Fuel tank removal page now complete

Just finished the page showing step by step removal of the fuel tank so I suppose the next page is going to be the stripping of the ancillaries from the tank and de-rusting ready for paint.

Dodgy Fuel Tank And Not Giving In

Now the whole point of doing this rebuild is that I want to spend as little as possible doing it. Anyone can build anything they want if they throw enough money at it ( or throw enough money at someone else to build it for them !).

Ideally I would be able to do everything without spending any money at all but I know that for safety reasons or just common sense I will have to spend some money but I intended to use my own and hopefully your ingenuity and skills to reuse and repair the existing bike parts as much as possible.

This all sounded like a good idea at the time but one of the first things to come off the bike was the tank.
it looked ok from the outside, a little surface rust but not to bad.

Then I decided to open the fuel cap and look inside.

Two hours and much swearing later the fuel cap eventually came of, it had rusted itself shut and the inside of the tank is completely rusty and full of water.

Pretty nasty rust inside the tank
At least it does not leak

Now normally I would just scrap it and buy a new one but that's not the point of this project so I need to try and salvage this one and this is unfamiliar territory for me.
Cutting and reshaping, painting and stuff like that is no problem with the correct tools and equipment but rust well
I JUST DONT DO RUST.

I could cheat and buy a new one and just say it was fine all along but I am doing this as a challenge to myself and will be honest all the way through and anyway I do not give in that easily

So even this early in the project I am looking for ideas on how to de-rust and restore the inside of the fuel tank preferably for free or at least at very little cost and everything needs to be able to be done at home without specialist tools.

I will let you know what I decide to do and how it turns out in later posts but if any one has any ideas please let me know and I will chose one to try.

Rain stops play !

Rain Stops Play !

My decision to try and do this rebuild at home seemed simple enough.

I wanted to work on a bike like I did as a teenager, outside in the garden 

with just the basic tools I had at the time and usually with no money either.

1. I knew I would not be able to use all my tools and equipment as they are at my workshop out of town.
2. I knew I would be spending as little as I could get away with, just to see how much could be done on a very small budget.
3. I knew that only working on the bike in my spare time after work would mean it wont get done in a few weeks, its going to be more like 5 months
4. I knew that working on parts inside my home ( I do not have a workshop at home ) would not please my wife !

but that was going to be the point of this challenge and I was going to be quite strict on myself and follow the rules I set above and I have decided to do this blog partly as a way of enforcing those rules as that way you are watching me and will hopefully encourage me and keep me true to these rules.

BUT...................

I forgot about the BLOODY RAIN !

I expected to have the bike completely striped into its major components by now but it has rained every night since I decided to do this.

So as soon as its dry I will start but for now its just sitting there getting even more rusty.

What have I done ........

Getting Motivated

Today I came home from work and took a look at the bike sitting outside in the sunshine.

I thought "bloody hell what am I going to do?"

Technically this bike is barely suitable for spares and I would not even entertain attempting to touch it under normal circumstances as it is not worth anything now and it wont be worth much even if I do get it looking good because its not exactly a sought after classic.

But then that is not the point, The point of this exercise is to see what I can do with no money and basic equipment to save this bike from the scrap yard.

It would be fairly easy to do something with it if I was prepared to take it to the workshop and throw some money at it as I normally would but this is going to be my challenge to myself, my attempt to do something the hard way, something to make me think !

So I will get on with the strip down and post my thoughts and progress as often as possible.