Car hit me, need advice on tank repairs.

[andrewraffaele]

Dear all,

Hope you guys are well. Just had my handle-bar pushed into my tank, which was cosmetically perfect with original paint. Bike was a barn find, all original with 6.5K on it.

What's my best option?
Wait for a cosmetically clean tank on ebay and get it painted?
Get the bondo job?

Any of you guys know what this may cost (ball-park) and if you know any reputable paint shops in Chicago? And, where do I get the Maroon and gold? (bike is a 78 standard).

Majorly bummed,
Andrew

[CatatonicBug]

I hope you're ok! Since your main concern is the paint on your tank, I assume you are.

I know almost nothing about painting, but I do know that there is no modern exact match for the Macho Maroon color.

[mack]

Not sure

of your financial situation but if you take the tank to an auto body repair shop, they have a camera they can take a picture with, that gives an exact paint code for any colour. They can also repair the tank and paint; and, it should match the existing faded colour exactly. May cost a hundred bucks or so though. Good luck man. Glad you were able to walk away and ask advice on channel 11 on your own.

[crazy steve]

Bummer on the damaged tank; if that's all you got, you got off relatively cheaply...

You can almost forget finding a nice OEM '78 tank with good paint; I've been watching for one for 4 years and haven't seen one yet

To be honest, figure on a complete paint job. The 'Macho Maroon' is extremely hard to match because of the pearl in it, a few have come semi-close but I haven't seen a really good match yet. Cost won't be cheap to have it pro done, a custom-mixed quart of color will be over $100 just by itself. I'm in the same boat, everything is perfect except the tank, I've been quoted $7-800 for a color-matched paint job on mine, which is why it's still apart....

The upside is any '78-80 standard tank is the same except for paint, so finding a straight example shouldn't be all that hard.

[skids]

Are you going to do this yourself? I filled the emblem holes with epoxy mixed with fiberglass to within 1/8 inch thickness of the original contour and then used bondo for the final sufrace. You don't want to go too thick with bondo. My finished product has been holding up for years.

The thing that you do NOT want to do is to drill holes to use a slide hammer, bondo the holes, and then line the tank with Caswells epoxy tank liner. The combination results in chemestry that does not do well together and you WILL get rock-hard plastic build-up on the intake valve stems!!! I did this and I just hope that no one repeats my mistaken experiment!

[XJfan1]

i guess im the only person that finds this mildy funny. He crashes into a car with a motorcycle and his only concern is a tank dent. im glad your ok.

[tv5150]

Here 'Ya Go

Will need to be painted to match, but here's a prospect...

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=36756

[mikubuilder]

How bad is that dent? Is it possible to do paintless dent repair?

[jayel]

i guess im the only person that finds this mildy funny. He crashes into a car with a motorcycle and his only concern is a tank dent. im glad your ok.

he never said he hit a car, he said his handle bar GOT pushed into his tank, if car owners fault car owners responsibility to repair (cost is irrelevant on their dime) if it wasn't a hit and run, or a no insurance deal then there are other options

[XJfan1]

he never said he hit a car, he said his handle bar GOT pushed into his tank, if car owners fault car owners responsibility to repair (cost is irrelevant on their dime) if it wasn't a hit and run, or a no insurance deal then there are other options

the first three words in the title of this thread are"car hit me".