In case you were wondering, why for example on my instagram account repeatedly pictures of me welding up a Suzuki Bandit 600 fuel tank showed up, well here's the answer. The short version is, if someone gives you a free bike it usually only is free, because it needs a fair bit of mechanical sympathy to get going again. This one needed a bit more than just sympathy.
Take a 1995 Suzuki GSF600 with almost 83,000km on the clock, a couple of crashes under its belt and it most likely had been washed the last time, when you still paid for gas with Schillings overhere.
The washing part was done on a somewhat superficial level, but resulted in a tremendous visual improvement. The fact that it wouldn't run was at best a minor nuisance as the original pictures make the bike look a lot cleaner than it actually was.
Aside from the usual dirt and junk in the carbs, the biggest issue was that the tank wasn't rust-proofed prior to parking the bike up several years and several terrible bodge-jobs that were done before. The worst one involving a huge GRP-mat, which was glued to the bottom of the tank and had one of the edges rust paper-thin, due to all the moisture trapped inbetween.
At this point I seriously thought this would be one "cut-and-shut" type of job...
One of my personal highlights was the fact that even the aluminium of the original petcock had started to dissolve. Something I have never seen before.
Of course once filled with petrol for a while, the tank developed another wet spot. Again, instead of fixing the problem properly the first time, someone decided to glue on a patch of dissimilar metals resulting in even more rust.
As mentioned before, the bottom of the tank, especially around the petcock had become PAPER-thin and welding warped it to the point that the petcock just wouldn't seal anymore - but dramatic problems mandate dramatic solutions, so a new support-plate for the petcock was made on the mill from 3mm steel.
Quite literally a base one could work from. From here onwards making the fuel tap seal to the tank's bottom side was no more a topic of concern.
Also even after several efforts of blowing out the tank with compressed air, this rusty mess is the fuel that came out of it.
Which was worsened, when someone came up with blowing some compressed air through the petcock (so far so good), but forgot to open the tank's fuel cap. Spoiler alert: luckily it had so many spots where it was nearly rusted through or the tank's shape would be best described as "a conversation piece".
... and this was literally the last hole, which I found only after adding more than just three or four litres of petrol.
As I was in a bit of a hurry, I resorted to a slightly more dramatic technique of draining the tank and then burning off (most of) the remaining petrol vapors inside.
Quick touch-up with the mig and the igniting vapors inside instantly killed the arc making for a VERY NICE and strong weld. (Not a technique I recommend.)
What you just so casually read, is about a month or two's progress or the lack thereof... more tomorrow.
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