ATV Gas Tank Repair

So I purchased my brother's old XR100 back from Jimmy. He told me it had a gas tank leak.

I took it off tonight and the leak is a rust spot from the bottom seam on the tank. Any ideas on how to repair it? I have 3 thoughts:

1) Properly flush the tank, i.e. no gas in it, put water in and out several times, run air through it for a day. Then try to lay a bead of weld over the rust hole. I think this would be very hard because the metal is already thin, but add in the rust, makes it way thin

2) Properly flush the tank like above, make a small patch piece and weld it over like a scab. Advantage here is I might be able to get to better metal, disadvantage is I will create a little pocket in the tank

3) Some kind of epoxy? any suggestions? JB Weld, Do you guys think it would hold? It would suck to be out somewhere and be stranded cause the tank ruptured, spilled gas on me and the bike, then caught me and the bike on fire....

Thoughts? Anyone got experience with this?

they make a gas tank repair epoxy

jeep people fix tj tanks with jb weld. something cracks whenever they do a body lift, I don't remember what it is though.

acid etch it from the inside. see how bad it is after you rinse. patch like you said. either weld or weld on a patch. by the special tank coating for the inside and out it in there.
look in eastwood catalog for kit.

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Originally Posted by Graystroke

acid etch it from the inside. see how bad it is after you rinse. patch like you said. either weld or weld on a patch. by the special tank coating for the inside and out it in there.
look in eastwood catalog for kit.

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I have done the etch, rinse, coat thing on bikes before. The crappy thing about this bike is the inside of the tank looks good. I am really surprised it rusted out.

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Originally Posted by KrazyKarl02

I have done the etch, rinse, coat thing on bikes before. The crappy thing about this bike is the inside of the tank looks good. I am really surprised it rusted out.

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it looked like it rusted just a little bit where it the gas sat when on the kickstand.

Didn't you get something for xmas that will fix this? :)

por 15 has a tank sealer kit

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Originally Posted by davido

Didn't you get something for xmas that will fix this? :)

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I don't want to waste my Mighty Putty.

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Originally Posted by Reckless

por 15 has a tank sealer kit

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this is what i would recommend, It sucks welding on used gas tanks when they are thin.

After listening to everyone's advice, I decided to do my own thing. We should rename this thread "Well I guess you could do it that way...."

Have you ever seen some project that was not quite right? Examples: 1) Welding the TTB arms together on a Bronco, 2) Cooking hamburgers on an indoor electric grill, 3) Pretty much anything Kopecki has ever done... These things you see and you step back and think, well I guess it does not boldly break the laws of gravity or space time continuim, so, well I guess you could do it that way....

Most people I talked to said to weld a patch plate in, but that seemed like a lot of work and the idea of welding around a gas tank seemed horrible.... I cleaned the tank up and found the rust hole was way worse than anyone could have guessed. I did some internet research and saw where some people had used JB Weld <step in and say "Well I guess you could do it that way". The pictures shows what 4 layers of JB Weld and some harvest orange paint will do....

Next was the muffler. 24 years had rusted this muffler to crap. My dad, Jerry, and Jimmy had all tried to "fix" this with various things like PVC, flashing, worm clamps, screws, and prayer

Some of you might point out you can buy replacement "silencers" on ebay for about 40 bucks. My experience with this is they are loud and finding one that fit the pipe close enough would be hard. Finding this original part is hard and quite expensive ($400). So I decided to make my own muffler, "Well I guess you could do it that way....."

My first issue was the existing muffler was 3" in diameter. This is a challenge since 3" pipe is fairly rare (standard sizes are 2" and 4"). However I was in O'reilly's and saw a piece of 3" exhaust pipe for $6. I had a piece of 1-1/4" pipe from a chain link fence and some left over sheet metal.

I took the 1-1/4" pipe and crossed drilled it with my drill press. I cut 2 end caps from sheet metal and drilled one out for exhaust to flow through and one for the pipe to fit through.

Previous to welding it out, I put some secret "batting" in it to muffle it some. I cut the original mounting tab off the bike and what was left of the muffler. Then I welded it on. It is not the prettiest thing, by any means.

I put some gas in the tank, so far no leaks!

Fired it up, it is no longer loud, sounds pretty close to stock. I did not want to rev it way up since it was like 8:30 when I finished it. I'll throw some paint on it and it should be good.

So, Well I guess you could do it that way....

welding to gas tanks is not scary.... just empty it and clean it out with water.

example
take 3 gas tanks

http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0001_012.jpg

cut out parts of what you need

http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0003_008.jpg
http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0005_006.jpg

relocate parts

http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0006_009.jpg

weld

http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0022_005.jpg
http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0032_003.jpg
http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0033_003.jpg

gas tank putty just for insurance :flipoff2:

http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0034_004.jpg

done

http://tamor.us/members-rigs/albums/...CF0037_001.jpg

I vote the name be changed to "CRAP-tak-youlur ways to fix a bike that kolpeker never even dreamed of!"

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Originally Posted by DRAGOONRANCH

I vote the name be changed to "CRAP-tak-youlur ways to fix a bike that kolpeker never even dreamed of!"

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do the brakes next!! :gigem:

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Originally Posted by J Cooper

do the brakes next!! :gigem:

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Unfortunately the brakes work :(

snip snip....

now get to work.