Apple juice tank

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Rockenstein

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Feb 8, 2009
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Thought I'd share this...

I was wanting a tank for my rat rod beach cruiser project that held enough fuel to go for a decent sunday cruise yet didn't stick out like a sore thumb...I seen an under seat roll up leather tool bag on a vintage bike on another site and well it gave me the idea for an under seat tank. I started out with an apple juice can that holds about 1.5 liters and an old contact cement can that I cut the top off of so as to salvage the spout and cap. I cut a hole in the juice can, carefully shaped it with my dremel, then inserted the contact cement can top and formed a flange after it was in. For the fuel drain side I bent up a length of annealed brass tubing with a tubing bender and then added a flange...now how do we get that sucker in the hole I just drilled?? lol...I ended up cutting a big hole in one end of the can and inserting the tube from the inside. After I got the cap and drain inserted I soldered them both in real well with a pencil torch and some silver bearing metal work solder...and...so far so good...no leaks! I still have to solder the cover over the big hole I made in the end plus figure out some mounting attachments and a cap saver but so far I'm quite happy with the how it's turning out. I have a bag full of leather that I salvaged from an old black leather couch that was sitting beside a dumpster and after I get the fabricating done and give it a coat of paint I plan on wrapping it in leather.

Should look pretty neat when it's completed and mounted under a fat vintage looking springer seat :)

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2door

2door

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Sep 15, 2008
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Rock,
I love it...Very cool. If you ever do another one consider flaring the end of the tubing before you solder it in the tank. Put the flared end inside and it will give you more surface area for the lead to fill around. Please give us photos of the finished, and upholstered tank. Good post, my friend. Thanks, or....tanks...
Tom
 
robin

robin

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Nov 15, 2008
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INSTEAd of wraping it in leather it would be cool to see the corrugation of the tank!!
Masterful are you sure your not mexican? LOL (no offence) they seem to be artists like yourself !!
 
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Rockenstein

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Feb 8, 2009
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Ontario, Canada
robin said:
INSTEAd of wraping it in leather it would be cool to see the corrugation of the tank!!
Masterful are you sure your not mexican? LOL (no offence) they seem to be artists like yourself !!
Click to expand...
Yea I agree the corrugation on the tank has a neat industrial look to it but in going with the theme on my "Riff Raff" rat rod bike I thought a leather wrap with some fringes would be more fitting as my grips feature leather fringes. The bag pictured is close to the look I'm going for.

Oh and no Mexicana here, got the British and Irish genetics thing happening in our family tree...lol

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R

Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
442
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Ontario, Canada
2door said:
Rock,
I love it...Very cool. If you ever do another one consider flaring the end of the tubing before you solder it in the tank. Put the flared end inside and it will give you more surface area for the lead to fill around. Please give us photos of the finished, and upholstered tank. Good post, my friend. Thanks, or....tanks...
Tom
Click to expand...
Tanks Tom ;)

In the one pic looking in the big hole you can see the flared end of the tube with a nice flow of solder around it. I flared the tube first and tried to squeeze it through the spout to get it into position with a long pair of tweezers but alas I got frustrated and just cut a hole in the end and fed it through that way. Probably a good thing I did make a work hole in the end as during the soldering part of the job the pencil torch ruined the coating they put on the inside of these cans and it was flaking off...after soldering I wire brushed it all real good to clear off any of the damaged coating.
 
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Rockenstein

New Member
Feb 8, 2009
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Ontario, Canada
skyl4rk said:
Can you use regular solder for that?
Click to expand...
Probably you could but I have a spool of lead free silver bearing solder that I use for metal working projects like this. It's a little bit stronger and requires a little more heat than the 60/40 lead based plumbing or electrical solder most of us have but it does flow and build up very nice.
 
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captainrichhill

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May 31, 2008
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On another thread, someone suggested using and old fire extinguisher. They come in all shapes and sizes. The local fire station may have some old ones lying around. The bonus is that it just looks like a cool item for your bike. I'm starting to look for likely victims. (extinguishers that is)
 
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