Rusted Tank- have a welder patch or get it RENU-ed

[storysunfolding]

The new Vision is getting worked over before I send her to get painted. However, her tank still leaks. I tried the JB weld and POR but that didn't hold up. So do I take the tank to a welder to have the current leaks patched and hope more don't show up, or do I have it RENU-ed for an extra $150? Any other options that aren't occuring to me?

[NorthernPete]

Depends on how good you want it to look, and how good your welder and paintshop is....

If it will look much much better, Id go for the RENU.

[storysunfolding]

The process won't make a difference in looks it's more in degree of repair.

The welder will seal the current leaks, check for weak areas and fix those then pressure test it to make sure everything holds- $50

But that doesn't take into account that there is still ongoing corrosion in the tank.

The RENU process cuts the tank open, blasts out the old liner and corrosion, fixes the leaks the coats the inside in a liner and the outside in a different liner. Starts at $200- ends around 300.

It's a days pay but the paint job is only costing me $200 (PPG paint, 4 coats color, 4 coats clear) for royal blue with an offcenter white racing stripe on the tank, side panels, side rails, tail piece and fairing... so at that ridiculous price I also want to take advantage of it before he reconsiders.

[NorthernPete]

could allwasy weld it and then POR the inside again...

[storysunfolding]

Do you think that's the best route?

[NorthernPete]

Well, for me it would be, just finacially. I never heard of the RENU thing before, and if it will last longer then a weld/POR job, why not. One thing

Welding = 50 bucks, POR = about 30? total cost say 80

RENU approx 250 right?

so even if it didnt hold up and it started leaking, we will assume it doesnt require another paint job though, you could redo the POR ( shouldnt need to reweld the hole if it was done right) another 10 times for the cost. it would be a headache though.

if money isnt an option, and the bikes running well, do your RENU thing, itll give you more peice of mind more then likely.

[storysunfolding]

Doing the POR requires airplane stripper which would probably destroy the paint job. But I guess if I stripped the current job, rattled some bolts around with some naval jelly and got most of the rust off, had it welded, had it pored and then repainted I'd probably be in decent shape.

The only thing I worry about is if the metal has rusted away inside to the point where I have about 7 pinhole leaks, how thin is it in other places?

[oldschoolorange]

I have used a product called Kream or cream something loke that and It works great. It comes with an acid to eat away the rust and give your coating a nice etched finish to stick on, It has been 4 years since I did it on my 1970 yamaha and I have had no problems. It costa about 60 Canadian and takes a few hours to do it properly

[9000white]

try this before you do any of that.
type in findmypart.com
under motorcycles list what you want.be specific about wanting a tank with no rust.these people are connected to scrapyards nationwide.
sometimes you can get what seems to be ungettable parts from them.

[storysunfolding]

I have used a product called Kream or cream something loke that and It works great. It comes with an acid to eat away the rust and give your coating a nice etched finish to stick on, It has been 4 years since I did it on my 1970 yamaha and I have had no problems. It costa about 60 Canadian and takes a few hours to do it properly

I tried using Kreem once but never try using an additive for cleaning your carbs- it will take the kreem right off and hopefully clog your inline fuel filter (you do have one right?) otherwise it goes right into the carbs... awful.

POR is a similar product and I like it, but it didn't seal the leak on my tank, though they don't claim to fix leaks with their product itself so I guess the fanfare that pushed me to it wasn't as good as I thought.

9000- I'm checking out findmypart