[Dave Z.]

Yes...I am working on Harley fuel tanks. My bike has fat bob tanks which are actually two separate tanks. The tanks I have are stretched tanks which are longer than stock tanks. Well they are to wide for my liking so I cut the "flat" side out of the tank and cut about 3 inches out of the width of the tanks...to narrow them. My first attempt was to reuse the flat side of the tank and re weld it into the newly narrowed tank shell. Well...little did I know that MIG welding and without purging was sure failure. I pressure tested the tanks and they leaked like crazy. THEN I asked experienced welders what I did wrong and learned my lesson. So....now I once again cut out the flat side of the tank but this time it wasn't reusable. So I had to form a new side. I made a plywood form to fit the shape I needed and formed my new side over it. I ran into problems with making a curved flange, as the metal wanted to ripple kinda like the curved edge of a tin dust pan. I solved that by making cuts to allow it to overlap, then I trimmed the overlap and welded the cut back to solid. What led me here is the burning question...is this how its done. I try to do anything I do "right". I started looking up metal shaping info and found this site. Even before this project I had great interest in metal forming. Actually hand formed parts. Jesse James and his bikes and his metal skills always fascinated me. Id love to know half what he does. Ill try to get some pics up of what Im describing with my project. Im going to try TIG welding my new side onto the shell with silicon bronze rod this time. I have a welder friend that said that's the best way to go here. Anyway...Im really looking forward to doing more metal work and learning also.