Saving Old Seagulls

Has anyone tried the filling up with water method and freezing? Expansion pushes out the dents. Think it is mentioned on the main site.

you can get a half decent one off ebay for less than £20 delivered ..

I have tried the water method but I could not get the tanks to confess to conspiracy of any kind.

But seriously, it will help to push out some of the gentler dents, and help to a lesser extent with creases, but can severely deform the rest of an oval tank, depends how bad things are. See below. Works a bit better on round tanks. It really needs the tank to be held in some kind of clamshell mould to stop it deforming but by the time you have made that you might as well make the jigs for a fabricating new tanks.

To be honest, you are better off getting a replacement from John. Or living with the dents as a testament to the Seagull's working history.

Brim the tank with water (chilled to 4 degrees C ideally) seal with a filler cap and bung the fuel outlet (I used a tiller stud - it's the wrong thread but screwed in lightly until it just binds it will do the trick). Stick it in the freezer for an hour or two. Thaw, refill and repeat as many times as necessary. The bulging tank below had about 6 goes if I recall. In the end I just got a replacement from John.

If it does not fix the dents it will at least increase the fuel capacity - one way to get a longer range tank for free. But beware, if the tank distorts too much, it can pull apart the soldered joints where the mounting / bracing rods pass through the tank wall.

You could always just take the ends off.

H-A

I got so utterly fed up with the dents in one of my tanks I resorted to shovelling in a few hundred grains of old smokeless powder I used to use reloading my 6.5 x 55 swedish mausers ( 1942 Jungman and 1901 military long rifle)
Took cover and let rip.
No exactly sure of the results but from on top of the fishing shed I can partially see the tank about 200-300 yds away shining proudly on this distant roof .
I'm not prepared to admit ownership so unless a strong , very strong north easterly wind arrives I've lost it for good.
I therefore cannot confirm complete success or not so perhaps others should not attempt to copy me.
It does look good though.

My you really are grumpy! Remind me never to park in front of your house

Hey Grumpy. Was it you who blew up the Sturms letterbox on state highway 30 last week. ???

i know a guy who say's he puts a fuel cap on gets an airline connected to the outlet heats the dent on the outside with a blow lamp and blows it out with air pressure ... not tried it mysef..

Please don't use compressed air and a blow torch.

Any flame going near a petrol tank means you must MUST make sure there's no trace of petrol or petrol vapour left.

People get hurt by these things, I really can't stress the danger too much.

Pete, I'm going against my principals here, but you want to look at the ebay link on the board, there's a tidy tank going cheap.

A college friend of mine blew some dints out of a old round brass 102 tank of mine. He used argon gas after blocking off the tap hole and adapting the filler. The gas filled at around 85-90psi and a acetylene torch to heat around each dent. Most pushed out but the severe ones where beyond redemption.

Rather than pay a tin basher from yellow pages ive got one better than that 9.99 plus postage...any good?

acetylene torch
tried that on my old motorbike expansion pipes that were dented
welded up the ends and warmed up the dents it just didnt work for me