Has anyone ever heard of filling the gas tank up with water and putting it in a deep freezer and letting the ice pop a dent out? doesn't make sense to me. I would think that the ice would act on all surfaces equally, not just the area with the dent. Obviously would have to gut the tank of any EFI stuff.

 

It will expand the weakest spots.

Not sure it would work on a tank, the metal is a bit heavier, but I have used inflatable *****, like a football, to remove some dents on cars.

 

Wives tale. I would bet it would work really good splitting the welded seams though. Best bet in repairing a dent without painting is to get behind it from inside the tank and massage it out using specific tools made for paintless dent repair. Even then its a crap shoot depending upon location and tightness of the dent.

 

My brother dropped my '99 FXDX, drove the right turn signal into the tank. A deep, half egg shaped dent, right in the curve. I took it to every dent repair shop, and some regular body shops in the area. No one wants to deal with fuel tanks. I tried icing it, and pulling with suction cups, didn't work. Fix was a new tank. $$$

 

I had my tank repaired last year by a local (south carolina) body shop. They used the rivet method. Pulled the dent out as much as they could and then filled/smoothed with body filler. Only cost me $100, and the guy stripped and primed the tank as well.

The rivets were spot-tacked on the exterior, then a slide hammer used to pop the dent out.

A heck of a lot cheaper than buying a new tank.

 

If you have any paintless dent repair shops in the area, like Dent Doctor, it's worth a try to ask. They might be afraid of causing a spark, but maybe they have a sparkless tool.

 

I just dealt with this. Couldn't find anyone that wanted to work with mine (paintless dent repair I mean) because they said the thicker metal on tanks often breaks their tools.
Pretty much everyone I spoke with told me I would have to go the route Longhair did. I ended up just ordering an entire new paint set form Colormania for $1200. Now I have to sell my original tank and fenders and we will see what my total out of pocket ends up being.

 

One thing that I totally forgot was something that HemiOrange said that sparked my memory.

When I had my dent fixed, the auto body guy asked me how long the tank hand been aired out.

I'd suggest you empty all the gas out of the tank and then remove the dash and cover underneath (that gives you access to the internals (fuel pump, etc). Let it air out for a few days.

Now I understand why no one wanted to touch it. That whole blowing one's self up can really put a damper on any given day.

Tank disassembly is super easy.

You'll need to disassemble the fuel gauge connector (2 or 3 wires). Just make note of wire color and orientation.

Disassembling the internals is just as easy. The fuel pump slides up and then you have to rotate it to get it out of the tank.

Don't forget to remove the fuel line to the throttle body. You have to pull the collar down, and then that just slips apart.

As a tip, what I did was open the dash and the access panel with a full tank and used one of those cheap hand pumps to remove the gas into an acceptable container (like the one pictured on the left):



When you disconnect the crossover, you'll get a little dripping but not much if you do your best to empty the tank as good as possible. I also loosened the front tank mount and was able to tip the tank up and then really suck all the gas out.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTARm...eature=related

 

The Dent Dr. that I went to made most of his own tools and was also a Harley dude. It is still possible that you can find a guy to do it.

On the other hand, the video that HD7585 posted up is easy to do. Heat it up with a heat gun and use an upside down aerosol duster to freeze it quick.

In the old days guys used to heat a panel with torch and lay a wet towel over it to quickly cool and shrink it.