Severely dented Honda Hornet tank

[frogamic]

About a week ago I dropped my 97 hornet 250 and now it has a large scratch in the tank which leaks petrol. Does anyone know where I could get a new tank? My friend's dad says it could be cheaper to get a new tank since tank welding is expensive, any suggestions where I could find one?

[Gubb]

Tried Google?

[MidnightMike]

Ring your local honda shop, will prob be really expensive.

Or ring around the bike wreckers.

[TerminalAddict]

about $1500 for a new tank (at least for the cb900)

[YellowDog]

Welding expensive?

I don't think so.

Someone at college could do this for you and you could finnish and shape it yourself.

[NOMIS]

ebay... or a wreckers. welding will be cheaper than new by a looooonnnngggg shot.

[YellowDog]

If you are going to weld it, you will take it off the bike and drain any remaining fuel aye?

Just stating the bleeding obvious...................

[bucket boy]

If you are going to weld it, you will take it off the bike and drain any remaining fuel aye?

Just stating the bleeding obvious...................

And fill it with water

[vifferman]

And fill it with water
Nope.
Just needs the remaining petrol vapours flushed out with an inert gas. If you fill it with water, you're creating a whole new set of problems with perpetual rusting.

[gijoe1313]

There is a wrecker at Ngaruawahia with a chew fiddy hornet :weep: It's the guy advertising the 250 Hornet engine for sale on 'Tardme ... find the listing and ask him a question! (I got other bits from him)

And ebay is your friend, failing that try davidsilverspares.co.uk and other such fine purveyors of parts!

[Ocean1]

It's been years since most industries that had a need to repair fuel tanks actually had an approved procedure, they've just stopped doing it.

The most common "approved" method did indeed involve innert gas flushing, usually after rinsing the tank out with IPA or meths, which soak up the remaining not-so-light-ends of the petrol and subsequently evaporate, (which takes a day or so).

In the dark ages I welded quite a few without the innert gas, just continuously flashing the torch over the cap port to ignite any residual vapours before they reach an explosive limit, but I've had one go bang as well so I'd definitely not recommend it.

Depending on the shape of the puncture it's possible to solder a patch over it, which can be done with less risk. You'd have to find someone capable of doing it, which might not be too easy nowadays.

[YellowDog]

It has just come back to my memory and I am sure it was the result of being a kid and wanting to save spending cash: But I did repair a fuel tank with 5 layers of epoxy resin. I had the bike for a couple of years after before selling it and it never leaked. Well at least I didn't notice it.

I am not recommending this as a repair method however depending upon the severity of the damage, it may be a temporary fix.

[Ixion]

I've welded (actually, brazed morew oten , tank metal is thin, but it comes to the same thing)Z many a bike fuel tank.

It's easy enough, and safe enough IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Otherwise, decidely unso as in dead person unsafe.

If you need to ask how, don't do it.

[DarkLord]

Just out of curiosity.... how fast were you going when you dropped it?

Must have been one helluva drop if the tank leaks....

[frogamic]

not fast at all, it was really a stupid drop caused by breaking too hard at the front (still used to push bike/gn250 brakes). My friend's dad who's good with bikes said the whole filling tank with water before welding thing too, although inert gas does make sense. Thanks gijoe, I just asked the tardme dude, i see his tank is dented too, but as long as it doesn't leak it'll still be an improvement.

[vifferman]

it was really a stupid drop caused by breaking too hard at the front.
Yeah, the front breaking hard will usually do it.
Perhaps some reinforcing would help? :confused:

[frogamic]

Well I took a closer look at the dent the other day and realised it's already been repaired there, there's welding marks and some sort of bog/body filler around it. I couldn't be bothered getting it fixed properly so I got some Selley's Knead-It and put a nice big blob of that over it, seems to be working fine so far.