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Tank
***WARNING : THE TANKS I USED ARE BRAND NEW NEVER FUELED BEFORE I
WOULD NOT CUT GRIND OR WELD ON TANKS THAT HAVE HAD FUEL IN THEM AT ANY TIME ; FUEL + HEAT FLAME/SPARK COULD BE DANGEROUS***
First I took the Tanks and cut off all the factory "tabs
and ears" for mounting them to what ever bike they was made for.
Tanks are : West Coast Chopper , Jesse James , Made
in Taiwan BTW .
Then I took a 4" long by 1 3/4" I.D. , typical piece of
exhaust pipe you can buy at any auto parts store.
I cut the pipe in half long ways , I centered these on the
frame one towards the front and the other to the rear I describe this as a "Tank Joiner"
With the joiners in place on the frame I put one tank as
close to the top of the motor as possible and right up tight into the frame/backbone and weld one half of the tank to the
joiners .
This was easy.
The second half of the tank is tricky , I had to line it
up with the frame and the other half while keeping enough play between the tanks so they can be removed easy and any or all
cables that run under the tank are not pinched.
Once everything is clamped in place I welded the second
half to the joiner giving me one tank.
Notice how the tanks fit nicely into the frame , You might
be able to also see the tabs I cut off the tanks to start with are laid in over the "joiners" and welded , I did this for
added support these little tabs are thick steel , plus if I deside to bolt the tank to the frame from the top they will be
useful
Now that I have the tank together as one tank , I begain to stretch it out by using a 7" wide piece of sheet
metal , I know I said it would be a 5" stretch , but I am going long and giving myself room to cut it back
With careful welding and bending the stretched tank reaches
right to the seat area
With the stretch complete I filled up the middle of the
tanks making them more into one , I haven't made up my mind what to do from here , I know I will NOT be putting some speedo
in the middle of the tank .
I will either run the breather lines in steel and weld the
top of the tank completely closed or possible make the hole 1/4" smaller and put the OEM Suzuki GS750 tank cover over the
hole ,, on the GS750 tank it is the little locking door for the gas cap .
If I hinge this door on the HD tank it will give me a very
small lock area for maybe the bike and insurance paper work to go . to small for tools or anything.
I will have to figure that out as I go , I also need to
weld the petcock closed and relocate it.
The main reason I cut and moved the tanks
into the frame is so they would be as close to the width of the heads and motor with out being wider , looks pretty good in
the (above) picture .
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