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Indian petrol tanks

I expect this topic has been done before but I will ask anyway.

The petrol tank on my 1941 BSA WM20 has had a hard life. After stripping off the paint I have found patches of some kind of red filler and areas that look like they have been lead loaded.

Worse than that it has a small rust hole on the top and probably some pinholes. I have had it cleaned internally. Our maintenance guy at work is an avid biker and he made up a bracket to hold the tank with a long bar that went through the end of one of our lathes. We put half a bag of 10mm gravel in the tank, blanked off all the holes and left it turning slowly for a few hours, it is now squeaky clean inside.

I will then get it carefully sand blasted to clean all of the rust areas which we are going to attempt to fill with silver solder.

Any advice would be welcome.

Anyway back to my question. Has anyone used an Indian military petrol tank ? They can be obtained for around £150. A couple of years ago I did buy an Indian made tank for a different bike which was slightly the wrong shape but did fit the frame ok.

Tony.

email (option): tony-wilkinson@sky.com

Re: Indian petrol tanks

Ashmire makes excellent tanks as does Kurri . but both sell them through Imran
But Imran also buys tanks from Aarav who makes his tanks from old 44 gallon drums
Some times if Aarav is too busy he gets Yash to make some for him but Yash's tanks tend to be too fat.
OTOH Tejas's tanks tend to be too narrow and rarely fit over the frame properly.
Gautam does a nice job but he is really slow so takes months to get each one done but his brother Ayush is really quick but his fuel tap holes are metric threaded .
Gautam puts in correct BSP threaded spiggots to hold the taps but they are too far back,
He gets them from Viaan who also supplies Ishaan but Ishaan only sells to Hindu merchants .
Rehan's tanks are excellent but he has not been heard from for a long time so he might be ill.
His brother Ruda some times pretends to be Rehan but you can tell the difference in their welds.
Both of them send their tanks to Amar for plating which is a shame because his tanks must be contaminated because his chrome flakes off very easily once scratched .
Dhruv does excellent plating but he seem to exclusively plate tanks made by Raghav, Advaith , Parth. Siddharth , Dev & Kiaan and all of them use too much heat when welding the bottoms in so their tanks are always warped although because Dhruv's plating is so good you can generally true them up without damaging the plating.
When possible I ask Zayan to get Sarthak to make mine and have Manan to plate them but the last time I orderd I am sure the tank was made by Kabir & plated by Aditya .

Now this information is probably of little use as obviously to you all Indians are the same .

Re: Indian petrol tanks

I've had and fitted a number of Indian tanks for BSAs (M and B Series)....Generally I've been happy with them. The last one I had I fitted to my 1951 rigid B33 (less than 12 months ago). All the threads were correct, in the right places and the overall shape was good...I didn't use a tank liner and it doesn't leak..I had to spend a few minutes (literally) with a file dressing the 'cams' where the bayonet petrol cap fitted to get a smooth action...Also I had to slightly ease one of the holes in the front mounting brackets....I bought the tanks in the 'Raw' state and wouldn't bother to buy a plated one for a civvy model as the chroming usually looks good but doesn't last (there's no copper or nickel under it in my experience)...

All in all pretty much as good a product as you would buy anywhere I would say and all the BSA tanks I've had (4 or 5) for the models detailed have been the same...However, I have had a pre war Triumph speed Twin tank as well and that was appalling and more or less unusable...No doubt there are multiple suppliers and manufacturers as detailed at length by Trevor so I can only give you my impressions of the tanks I've had, which didn't all come from the same seller at least...

I think the 'Indian' tanks for B & M Models represent fairly good value and whilst not perfect they are a viable substitute for the increasingly rare original tanks...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Re: Indian petrol tanks

You are correct, your information is of little use. I do not understand your reference to me thinking all Indians are the same. I just asked the question as some Indian made parts are junk but I am sure some are very good.

I just wanted some information and advice, that is all.

Tony.

email (option): tony-wilkinson@sky.com

Re: Indian petrol tanks

looks like the indians are the cowboys :grinning:

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