What type of plastic is the 650R gastank made of?

[Blacksamwell]

Hey gang,

My pig spit me off in a mild tankslapping highside which resulted in some damage to the left radiator shroud. One of the attachment fittings pulled out of the tank plastic and I'm attempting to clean up the hole and re-install the fitting with the help of some epoxy.

The epoxy instructions say that the glue won't bond to polyethylene or polypropylene. ? I remember that some body plastics are made of polypropylene, so I thought I better check about the tank.

Anyone know what type of plastic the tank is made of? Or better yet, can recommend a brand of epoxy that'll do the trick for my application? ?

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Beyond The Pale]

It's polyethylene and no glue will really stick to it very well. Certainly not well enough for the mount. With heat the plastic will actually melt. While I've ever tried it with a gas tank I have reformed a fender with a heat gun. Be sure that the tank is completely dry of gas before using a heat gun near one.

[Blacksamwell]

Dang! It sounds like my cheap fix may not work the way I'd intended.

I've seen the plastic welding kits that might work, but the fitting has a middle rib and it would be really hard to duplicate. I could probably seal in, or cover over the fitting, but it would be missing the strenght of the middle rib.

Perhaps this is the excuse I've been waiting for that will justify a new large capacity tank?

Anyone out there ignored the instructions and tried it anyway? Your results?

[NAW]

I agree glues/epoxy won't work too well for polyethylene. But obviously they'll work better than nothing.

I've seen Spin-welding (It's a friction process) done with a hand drill and plastic cap/patch to permanently patch holes in P.E. water tanks, but that won't address your insert problem too well - if you rigged something up, you might end up enlarging the hole.

There is one product used in the roto-molding industry called Patch-N-Go. Maybe one of their tech reps can talk it over with you to see if it might work, but look at www.moldingraphics.com. (Look under products, enhancers, on their site). Major thing to find out is if it requires open flame to melt it or if a heat gun or hot butterknife, etc. would work. MOST IMPORTANT, is that FLAME, combined with GAS TANK, = DANGER. Please don't risk blowing yourself up.

Also, A buddy tried loc-tite tank repair when he partially tore out the fuel petcock. It helped, but still leaked, although barely. He was still able to ride w/o worry for a couple trips before upgrading to a desert tank.