Gas tanks and fire LOL!!!!

[ricko1966]

I was on another site and some one wanted to remove a dent in a gas tank,man,o,man some of the suggestions people came up with. The best was spray in starting fluid and throw in a match let the explosion blow the dent out. There were numerous other bits of advice, but I have actually repaired gas tanks not just brainstormed about it. I have pulled dents using a slide hammer and brazing the holes shut I now have a unispotter so that's no longer neccesary.But all the suggestions on how to weld on a potentially explosive container. Fill it with water to displace the vapors the problem there is it displaces the vapors to the spot right below where you are welding.Here is the only method I know for making a gas tank or what have you safe Rinse it out,rinse it out again and put a garden hose in the tailpipe of a running car and the other end into what you are welding on. The exhaust fumes are depleted of oxygen,no oxygen equals no cumbustion. Much safer then rinsing and welding an empty tank or one full of water. IMHO All my tanks were motorcycle his is some 20's whatever where the tank is an asthetic part of the car.

[william]

I've put shop air to them before and tapped on the high spots. But mostly stud welder and slide hammer. I've seen people split tanks at the seams from air so no way I would ever think about the fire ball method lol

[1990new]

You could also drop a firecracker in it. When I was 12 I dropped a lit one into a 500 gallon tank that had been sitting "empty" for a couple of years on our farm.
At it turned out it wasn't empty after all. The noise it made sounded like a fighter jet as flames shot out of the 3 different sized holes on the top and both ends pooched out.
It's amazing it didn't come to pieces. We took 15 more gallons of gas out of the bottom of the tank after it cooled down.