Tank repair

[JimF]

I wish I had taken better photos of the "before" on this tank, or that I could at least find the pictures I did take.

This is a Mach 1 tank I bought many years ago. It had an awful blue aftermarket paint on it, it had about three dents in obvious places that were deep and rounded indentations. There was also a crease just above the rear tank hook.

It sat on my shelf for years, and when my 'Diana' tank suffered from a stress fracture last season I put this Mach 1 tank on the bike to nurse the 250 through the end of the season.

When I put this M1 tank on the bike and filled it with gas for the first time fuel wept out of the right forward bottom part of the tank near the seam. I could see rust at the location but not a perforation.

I sanded away the rust where the droplets of gas were forming and sure enough there was a hole. I put a patch of fuel-resistant 2-part radiator goo on the tank to stem the leak and finished out the riding season.

WIth all the dents, the crease and the leak, and considering the value of a M1 tank I decided to go to a metal artisan as opposed to a body shop that would simply bondo up the tank and prime over the bondo.

I have seen Ross Thompson's repair of a dented BSA 441 Victor aluminum tank that was dented where the tank wears no paint. I had held that tank before the repair, I knew right where the dent was, how big it was, right where to look and after Ross repaired it I knew exactly where to look. Try as I did I could not find any evidence of the dent whatsoever. Not even a hint. I almost thought Ross must've switched tanks. It was like trying to figure out a magic trick.

http://www.execulink.com/~rosst/

So I sent my tank to Ross so he could work his magic on it and this is the result.

The Mach 1 tank is now perfect. All metal, no dents, no rust. Incredible work.

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[amartina75]

Jim,
I had my MK3 tank done by Ross about a year ago. He did a very good job on the repairs. The tank is still not perfect because there was one spot that was warped very badly from a previous poor brazing job. Ross did the best he could with it. I thought his prices for the repair were very reasonable. My tank being chrome added allot of expence to the job.
these are the before pictures I took

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[amartina75]

These are the pictures that Ross took after the chrome was stripped before he did the repairs

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[amartina75]

these are the pictures Ross took after he did the repairs, before chrome.

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[amartina75]

these are the pictures I took after getting the tank back from Ross and Brown's Chrome Plating

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[ecurbruce]

Jim, excellent looking repair! Mr. Thompson is a talented metal worker. It's not easy to make a repair without seeing or feeling the weld seams, And at least our old tanks have thick enough metal to make them workable, try doing that to a late model metal tank. They're just too thin.
Are the seams visible on the inside?
Amartina75, nice repair on your tank as well!

Bruce.