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Well, the tank is glued up and curing down stairs.
I took a 3" wire wheel in my die grinder and removed all the paint from the affected areas. There were about 4 little tiny craters under the paint, only one of which went all the way through.
With careful inspection, I found several other areas that had these tiny blisters in the paint. The wire wheel quickly revealed several more areas that will need attention. I probed each of the pits with a sharp awl and was able to push it through a bit on about 1/3 of the pits. The largest hole I was able to make with the awl was about 1/16" or so. That was only on two of them. The rest where pretty much pin holes, even after opening them up with the awl.
The surrounding metal is very sound around the pits, so I am not worried about the structural integrity of the tank. For the temporary repair, I went ahead with what I know and picked up a new package of JB Weld (original) on the way home from work this evening. With the metal roughed up by the wire wheel, I worked the JB Weld down into each hole and then covered the affected areas around each hole by at least 3/8" (and usually more as most of the holes where in a line about 1/2" away from the tank seam, so I had lines of JB Weld going down the tank next to the seam).
Tomorrow, I'll hit the JB Weld and exposed metal with a bit of dark primer and call it good until this summer. Then, it gets the full electrolysis inside and out followed by the epoxy lining to make sure rust never shows up again. Thankfully, my tank is black and the repair is on the bottom of the tank, so it should look pretty good once it is all done, at least good enough to get me through to summer.
On a side note, my new foot peg covers came in today along with the exhaust gaskets and brake caliper bleeder covers. All those new parts are installed. The foot peg covers make a world of difference in the appearance of the bike.
I took a 3" wire wheel in my die grinder and removed all the paint from the affected areas. There were about 4 little tiny craters under the paint, only one of which went all the way through.
With careful inspection, I found several other areas that had these tiny blisters in the paint. The wire wheel quickly revealed several more areas that will need attention. I probed each of the pits with a sharp awl and was able to push it through a bit on about 1/3 of the pits. The largest hole I was able to make with the awl was about 1/16" or so. That was only on two of them. The rest where pretty much pin holes, even after opening them up with the awl.
The surrounding metal is very sound around the pits, so I am not worried about the structural integrity of the tank. For the temporary repair, I went ahead with what I know and picked up a new package of JB Weld (original) on the way home from work this evening. With the metal roughed up by the wire wheel, I worked the JB Weld down into each hole and then covered the affected areas around each hole by at least 3/8" (and usually more as most of the holes where in a line about 1/2" away from the tank seam, so I had lines of JB Weld going down the tank next to the seam).
Tomorrow, I'll hit the JB Weld and exposed metal with a bit of dark primer and call it good until this summer. Then, it gets the full electrolysis inside and out followed by the epoxy lining to make sure rust never shows up again. Thankfully, my tank is black and the repair is on the bottom of the tank, so it should look pretty good once it is all done, at least good enough to get me through to summer.
On a side note, my new foot peg covers came in today along with the exhaust gaskets and brake caliper bleeder covers. All those new parts are installed. The foot peg covers make a world of difference in the appearance of the bike.
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