Blowing up tanks to push dents out?

edelweiss

edelweiss

Coast to Coast
Is there a company that can pressurize a tank to "blow" out dents? A neighbor I knew years back would send his vintage dirt bike exhausts to California to have dents removed this way.

Thanks!
John
 
Any creased dent won't remove the creases by pressurizing. If it's not a creased dent a spoon worked on the back side, a-la "paintless dent repair" would remove the dent anyways.
 
I have used a blood pressure cuff to remove a few dents in tanks. Roll it up, stuff it as close to the dent as possible, and start inflating. Doesn't work on creased or really mangled stuff, and it's hit-or-miss on even un-creased dents, but a cuff is about $5, and it's reusable, so it's worth a shot.
 
I have been known to pop really big shallow dents with a hand "seal" and a few burst of compressed air.
It doesn't work on anything smaller than a softball size dent though.
 
Just slosh some gas around and drop a match in...it will blow out ALL your dents. :)


Disclaimer....don't do this.
 
gijoe13844 said:
Just slosh some gas around and drop a match in...it will blow out ALL your dents. :)


Disclaimer....don't do this.
Click to expand...

This man is a visionary!
 
A guy at work put a couple pounds of air pressure in his two stroke exhause then used an oxy torch to heat up the dent, popped it out no problem.
 
I can see this being on an episode of The Science of Stupid. (no disrespect intended)

CleanO2 Carbon Capture Tech
 
this might work: http://hackaday.com/2014/08/13/hydroforming-in-the-garage-with-a-pressure-washer/
 
gijoe13844 said:
Just slosh some gas around and drop a match in...it will blow out ALL your dents. :)


Disclaimer....don't do this.
Click to expand...
hahaha funniest thing I read was, don't do this.
 
I actually gave this kit below a serious try on tank dings ( no really, I did ! ;D .. seriously ! )

video:

http://youtu.be/I4JkLX3AIjU
 
edelweiss said:
Is there a company that can pressurize a tank to "blow" out dents? A neighbor I knew years back would send his vintage dirt bike exhausts to California to have dents removed this way.

Thanks!
John
Click to expand...
I have seen this done by my local Honda dealer back when I was a kid. I messed up my tank on my XL100, and a mechanic there took the tank, strapped it to a bench with blocks of wood on each side, installed a gas cap with a fitting for the air hose and POP! The big dent popped right out. Scared the crap out of me, I just
Knew it was going to explode or something, but he said he did it all the time.
 
Thomas_Hudson said:
I have seen this done by my local Honda dealer back when I was a kid. I messed up my tank on my XL100, and a mechanic there took the tank, strapped it to a bench with blocks of wood on each side, installed a gas cap with a fitting for the air hose and POP! The big dent popped right out. Scared the crap out of me, I just
Knew it was going to explode or something, but he said he did it all the time.
Click to expand...

You can indeed pop back out large simple dents this way. It is also an easy way to destroy a tank or get seriously injured. The key is to block the sides and strap it down so it is constrained. If you had a perfect heavy mold of the tank you could put a ton of pressure in it and remove pretty much any dent, but without such perfect constraint you are limited to large minor dents. Nearly any tank will flatten itself out with very little pressure. A vertical cross section across most tanks looks like an upside down "U". Just a few pounds of pressure will turn it into really wide upside down "V" and more pressure will turn it into a sphere. Block the sides and strap it down though and big dents will often pop out, though not "like it never happened". Only takes a few lbs of pressure. No doubt you could get out smaller dents too by heating with a torch. Regardless, neither method makes a perfect repair, so if you actually want it fixed, just pull the dents (stud welder/slide hammer, etc) and repaint.
 
If someone wants to send me another tank with dents, I will demonstrate the compressed air ... and also the frozen ice methods. ;D ;D ;D

In the meantime, here is some other dent fix tips in this technical video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB0eRYHtpYo
 
i've done it to an rd350 lc tank,i put a ratchet strap around it and stuck an airline on the fuel tap.it worked well but go careful.if it goes wrong it's probably going to hurt.a lot.
 
Block the petcock hole(s), fill it 3/4 with water, plug gas hole with a rubber plug (just for safety sake) and throw in freezer for a couple days.
 
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