R6 rebirth - The dirty work

Back when we purchased the bike the tank came with a golf ball size dent on the left side that always bugged me.

I got the fuel parts removed a little while back and dropped the tank off with the homie BJ (@bjonlee) to see if he could work some magic. 

Before paint we wanted do see if we could get the dent out with some PDR work to try and avoid using filler.

A few weeks later he hit me up saying the tank was done and ready for pickup. I was so excited I made a drive up North to grab it. 

When I got to his place I was blown away to see the dent completely gone! I don’t think it could have come out any better and I couldn’t wait to see the tank back on the bike.

While I was up that way, I made a quick stop to meet up with the boys at Bonimoto (@bonimoto) to hangout and talk logistics. His shop is loaded with the best as you can see. Herbigale V2 front and center.

Boni had just finished up the track build on his BMW S1000RR and it came out INSANE. Definitely gave me some motivation to keep going with the build.

After going over the tank and talking some details for bike delivery I made my way back down to Olympia. 

Tossed the tank on the bike right away and still couldn’t believe it was finally dent free after all these years. It came out so good!  

Unfortunately since the bike had been sitting for so many years we discovered the tank had some rust in the bottom due to the smallest amount of gas that was left in there when it was parked back in 2018.

First step was removing the last little bit of gas. 7+ year old gas was POTENT to say the least.

Absorbed the dirty old gas up with paper towels balled up at the end of the claw tool and was able to get it all dried up.  

Next up I made a couple block plates to cap the openings for the fuel parts that had been removed. Cut a couple pieces of scrap sheet metal and gasket material, then bolted them in place so I could fill the tank with rust remover.

I had done some research on removing the rust and the best product I could find for the job was EVAPO-RUST. It had great reviews and was non toxic so I gave it a go. 

Ended up filling the tank with 4 gallons and let it sit in there a couple days longer than recommended.

Once it had time to do its work I drained it all out, repeatedly washed the tank out with water then dried it with a heat gun and compressed air to prevent flash rusting.

When I shined the flashlight down in the tank I couldn’t believe to see that all the rust had been completely removed!

The tank was prepped, cleaned and ready to go for paint.

Now that the tank was finished up, there was some repair work to be done on a couple fairings. 

The previous owner had drilled some additional holes for lights and license plate mounts that would no longer be used and needed to be filled. 

Picked up some J-B Weld plastic bonder to fill the holes, but still had some work to do before we could start filling them up.

The rear underside fairing had the most holes that would need to be filled.

The rear upper fairing had one on each side, but they were pretty decent size. 

I had never done plastic repair before, so I got with Jason at Skreet Garage (@skreetgarage) who will be doing the paint work and he gave me good some pointers. After talking to him I felt confident taking on the job. 

First thing was scuffing the area around the unneeded holes down to bare plastic. Next was adding some metal mesh reinforcement to the backside by melting it into place. There was also a slight melt spot from an old light that needed some filling.

Next up was masking the backside with painters tape to keep the plastic bond from bleeding through, then it was time to fill. Filled them a bit over so that I could work it down flush with the fairing once dried.

After drying, I laid some plastic bond over the metal mesh on the inside then it was time for some sanding. Was awesome to see the unneeded holes filled up and smoothed out.

The 3 remaining holes will be used to secure the fairing to the bike, a license plate mount and plate light.

The 2 holes on the rear upper fairing got the same treatment and turned out just as clean. Tossed it back on the bike then mocked up the seat cap I’d been working on, we’ll come back to that a little later.

The front lower right fairing also needed a little repair before going to paint. There was a small crack in the plastic on the bottom side, it would never be seen, but I couldn’t leave it like that and got to work on the repair.

Sanded down far enough to remove the damage, reinforced the area with mesh, then used the plastic bonder, first on the outsides, then again on the inside to cover the mesh.

Once it had time to dry, I sanded it down and shaped the curve as best I could to match the factory body line. 

Very happy with the result, especially for being my first time doing this kind of repair work. 

Here’s a little before and after for you..



There was one more spot on the rear lower fairing that needed addressing. When the previous owner downed the bike it scuffed it pretty good, no crack to repair, but needed to smooth out the rash area.

I didn’t want to go too heavy here since it’s right on a curved body line, so I just smoothed it out a little bit. The remaining damage would get a skim of filler to remove the rest.

Tossed the rear pieces on and pulled the bike out to see the repairs in the sun. With all the panels repaired, we were looking good for paint.

The last part that needs to be finished up before paint is the rear seat cap, lots to update on that in the next post, so I’ll leave you here with that.

Hope you all enjoyed the read, thanks again for following along!

- C