Twist-Throttle.com

Well I finally fixed the gas tank of my GS. I took the option of just buying a tap & die set, and then taking on the job of fixing the stripped threads myself. I wasn’t sure how well that would go, since I have only used a tap once, it was like 20 years ago in junior high school. I was afraid of totally messing up the threads beyond repair.

In the end, it was actually quite easy to do. I just tried to take my time & not rush it. I must say, that I feel really good in knowing that I did it myself, I can take satisfaction in that. So now the tank emblems are on & the threads are all cleaned up to put the fuel door cover back on, as well as the fuel petcock.

It felt good pushing the bike out of the garage & into my driveway… I can’t wait until I actually start to ride the thing !!

Here are some updated images from today of the bike. You can see the tank, as it looks in primer from the body shop, as well as the bend of my new handlebars… I feel that the handlebars are fairly close to what the Superbikes from the late 70’s ran… well I think so anyways…

So today, I decided to try something a little different… instead of just typing it all up, I thought I’d try something fun & video it. Besides, I needed something fun to work on… my GS’s gas tank is still causing me to struggle.

The basics of the video, in case you don’t want to wait for it to download are; that the tank in primer has primer on all of the threaded holes. I tried to thread the various fasteners back into the tank & have cross-threaded some, plus one little screw that holds on a tank emblem has broke off inside of the tank.

So I am becoming really frustrated with the tank part of my project. I’m going to have to have all of the holes tapped before I can go on… & I hope that the tiny screw hole that holds the tank emblem on is reparable… with it’s very small threads I mean.

About the video, sorry for the sort-of poor quality, it was shot with my digital camera, not a video camera, just a point & shoot digital camera.

Well I am excited that I did get my GS’s gas tank back from the body shop. I am very pleased with the results as well. The tank was taken to Excel Auto Body in Janesville, WI. I will recommend them to anybody who needs some body work done.

Originally they quoted me $100 to extract the broken bolt, repair the rust & then spray the tank with primer. After sandblasting the tank, they actually found some holes from rust damage. The holes were not on the sides, but back where the tank & seat butt up to each other. To repair these holes, the bodyshop needed to weld the tank, then they applied some kind of a fiberglass something or another, maybe he said resin something… not sure, sorry. They also applied some filler in the deep pits from the rust damage on the side by the emblems, and then of course it was all sanded smooth & finally sprayed with 2 coats of primer.

Even after the additional work from finding the holes in the tank, they still held to my $100 quote & charged me exactly that. I was prepared for the final price to be higher because of the additional work. So of course I was pumped about that. At this point, they told me that I should wet-sand the tank with 600-800 grit sand paper & then it would be ready to be painted. But as I wrote before, I will likely just run the primer for the last couple of months of summer, then likely get the bike painted over the winter. Oh, and he did recommend again that I do get the inside of the tank re-coated with that rubber liner chemical… this is since they blasted some holes in the tank & welded them up. Again, I’m going to wait until winter to do that along with the painting.

One thing that I’ve noticed is that there is a little bit of “something” inside the tank, it can be seen from the filler hole. Not sure if it’s sanding dust, fiberglass “something” from the weld repair, or what… it looks similar to sand. So I’ll need get that out first things this weekend. I still need to give that some thought on how I’m going to do that, I have some old 2-stroke gas in the garage, maybe I’ll swish that around in the tank & rinse it out with that… without the fuel petcock on it, since that has a screen to filter.

Also, the filler hole has a touch bit of rust just above the line where the rubber liner starts inside of the tank… maybe I’ll sand that lightly, before I rinse the tank out. I don’t see it as a big deal, but I’d just feel better if I didn’t see the rust when I removed the filler cap.

But yes, in the end, I am very happy with my tank, it looks great now… although only in primer gray color. No rust, pitting & etc is very sweet! I have very little experience body work to really know, but to me, the $100 was a nice price to get the rust repaired correctly & that busted bolt finally extracted… as both things were kind of kicking my ass… I’d rather spin wrenches then do body work.

Oh, I am also excited to install my new OEM tank emblems that I bought from Suzuki last winter… as well as replace the tank filler cap “cover” piece as well. More fun things to do this weekend!

Today I swung into the bodyshop that is doing the body work on my gas tank. They told me that after they did some blasting of it, that they found some holes. That was the whole thing that I was trying to avoid by having the tank’s rust repaired, even though I am not ready to have the tank actually painted. The rust had penetrated through, right where the seat butts up to the tank.

The bodyshop made it sound like it’s not a big deal, that they just welded it up & that they mostly likely will be done with the tank tomorrow. They did recommend that I do get the inside coated again, like I had already gotten done. So that would be another $50 from the place that I go in town. He said that since they welded it up & that the hole penetrated all the way through, that it would be a good idea to have re-coated again inside of the tank. I will plan on that, but I’ll likely wait until this winter.

After I left the bodyshop & was thinking about this, it made me even more glad that I took it to a bodyshop to get done, instead of me continuing to try & do it myself. I’m not sure if I would have found the holes, unless it started leaking onto the floor after I was done with it & all back on the bike. Also, I don’t know how to weld… so I would have had to bring it to them anyways with the holes being an issue now. So it does pay to have the pros do some things

So hopefully tomorrow I can get my tank back, then I’ll most likely install my brand new OEM tank emblems (even though its only in primer) & get the tank all ready to be put back on the bike. Currently I’m still waiting on my work buddy to find the piece needed to fix my broken electrical connector for my ignition switch…. as well as the correct size tap to repair my busted idle adjuster knob on the carbs (he says it’s an uncommon size). It’s getting closer to this years first test ride…

Today at lunch, I gladly brought my GS’s gas tank to the bodyshop. After struggling with trying to do the rust repair myself, as well as extracting the broken bolt that is threaded in the tank… I am happy & relieved to be handing that part of the project off to the professionals. So for my $100 quote, they will be extracting the broken bolt from the tank (re-tapping the threads once removed), repairing the rust damage on the tank & then finally spraying the tank with a quality primer (epoxy I believe). It would be a good idea to have them spray the tank with some paint right away, but since money is tight & I’m undecided on what I’m going to do for a paint scheme, I’m just going to run it in primer for the remainder of this summer. For how much I was struggling & not enjoying the body work, this $100 isn’t too bad of a deal.

I must say though, who would ever want to hand sand bodywork to get the paint off. I had tried that, plus tried using a sander on my Dremel. What a pain in the ass that was. Per the guy at the bodyshop’s request, I bought some paint stripper & removed the paint with that before I brought him the tank to do the work. Using paint stripper was soo easy! Just brush it on, & then like 10 minutes later, I first heard it, then saw it… the paint was bubbling right off of the tank.

Once I got all of the paint off of the tank, it was very obvious to see the areas that I tried to sand the paint. Just like the guy at the bodyshop said, I was making more work for them or myself, whoever would be doing the painting. The areas that were removed only with the paint stripper were totally smooth. The areas that I did, they are all gouged up & need to be smoothed before it can be painted.

Actually, I kind of thought the tank looked tough in it raw-finish state… makes me wonder more about what color to have it painted when the time comes.

This is the first time that I have embed video from other sources on my site, but I thought that these 2 videos from Jay Leno kicked ass. I often forget that he is a legitimate motorhead.

From the day that I bought my GS, the fuel tank has been rusty & in need to repairs. It doesn’t leak, but is definitely pitted in appearance from the rust damage. In addition to the rusty sides of the tank, from corrosion, one of the screws that holds the gas cap cover has broken off inside the threads of the tank when I tried to unscrew it.

I first tried to do the bodywork myself with sander on my Dremel, but after I gave up & took it into a bodyshop for a quote, they said that I made it worse because of my scratches & abrasions. They said that I should have & still should just use some quality paint stripper to remove all of the paint chemically. If I brought the tank it totally stripped of paint, they quoted me $100 to; repair rust, extract broken bolt & spray tank with a quality primer.

Since receiving that quote, I had planned on bringing the tank back to the bodyshop, but now money got tight, so over the last couple of days I tried again to do the work myself. It keeps turning out to be a very frustrating experience for me.
First I tried to removed the broken bolt. I found a couple of articles on the Internet, so I bought a screw/bolt extractor. After soaking the bolt in rust penetrate, drilling the hole & engaging the extractor… the extractor broke off inside the jammed bolt… just like the article warned about happening. So now I have a bigger mess in removing the bolt then when I started.
About the tank sides itself, I pondered trying some kind of a rust chemical, but now I’m just thinking of sanding the loose rust off & spraying the tank with Rust-oleum primer. But I know that would only be a temporary fix and that by itself would do nothing to smooth the tank where the rust has pitted it.

This pic is the broken bolt inside of the tank, but now with the busted screw/bolt extractor broken off inside the bust bolt just to make things worse.

I suppose an option would be for me to buy a tank that is not rusted. But when I bought the bike, the tank was rusted inside as well, so I had a local shop put this rubber coating inside the tank. The inside of the tank is totally coated now & will no longer rust inside. That cost me $50. Because of this, I do not want to lose the tank & start over with a different tank.

Right now I see my options as:
1. Just paint the tank as it sits now with the Rust-oleum primer, leave the busted bolt in place & later have it all done right.
2. Try again to remove bolt, try on my own to do the bodywork to repair the rust. Then primer the tank with Rust-oleum.
3. Bit the bullet, get the $100 & have the tank done right, hopefully they will still be able to extract that bolt as well.

#1 This would be a easy temporary solution. This would allow me to get the tank exposed to the environments again, but the tank could possibly rust even further underneath the primer while I wait to have the tank professionally repaired.
#2 I do not see myself trying this option any longer.
#3 This would be the best solution, but I’m not sure if I’ll have the extra $100 this month of July… I know, lame… but that’s the way it goes. I am hoping to ride the bike in the next couple of weeks, so temporarily doing Option #1 might be the way to go, then when I can afford the professional work, then strip the paint myself with the paint stripper & bring the tank in to the pros.

Man, I don’t know how some people enjoy it, but to me, bodywork really sucks!
I suppose part of it is having the correct tools & work place for the job…