The more I get into this bike the more it's become a vendetta to do all the work I can myself. Started off just being a top end rebuild and now I'm lacing and trueing my own rims
A glutton for punishment it seems.
So poking around it looks like the gum on the bottom of the tank is Permatex
Since one of the five gobs came up with a fingernail I'm thinking that's not quite so permanent. Can't find any reference to this particular Permatex product here on the boards either which probably means it sucks long term or it's just too crazy to use for this application (I'm assuming of course).
For the solder I was able to make Google dig up one lone reference from somebody talking about rotary lawn mowers who said, "I have gotten lucky and have been able to solder repair leaks in small engine tanks using my 140 watt soldering gun after leaving the tank to preheat in the sun all afternoon while I was at work. You have to be patient to do so..."
And that doesn't sound promising. I did some HVAC work as a kid soldering copper tubing together with a propane torch. Same kind of process (I assume)?
Would really appreciate some specifics if anyone has them.
Thanks!