Tank questions

While I'm waiting on my new petc0ck. I thought I'd tackle a few cosmetic issues.

-Anybody have a clever way to pop two dents out of a tank?

-There is some debris in the tank. what's the best method to flush it?

-The front pipes/manifolds are rusty. Is spray on chrome a waste of time? Some folks have blacked the pipes. Anybody else done anything creative?

 

What sort of Debris is it? Rust? If so, flush with petrol, then search on electrolysis

 

Spray on chrome? You mean chrome colored spray paint? That won't work on header pipes, too hot. Even if there's some kind of high heat version, it won't look very good, in my opinion. You may be able to do something with them, paint black, or you could use that exhaust wrap stuff. You know, the tape? Some guys like the way that looks, wrapping the headers in that.

I "flushed" my tank with water, a bunch of wood screws to scrape off rust, and phosphoric acid, sold as concrete etcher at Home Depot.

As for dents, there's a lot of techniques, how big of dents? Bondo might be easiest. Or you can rent a welder and use those dent pulling rivet things. Check on youtube, I've seen a lot of videos with body work tips on there.

 

The debris is just metal chips and dirt. nothing appears rusty. I'm going to flush it with gas.

The dents are big. About 4x3 in. and 2x3in. Not very deep or creased though, so I think there is hope.

 

Chrome paint looks like crap, especially on something that would get as hot as headers do. If I were you I'd just paint ten black or wrap them until you can find another set of headers to swap out.

 

I plan on trying out some of the techniques outlined in this video for the dent in my tank.

 

Yeah I tried everything but the blood pressure cuff. No luck.

 

For chroming the pipes, I did find this solution...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-1cTpSZ1l8

However, blacking them would still be easier. The trouble then is what to do with the mufflers...

 

If your tank isn't rusty inside and you just want to get some loose stuff out, pull the tank, drain it, let it dry out a few days til it's good and dry inside, shake everything down into the front right corner, now stick a vacuum cleaner extension down in there and just suck it out. Works like a charm.

Dave F

 

Ah. So simple. Thx hogfiddles.