Vahan was the first on the west coast in the Amca to restore tanks using this unique method, which is extremely involved.
Vahan states, "the person that taught us how to do this had been doing this in another country for 40 years and is now 82 years old. There are lots of steps to attaining success in cleaning rusted sheet metal, that is saturated with gas and oil, so that it will take Tin over its entire surface ........at this point we have spent 30,000 dollars on equipment ..........not including my time making the jigs, needed for re assembly. I had ceased 'restoring' for about 10 years to have a family and build a house .........now I’m back in full swing.
I will take more photos of the '101 Tank tinning process'.
It will be difficult to compete with new tanks being made in india and poland .........but new tanks will never be like the originals .......and hence ...........will never be called originals.
If. people want to disassemble their tanks I urge them NOT to use a 'gas torch' ........ as it will overheat some areas of the sheet metal, and 'warp the parts', so that they are very difficult to realign and reassemble.
Our tin comes from a third world country and is 100% pure tin, thus quite expensive".
To all our 101 Association membership, we now have here, Vahan's expertise available, to repair, what for a long time, were questionable tanks, most of which, were considered ........unable to be repaired. The beauty of Vahan's approach, for the purist indeed, is that now, these questionable tanks, in most cases, can be resurrected and used again .......back there, on your bike, where they BELONG in original form ........adding most certainly, to the true valuable appeal, of your 101's authentic state !!! A link will be provide here shortly to Vahan's site.
Thanks Vahan for making your service available, indeed, it will be a valuable service, that will assist many !! Please feel free, to forward all inquiries to Vahan !!
