Motorcycle Repair: gas tank dent, gas tank, dent removal

Question
Hi, Wayne my name is Allan I have a kawasaki fuel tank with a small dent in it, I have tryed compressed air to pop it it out, glued a bolt to the dent and tryed to pull it out nothing seems to work. do you have any ideas? this is more of a cosmedic question then a mechanical question though?
  thanks        e-mail bolens72@aol.com

Answer
Allan,

there are paintless dent removal
shops available around the country.
If you are looking to do it yourself
you might investigate the various
"YouTube" videos on the subject.
One uses dry ice to shrink the dent.
A professional service may be the best
but you never know what might work.
There are also glue type puller kits
available like "Ding-King"
Be careful with the air method, it
can warp the whole tank.
The paintless method uses special
tools to "massage" the dent
out from the inside.
If the dent edges are very sharp it
may need to be drilled, pulled
and refinished. Sometimes the
quick fixes just don't work.