This is going to be a bit of a leap of faith - my first fuel tank repair. This is an MZ TS125/150 tank from son Thomas and has fortunately been empty for many years, having been stored in the open in someone’s garden - no wonder it’s rusty.
It’s made from two deep pressings, with a third to form the arch over the frame top tube. There appears to have been a butt weld between the two halves, which has corroded to holes. My plan is to take out the whole weld, all the way around, along with a 1/2” strip either side and then let in a 1” strip of 0.9 mm sheet. I make no apologies for mixing units - anarchy is alive and well here in the workshop.
Using the little Dremel discs to cut out the strip makes the job easy. It’s ideal if you can keep the sides parallel, since then you can make a filler with parallel sides and have a minimal gap which will require minimal filler material.
I held the sections in with magnets while tacking up:
The first section went in OK - I welded in short sections to avoid overheating the material and causing distortion:
It’s quite a slow job, but if you make sure you have a good position as you weld it’s not too difficult.
I used the little belt sander to clean the welds back:
Not a bad result, though it will need a skim of filler:
Pressure testing revealed two pin holes in my welding which were easily fixed. More worrying is a further pin hole behind one of the brackets, which is completely inaccessible and looks like it might turn into a bigger hole:
I’m going to use a tank sealant to fix that. More later.
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