WTB rusted Hawk tank for Indian aluminum tank project blank

[ricksax]

Hello Hawkers,

So I am going down the rabbit hole on an aluminum Hawk GT tank. A local guy had a tank made in India for his Greeves, and it came out very nice at an affordable price. He sent them a shot old fiberglass tank to work from.

My plan: I need a rusted Hawk/Bros tank with the front and back mounting tabs intact. The Indian tank maker needs a physical form to get it right. Sketches and photos will not get us there.

I intend to leave the bottom portion stock but gently reshape the upper portion with Sculpy Clay or fiberglass to add a gallon or so capacity. The idea is to design a tank that still looks right on a Hawk and could be used with the stock air box as well as pods.

The India(n) folks are good at simple filler caps, so I am going to indicate a basic Monza-style flip up filler in the upper right front. No need then for the internal overflow tube.

Then I will ship the tank sample to India (the slow way) and get a cost.

Who knows? Once the guy has made one tank, it might be a group-buy project. No promises.

I'll pay shipping, and even accept a donor tank if it has no other value.

[6]

Well that's interesting.

You say "affordable price" can we get a little more specific??

Hope this works out.

[Enigma T]

My plan: I need a rusted Hawk/Bros tank with the front and back mounting tabs intact. The Indian tank maker needs a physical form to get it right.

The Indian folks are good at simple filler caps

Then I will ship the tank sample to India (the slow way) and get a cost.

I read this message a couple of times interpreting it as Indian Motorcycles and wondering WTF before I figured it out...

[ricksax]

Well that's interesting.

You say "affordable price" can we get a little more specific??

Hope this works out.

I don't want to get our hopes up. This fellow claims $600 for a one-off Greeves Challenger tank, which is a rounded saddle tank. So I have no idea, but first I have to score a rotted out tank.

[jspeed53]

There’s got to be some around here ... there are certainly a lot of posts about cleaning and plugging up the bad ones! Maybe those are the threads to search? I bet 69 falcon or 6 may have seen one .... they sit on a pile of Hawk parts.

[DrPMC]

Looking on Ebay, there is a wide range of aluminium tanks available from India, although mostly for earlier classic machines. However, this seller invites enquiries for one-offs: 'We also can make any kind of tank in steel and aluminum if buyer provides a sample of tank and no need a bulk order you can make a single tank from us on order.' (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/275023123...8AAOSwwFdhjLII). The prices for those tanks available off the shelf are very reasonable. India would seem to be a natural place to look for a batch of replacement tanks, still having a big pool of skilled metal workers and one of the world's largest motorcycle industries.

I'd certainly be interested in getting one of these tanks, if it could be organised. I suppose it a batch is to be commissioned, it may have a wider appeal if it was a near as possible to the original?

[dagus]

If it were me (and it's not, I don't even own a Hawk anymore) I'd want to keep it as stock as possible (although the filler cap's a neat idea)... I agree with DrPMC that's the most likely to have a wider appeal.

[ricksax]

My Hawk ain't stock anymore. Of course I will keep my original tank. But I would like to have 150 miles of range in a tank that fits and looks "right".
Still trying to get to Step 1: Find a crummy donor tank. Anyone, anyone?

BenStein.png

[eyhonda]

I could donate the tank Andy donated to me. I have no immediate use for it. I just started to Dremel the seam. It's still together in one piece now. Although, at some point my son will need a tank in the future IF he wants to dive into the world of Hawks. I started a Hawk parts pile for him. If no one else steps forward with one, I could be that guy to help out the forum. PM me.

Will the tank be sacrificial or can it be returned? Not sure if you are borrowing it or destroying it in the process.

Edit: My tank is missing the front tab. Unless someone donates that, square one presents itself.

[ParcNHawk]

I think we have a suitable candidate. I will examine it further and let you know.

[ParcNHawk]

The tank is sent free and severely rusted inside. The rust is coming through to the outside and while it doesn't affect the shape, it certainly does the texture.

Will that work for you?

[ricksax]

The tank is sent free and severely rusted inside. The rust is coming through to the outside and while it doesn't affect the shape, it certainly does the texture.

Will that work for you?

Rick wrote: YES! As long as the base and front and back mounting points are dimensionally correct, it will work.

So as a guy with an art degree who spent some time in sculpture classes, here is my plan:

1. Rough sand the tank to accept clay/composite materials.
2. Rough sculpt the tank with a hardening clay like Sculpy. There may be some more modern materials out there that are light and sandable.
3. Achieve a good shape that fits with the Hawk design and has a bit more capacity. Ideally I will be able to prime it and mark with section lines vertically and horizontally.
4. Then I will publish the photos of the tank shape here, just to get some feedback.

At that point, I will get in touch with the folks in India (there may be several,) to gauge their interest.

5. Then the tank prototype gets shipped away, and I get a quote. If these are hand hammered, my guess is it will be the same for one or ten. Just a guess.

Bob, happy to buy you and Teresa dinner for the tank. Give me a call.

[Enigma T]

Bob, happy to buy you and Teresa dinner for the tank. Give me a call.

...wait, what? You're treating us for giving you work to do?

[riot]

I have been following this, and I am interested in obtaining an aluminum tank. In the end, I had planned on building one myself, but my workshop conditions (lack of welder and space) right now a hold up.

Here was the process I was going to follow:

1. Create a CAD model of the stock tank
2. Modify the model to what I want
3. Take 1" (or 3/4" or whatever) thick sections of the tank (down the length) and print them out flat in true size
4. Transfer the section prints to the appropriate thickness plywood, and cut them out on a bandsaw
5. Glue (or bolt) together a huge stack of sections to get the tank shape.
6. Sand and sand and sand until it is right.
7. The wooden shape then becomes the 'buck' for hammering out the shape.

Now, if you are not gonna be hammering on it, you could easily use this process to make the 'buck' proto-tank out of a stack of pink foam. I use this all the time to make fiberglass bucks. It is a really easy to shape material for exploring or communicating a design.

Since your goal is just to communicate the shape, and you are making a custom shape, just making a foam version would probably be easier and more effective for the Indian builder, as he could break or saw the stack to get sections if he needs that. A positive side effect is that a foam tank would be a lot lighter to ship to India.

Does a CAD model of a gas tank exist? If not perhaps I could make one. We could make many tank variants if we had a base model and use the process above to iterate designs.

[Luis]

Like the idea I was also thinking about that but... the monza cap it's not the best choice for a hawk tank it dont match with the Hawk design. An Aero style like the original cap would be much better i like the Newton equipment caps and the also have vented ones.
You can get easy some volume from the botom of the tank behind the airbox see picture and keep the stock shape. We need a stock looking alternative from outside maybe only add 5mm to the outer conture but keep 100% the original shape