Saving Old Seagulls

Hi Guys

I see this has been a subject of interest before. What is the safe way to cut the ends off a fuel tank. I have a very badly dented tank and it needs severe measures to resurrect it. Will I be ok to use a stick of hard solder when replacing the ends?

Thanks

Mr Horsely Annorak has described in detail on here how he removes the ends to refurbish badly dented tanks. You could do a search or wait until he comes along and directs you to the info.

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/fo ... ?f=2&t=986

And you can look at a vid on youtube "British Seagull tank end removal"

Make sure that there is no trace of petrol in the tank.

If there is petrol vapour in the tank it may well explode.

Strong detergent and hot water will remove the petrol, better still steam clean it with loads of detergent.

Good luck

H-A

Thanks, looks pretty straight forward.
Can I use a stick of hard solder to put the ends back on. I'm a plumber to trade and am used to wiping joints.

Gerard

Soft solder is OK, If you are a plumber why would you be using Hard Solder????

H-A

You can use any solder and flux that will tin the brass..........bog standard soft solder plumbing kit is just fine....

Click on pic to enlarge........

Peter

Thought hard solder because it was a fuel tank, didn't know if soft solder would be ok against the fuel, no ther reason. I'm not familiar with using solder in fuel tanks, only lead and copper pipes and flashings.

Which tank is it?
The round 102's are usually thicker and stronger than the oval Centuries.

My point is - a couple of Century tank ends I have removed have half disintegrated. You don't find how rotten they are until the heat has been applied. Should this happen, you won't be replacing the ends with soft solder; the ends are originally are brazed on with braze which require nearly as much heat to remove as to melt the actual tank. To rebuild the bits of tank end (if you haven't got a sheet of new brass) - you will be brazing.

The equipment required really is oxy propane with a large tar warmer nozzzle, you need to heat continuously around the base for quite some time until very hot. It will drop off when it wants to. Preferably into a bucket of cold water.
I once heated an end and also had compressed air fed to the other end. When the end blew off it took more than half an hour to find it . . .

Thanks for your knowledge on this subject, in fact it's Forty + tanks I have and I believe they come off quite easily, as I seen in one of the videos posted here. I'll need to get hold of a large propane torch as my smaller torch won't be of much good. I know what you mean about the brazing, however it's not required on these ones.

Best of luck, please post progress . . .

hi guys
did H.A ever post the photo of the disassembled tank? if so could someone please help me find it as i dont seem to be able to get the search to work properly. thanks
bill

Start off with this and work forward up to his magnificent filmed lecture:

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/fo ... 5037#p5037

thanks RBT and H.A. might have a crack myself on a spare 102 tank i have. cheers
bill