Date:         Fri, 24 Sep 2004 13:31:34 EDT
Reply-To:     THX0001@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         George Goff <THX0001@AOL.COM>
Subject:      Re: repair gas tank
Comments: To: albeeee@MCHSI.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

In a message dated 9/24/04 12:29:30 PM, albeeee@MCHSI.COM writes:

<< Does anyone have any experience popping out dents with air pressure.

Or is this a good way to get my name on the obit page? . . .

. . . I think a tank emptied of gasoline is perhaps more explosive than one
filled with gas.

Al brase

 >>

Al,

You're right about an empty gas tank having a fondness for going KA-BOOM!

Some thoughts:

If it were a shallow dent over a large area, air pressure might work, but
without shrinking the metal once the dent is popped, it will tin can, i.e., just
pop in and out with any pressure changes.

Being that it is a corner dingo, you might want to try hydrostatic pressure.
At least 100 psi is available from almost any city water tap, so you would be
off to a good start and the explosion potential becomes moot.  This base
pressure could then be increased by almost any amount using a manual hydraulic
pump.  But you better have that tank properly caged or have a long hose tagged
onto your pump.  The real problem with this approach is suitably sealing off all
the penetrations in the tank.

Perhaps Dentbusters or some other such paintless dent repair operation has
the non-sparking tooling and the experience to pop out these dents.

George