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Someone please talk me out of designing and fabricating a custom fiberglass gas tank...

GO FOR IT! If I had the tools and knowledge, I would give it a try myself. Please let me know how it comes out!

if you have plenty of time to spare : GO FOR IT

dont underestimate the work involved . ( and the workshop gets very messy )
last month i made a wooden buck to have a stab at making a aluminum tank



thats about how far i got .

Eldert

Fibreglass tanks are in the news a bit lately, with reports of problems with fuels that contain alcohol.

Jordan

I've thought about building a tank myself, but always hit a roadblock. I built some seats many years ago, and it's not difficult, but a tank is different. Most of the FRP(fiberglass reinforced plastic) tanks I've seen are 2 pieces, a top and a tunnel, like this, a cross section through the tank:

Actually, they're like the picture on the left, the problem is that I like the rounded bottom pictured on the right, and that would involve building multipart molds. I just don't like that flat slab sided look- here's my Imola tank:

And a picture of the bottom showing the construction:

If you're OK with the flat side/bottom, it wouldn't be too hard. Eldert is right, it's a messy job- you floor will be sticky, little chunks of glass glued to your fingers, etc. It's not very healthy to breath the small glass fibers, and the resin is powerful too, so safety is a concern.
Plus, when you're done, you'll still have a FRP tank that has a bad failure mode- it won't dent, it'll rupture.
It wasn't your question but FYI, here's a picture of my widecase Mark3 with a Mach1 seat and a Benelli tank. The Benelli tank is narrower and rounder at the back than a Mach1 tank, and they show up on Ebay for around $150.00 instead of $500.00 for the Mach1 tank. I like the Benelli tank better than the Mach1 tank, but just my opinion. It's just sitting there- will require some heating/pounding/welding, etc, to get it to fit. And it's steel.


Rick

Yeah Eldert! That is super-cool... out of wood no less. Are you going to use that as a buck to form alloy panels? Then weld them all together?

Anybody know of a fiberglass fabricator (other than Airtech)? I'm wondering if I found a smaller, competent fiberglass fabricator and provided full scale sectioned drawings (like a ship hull) as well as a soft model out of rigid polystyrene (insulation panels), then they could fabricate it. Probably expensive, eh?

blaat! wrote:Anybody know of a fiberglass fabricator (other than Airtech)? I'm wondering if I found a smaller, competent fiberglass fabricator and provided full scale sectioned drawings (like a ship hull) as well as a soft model out of rigid polystyrene (insulation panels), then they could fabricate it.

Maybe these guys?
http://www.roccitycafe.com/store.php

I don't know much about them. Maybe Tony Leone does?

Pete

there are other people that make you a fiberglass tank , here is one

http://www.tannermatic.com/Tannermattic/Home.html

Eldert

Eldert wrote:if you have plenty of time to spare : GO FOR IT

dont underestimate the work involved . ( and the workshop gets very messy )
last month i made a wooden buck to have a stab at making a aluminum tank



thats about how far i got .

Eldert

Nice job Elbert looks like that would have been the mold for one of my tanks...

I built the tank for my 250 and yes it is abit of work. But good thing is you can make EXACTLY like what you want. I built mine from block of foam shaped to finish. Then i overlayed it with carbon fiber, no vacuum bag just nice clean well laid. I put two layers down then cut out the tunnel. You remove all the foam remanents from the inside then build up the strength from the inside so it does not mess with the shape. I made a aluminum neck to accept the small OEM gas cap that is glassed in from inside, 4 layers = 3mm thick. I beveled the mating edges then relaid the seam. The end results came out really good. I had my painter then finish the tank leaving the center panel exposed to show the carbon fiber. She only had to do some really minor finishing and it is so smooth that NO work was done to the exposed carbon. It is two years now and still leak free and looking great. I did get it super clean then slosh it REALLY good with Caswells tank liner to prevent any problems.
I have built several other tanks over the years for a road race sportster and all worked really well.

You never know unless you give it a try.

I do have step by step of the tank build photos but they are not a reduced image i can post. But the finish tank canbe seen on the bike at.........

http://s1186.photobucket.com/albums/z375/mmcgeach/

Scrambler.