed off and smoothed out... Damn restomods anyway...

[fredintoon]

Well fred, following your advise, I've found several more little holes, about 25-30 of the little bastards! Looks like soldering is gonna be the more cost effective way to go to seal this baby up And since about 20 of them are on the upper side, definately going to be filed off and smoothed out... Damn restomods anyway...

Hi Davey,
good luck with the soldering. Remember the solderer's rule, keep it clean! Abrasion, flux and more flux.
Use paste flux out of a can. Even if you are using flux-core solder it's only half the battle, the job needs the separate flux as well. And when molten solder gets on your skin you are allowed a deep manly groan but you shouldn't scream like a girl.
With a tank as holey as yours seems to be I'd expect there will be micro-pinholes too small to see. They will ooze gas under the new paint over time and raise blisters. If it were mine to do, after I'd soldered up every pinhole I could see I'd coat the tank inside. The consensus is that POR15 is a way superior product to Kreem.

[daveyg]

Fred, thanks for the tips, I've heard alot of great things about the por-15 stuff and I can even get it through work with my employee discount, so that is definately the way I'm going to go.

[ppv]

tank holes

I once had a tank like that.The more you sand the more you will find.Take a look under the gas cap cover.My tank had billions of those little holes id think i had fixxed good and boom another 5 or 10 holes would pop up.not trying to rain on your parade but good luck with it.Oh and jb weld works but not for very long.Found that out after i painted the tank the first time.Then for round 2 & 3 i kept fixxing those little buggers and they just dont stop.As you can probably tell i was really frustrated with the freakin thing.Ifinnally gave up and paid a bike junk yard $150 for used tank that they cleaned the inside real good.sorry about the long rant but i think youll be doing the same thing i did. but maybe get lucky.GOOD LUCK but been there done that.

[Mighty Eleven]

I had the samething happen to me. I found 2 pin holes then sanded and found 20 more. I took my time and punched out every hole,it looked like hell after that but when I got done soldering and I stress "took my time" It came out sweet. Lots of paste flux like Fred said. Good luck!

[daveyg]

Finally an update to revive this old azz thread! So, she really looks like hell at the moment, but the holes are all filled! Now to rasp them off and a thin smear of body filler, and she'll be ready for some ink! And I got some new forks!!! 41mm, triple trees on the way to go with them!

[WMarshy]

Finally an update to revive this old azz thread! So, she really looks like hell at the moment, but the holes are all filled! Now to rasp them off and a thin smear of body filler, and she'll be ready for some ink! And I got some new forks!!! 41mm, triple trees on the way to go with them!

Wow, your not kidding when you say old @zz thread lol.

Kind of looks to me like all your holes are in the same plane where a gas water mixture left in the tank caused the corrosion and eventually holes. Let us know how it turns out, everyone has been on pins and needles for 4 years.

What did your forks come off?

[daveyg]

Yeah the tank sat outside for god only knows how long with the cap open at the junkyard I picked it up at, so it probably puddled water in it. The forks (and the soon to arrive trees) are 41mm pieces from a YZF 750, approximately 1998 year.