Any luck with dry ice technique for dent removal??

[Longlivedixie]

Has anybody here used the dry ice and heat gun technique to deal with a small dent on a Valkyrie fuel tank. How did it work for you?

I got about a half-dollar sized shallow dent to deal with, in the curved area on the LHS.

BUT, I have a paint and body guy I know, that does bike work, say that the Honda tanks are too thick for that technique to work.

What say you??

Thanks!!

[BonS]

I tried it on a Valkyrie tank without any luck at all. Dry ice and a heat gun. No go. I then used Pops-A-Dent from the auto parts store. Much better luck. It's a pain in the A** to do and took some creative techniques because of the curvature of the tank but it worked pretty well. I'd say it removed 95% of the dent. The device comes with several sizes of tips that glue on the dented surface. I used the smallest one and even cut down the tip to make it as small as possible as the dent shrank as it was pulled out. I probably glued and popped on it about a dozen times until I couldn't see that I was doing any more good. But dry ice? No, no way.

[Patrick]

There is usually a shop in most neighborhoods that are good at popping small dents such as hail damage.  But the material in our fuel tanks is a lot heavier than most auto sheet metal today.

[R J]

For the dent I got in MGM's tank when he was about 6 weeks old, was fixed by Paintless Dent removal.

They got in the tank with a small thumper he called it and started tapping on the dent.   About 20 minutes later he asked me what I thought.   Said it looked good to me, but I want the Manager of the Body Shop to have a look see.

He run his hand over it and circled a couple of tiny dents.   The guy worked them out, presented the bill to the Body Shop and then took off.

Now Dry Ice, metal too think to work on our tank.   It will work on a fender.

I had a $5,000 estimate for hail damage on my Dakota.    Took a settlement with the Ins Co. and got me a bucket full of Dry ice.    Would lay a piece on the dent and a little bit you'd hear a thunk, some loud some almost not up to my bad hearing, hearing it.

It took me almost a week to get them all out.   The hood was full of little dents and the top had about 35 to 40 dents in it.     I was going to replace the hood with a after market with a couple of louvers in it.   Of course my Dakota is the or was the last year produced so the after market people didn't bother making any parts.     So, I spent almost everyday for a week about 5 or 6 hours a day holding dry ice on the dents.    I finally got 99% of them out.   Every once in awhile I see one, so I just park it outside in the HOT sun and it will usually pop out.

[..]

Yes..

Wear some REALLY thick glove when handling dry ice.

[Longlivedixie]

Thanks much for that info and advice BonS!! I will look into that product. Appreciate it!

[Longlivedixie]

Thanks Patrick.......I will look at that option if I have no luck goofin' with it myself.

[Longlivedixie]

Thanks much for the advice and info RJ.

If I had the right tool, I may be able to knock it out myself from the inlet (if removed). That is an idea. I may check around and see if I can find a suitable tool. Appreciate it!!