Gas tank rehab

This is a really great article, KZQ. There seems to be so many ways to clean the tanks and so many different opinions on whether or not to seal them. I’ve been going back and forth in that regard. 

I have already started with distilled white vinegar, which seems pretty effective with minimal effort. It’s been in the tank for about 5 days and the rust is mostly flaked off. I plan on emptying the tank and then proceeding with your  1/4” nut approach. 

My concern is with how pitted the inside of the tank is. But… I’m not sure that the pitting matters because there doesn’t seem to be any soft spots. How everything , I do like the idea of NOT sealing the tank. I don’t ever plan on selling the bike so I’m not concerned about resale value just the bikes longevity. I think what I’ll do is try the WD40 approach then go from there. I do have a second tank that I can tinker with as well. 

Thank you again for the article. I really appreciate yours and everyone else’s opinions on this. It seems like I’ll be practicing a bit of everyone’s advice 

The WD40 really helps out a couple of ways. No matter how many times I've tried to to dry out a cleaned tank I've always had to accept some flash rust, at least that was the case before I tried the WD40 step. It also clings to the metal and to some extent fills some of the pitting, even as it's applied to a wet tank.
Bill

How's it going everyone! It's taken way longer than I wanted but my gas tank rehab is complete. I ended up not sealing the tank. I used plain old white vinegar and some ball bearings. I filled it to the top, plugged it and let it sit for about a week, shaking it up every now and then. Then I flushed the tank with water and baking soda. Sprayed in a bit of WD-40 to keep the flash rust down (worked perfectly) and dried it out. 

Then there was the dent. This took way longer than it needed to due to "frustration breaks" . I used a cheap dent puller from Harbor Freight and super glue. I spent days gluing and pulling gluing and pulling gluing and pulling..... gluing and pulling. Until I eventually got the dent pulled enough to bondo. You can see the rest below. 

Cheers!

WD-40 worked famously. Thanks again, KZQ!

The paint job reflects the quality of the dent repair and Kudos, nice job. That was quite a crease to work out. Well done !!

Well done! I'm impressed.