Panel Beating Knee Indents

At the moment the main work going on is the welding that can only be done when my friend andy has the time so that puts me at a loose end when hes away.

I thought a useful investment of my time would be to get out the panel beating tools I recently aquired and bash some knee indents into a petrol tank.

The project after the big Yamaha exup is a little Honda CD200 Benly that is due to be chopped up and made into a neat cafe racer. This will also be my first bike so I need to find some power in that little engine.

To make the knee indents it is extremely simple. Firstly sit on the bike and with a permanent marker (sharpie) make a rough guide of where you want the indents.

 I placed an A4 sheet of card over this and gradually trimmed it down until I had a decent fit.

 I developed my indent template around my knees to fit snug into the tank when my bum is further back on the seat.

 Using the card tamplate mark out an outline on both sides of the tank with the same template. I have alot of CD200 parts lying around so I used a spare tank to save time.

Starting from the centre and working my way out I simply hammered away until I was satisfied with the shape and symetry of the indents.

 I found it easier to neglect the out line and follow the contours of the tank only in the bottom left corner of the knee indent.

 These are my tools of choice I managed to pick them up for an abosolute steal on ebay. They are all made from Lignum Vitae which is a really dense and tough wood.

The indents could be filled and smoothed with filler but I think I will leave the raw hammer marks. I will coat the bare parts of the tank in lacquer to prevent any corrosion now that some of the paint has flaked off.