Motorcycle Paintless Dent Repair

Having seen a few pics on EBay of VFR fuel tanks and the odd person on this site with a question about a dent in their motorcycle I thought it might be good to offer up a possible solution to having to paint the tank or get a new one.

My day job is as the owner of a company that does Paintless Dent Repair. Generally speaking I repair a lot of cars and trucks, but every once in a while I'm asked to repair a dent in the tank of a motorcycle or a fender. Paintless Dent Repair is a process whereby a technician uses a tool of varying diameter and shape to apply pressure directly to the back side of the dented panel and using slow steady pressure the dent is massaged back to its original position. Repairing dents in motorcycle gas tanks for the most part involves inserting a tool in through the filler nozzle hole and using the tool to apply pressure and reform the dent to its original contour. Finding a tool that can go in through the filler nozzle and get down around the filler neck and then outward to reach the outside skin is not always possible with sport bike tanks but sometimes it can be done. The cost of getting a paintless dent repair company to repair a dent is generally far less costly than repainting a tank or replacing the tank with a new or used one, and since there is no painting involved, there is no worry about color mismatch.

When I purchased my current bike, it had a dent in the left side of the tank near the rear edge of the Honda wing decal. With a little perseverance and a bit of luck I was able to find the right tool to push the dent back out. I also have a selection of plastic studs that can be glued to the outside of the tank and using a small slide hammer, the dent can be pulled out from the outside. The glue studs don't work very well on sharp dents directly through a contour line, but they can be used to pull out smaller and some larger gentle dents without the need to get access to the back side of the dented panel. Another means of accessing the back side of the panel directly on some of the newer bikes with fuel injection is through the larger holes in the bottom of the tanks where the float assembly is installed. These plates can often be removed to allow a technician to access the back of the dented panel and repair it.

The dents shown below are an example of a couple of dents that I was able to repair in the front fender of a customers Harley Davidson front fender. The customer was certain that he would have to pay to get the fender repaired by a body shop or replaced with a factory part. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of a repair to a sport bike tank, or the one in the tank of my bike, because the dent was too small to show up in a picture. It is not uncommon for a customer to be referred to me by a body shop, or a friend of a friend, and most people are unaware that Paintless Dent Repair is even an option.

If you have been living with a dent in your tank and would like to see if there is an alternative to getting the body shop to repair and then repaint the tank, check and see if there is a local Paintless Dent Repair company in your area that might be able to help out. If you are unsure where to find a company that does this kind of work, just ask around at a local car dealership and ask if they use a specific company to take the dents out of their cars for them.

The top photo is prior to the repair and bottom photo is............. well, you get the idea.




Hopefully, someone may find this post to be the answer to a problem that has been pestering them for quite some time. If you have never heard of Paintless Dent Repair, don't worry, you're likely not the only one.

 

All well and good on the "Painless" repair but don't expect the same results if the tank, fender ect., has been repainted, had bodywork done before (Bondo?) or one of those infamous rattlecan paintjobs. This is not written on a rock, but don't expect the work to be a good as fixing a dent or ding in a factory paint job.

Just had some of the the "Painless" work done on a ding on my cage. Factory paint... worked out well.

There are issues on cages by Nissan and Honda to name a couple where waterbourne clearcoats were applied in the mid-90s. Any hammering on that will cause debonding of the clearcoat.

 

Thanks for the info, I have been wondering if PDR could be used on a motorcycle gas tank, thinking that possibly because the steel was thicker or some other reason. I've been a fan of the process ever since I first had some PDR work done on my Honda S2000 10 years ago. Now that you have said it is possible, if I see anyone with a dent that has no paint damage I will recommend they check out PDR as an option to remove the dent.

 

Glad to hear that you had a positive experience with PDR. The PDR process is certainly better than repainting in most cases since you maintain your original factory finish and since there is no painting done, there is no worry about color difference or texture (orange peel difference) which can also change the reflection of light off the panel and thus minor changes in color.

The metal in most motorcycle tanks is generally thicker than most modern cars or trucks. I would say that the cruiser style bikes use thicker metal in the tanks and fenders than most metal sport bike tanks. Most sport bike tanks are lighter gauge metal due to the number of body contours in the tanks and those contour lines help to add strength to the panel. A lot of manufacturers also use varying grades of metal in their construction and this can make some panels easier/harder to repair depending on how maleability of the metal. Another type of metal that is used in a lot bikes is aluminum. Generally the aluminum is restricted to use in the frames and other components, but every once in a while we run into a fuel tank made of aluminum. Aluminum is considerably more difficult to repair when compared to steel as it work hardens a lot faster. Your S2000 would have had an aluminum hood as example.

Hey Bad

It is true that some of the mid 90's era Honda's, Nissan's and some Ford's have had issues with the paint delaminating (especially hoods) but the panels can be repaired. I have repaired dents in many cars that have suffered from both minor and major checking in the paint and since the repairs are done to the back side of the panels, there is little chance of further damage to the painted surface. Generally speaking though, if a customer's vehicle is already showing signs of the paint de-laminating then we usually recommend the customer gets the repairs done at a traditional body shop.

Over the last 16 years I have repaired a number of vehicles that have been repaired previously by the body shop, and some areas that have been skim coated with bondo. The key to repairing areas that have bondo in them is to use a heat gun to warm up the panel so that the bondo does not crack or release, but it does depend on how thick the bondo is. If the panel has been simply filled with body filler without the dents being repaired first then the chances of the body filler cracking are significantly greater.

Most of the process for Paintless Dent Repair is based on the technician being able to gauge where his tool is behind the panel by viewing the change in the reflection on the surface of the panel. The reflection of the dent and the rest of the panel changes as the technician applies pressure to the back side of the panel. The ability to repair dents in panels with limited reflective quality such as matte finish paints and as you said, the infamous rattle can paint jobs, certainly make the repair process far more difficult. And you would certainly be correct in the fact that the results on a panel with a poor paint job are definitely lower, but sometimes people just ask to make the dent look a bit better.

 

Notice that my statement addressed clear coats. the opaque or paintcoat is not affected. The clearcoat debonding has many heads.. Age, exposure to the elements, natural stress areas in the body itself ect. My long gone 95 Altima had these problems not on the hood as would be almost expected but around the rear window and trunklid.. Go figure..

I had a guy clip the Altima in a parking lot once. Right rear lower fender. One of those non creased dents. I took it to a guy who does the Painless repair. Sidebar: His wife works (runs actually) my fave aftermarket brick and mortar store in Seattle. He removed the soft panel whacked it with the heel of his hand and the dent went bye-bye..

The moral of that story is never underestimate the value of a handjob.

Were you in the big K a few years back during the time of "Sportbike West" ? Did that one until the RCMP shut it down.

 

Nope, unfortunately I was in Calgary that year for almost 4 months helping a company there with a slew of hail damage claims. Calgary gets hail just about every year and always has a couple companies that do nothing all year but hail damage claims. Could be considered fortunate as I had a crap load of work to do that year and made some really good money. Have to admit though that it gets really taxing after a while when you stare at the same panel of a car for hours on end, and just when you think your done you realize, crap, I still have the rest of the car to do. Fixing more than 300 dents in one car tends to make you go cross eyed after a while. Made me wish for a simple crease in the tail gate of a pick up truck or something. I bought a car from one of the dealers in Calgary that year and got a smoking discount on it (almost $8000) because of the hail damage. The car took about 30 hours to repair but I was able to get the dents out of every panel with the exception of the A-pillars. The dents in the a-pillars were too deep and I had no access to the back sides of the panel, so I had a body shop fix those and then paint the A-pillars for me. My parents asked if they could buy the car a couple of years later, and though I told them they could have it and that I did not want to charge them for it, they still had to pay the HST on the value of the car.

I knew I was going to miss Sport Bike west but I had a friend who went and he said it was a good time. My friend mentioned the cops were all over every motorcyclist in town that weekend for even the slightest infraction, from non functional turn signals, to aftermarket turn signals being too close to the headlight and not visible. A lot of the local bikers complained loud and long about the, shall we say, over zealous local troopers. I understand they wanted to make sure that everyone had a good time and that the stunting took place at the venue and not on the city streets, but I think the local police could have been a bit more tactful. Hopefully you were one of the lucky ones who had a great time and never got hassled by the local police.

 

SBW ran for several years. The main event was the poker run that was nearly 300 miles running down the valley to Osyoos and then back to K on the back way. The venue had camping, showers, entertainment, food and drink , a dyno shootout and only one Harley..



Never had a problem in town mself. There are always a few assholes who when in a group tempt the local LEOs. I figure if they get busted , it ain't me paying the tab.

Kudos for further explaining the bodywork process. Many posts on services and goods are not so cleverly disguised as ads. Ads are fine. It's the dudes that think they are slick in trying to schlep one thing or another in the guise of being buds with everyone that always wonder why they get a ration of shit in return.

 

Yes SBW did run for several years but the year that the cops shut it down, as I said, I was out of town in Calgary. I did attend SBW once with a few friends and since I am not one for large crowds of people, I can not really say I enjoyed the whole thing. The entertainment and the food were certainly good. I believe the event was moved to Penticton after it was canceled in Kelowna.

I offer up the suggestion of Paintless Dent Repair merely as an alternative to traditional auto body repair in the hopes that someone on the site finds the information useful. True, I happen to do Paintless Dent Repair for a living, but advertising the service is not my intent. I merely wish to let people know that the option is available, and that is my soul reasoning. Were it not for a positive experience with PDR a number of years ago, I too would likely not have even known the process existed. After repairing a dent in the tank of my own bike, my wife made the suggestion that I post a thread, and I thought to myself, it might be worth mentioning to others on the ospice that many others as well, are likely not aware of the process. My apologies if anyone was offended.

 

After final closure of SBW by as I understand by the RCMP, they may have moved it to Penticton. As best I recall it was shut down for good. Another iteration is Sportbike Northwest. Held for the last ten years along the Columbia River on the Washington side.

I hope no one was offended. Likely someone was.. Maybe the Bondo rep?

Cheers..