Brass to steel

[rozabikes]

Let me firstly stress, I am an ametuer and will not be doing this personally but would appreciate some advise.

I am building a cafe racer motorcycle and putting various ideas together at this point. I have sourced a fuel tank of the shape I am after but it has a naff "flappy filler cap" - not in keeping at all!

What I want to do is fit a Monza style filler cap (per 50 / 60's sports cars etc)
This will entail atatching a brass threaded collar to the steel tank, onto which the chrome cap unit will screw.

I assume I am looking at the braising route / solder wouldn't be strong enough??

Appreciate any advise / what sort of specialist I should approach who would have the correct experience.

Really appreciate any ideas.

Thanks, Tim

 

[brightspark]

Let me firstly stress, I am an ametuer and will not be doing this personally but would appreciate some advise.

I am building a cafe racer motorcycle and putting various ideas together at this point. I have sourced a fuel tank of the shape I am after but it has a naff "flappy filler cap" - not in keeping at all!

What I want to do is fit a Monza style filler cap (per 50 / 60's sports cars etc)
This will entail atatching a brass threaded collar to the steel tank, onto which the chrome cap unit will screw.

I assume I am looking at the braising route / solder wouldn't be strong enough??

Appreciate any advise / what sort of specialist I should approach who would have the correct experience.

Really appreciate any ideas.

Thanks, Tim

cleaned up properly soft solder is well strong enough brass onto steel ive soldered a lot of filler caps on wallpaper strippers i used to make none ever came adrift if u realy feel the need get it silver soldered on . tank would need cleaning out and preferably 3/4 fill with water to stop fumes

 

[Hitch]

Only ever done brass to steel once, silver solder was the order or the day.

 

[mike os]

solder will be fine & easy, silver solder or brazing are possible but unnecessary IMO

 

[PTvor]

Has this thing had fuel in?

If so it should be steamed out, but I've also heard of the water trick. Maybe a wallpaper steamer for ten minutes would do it.

I knew someone who tried to solder a patch on a TVO tank on an old tractor and blew the roof off a shed. It was bit funny hearing about it, but someone could easily have been blinded. It also wrote off the tank.

A bloke I worked with who'd been in the 8th army in the desert told me they soldered leaking Jerry cans after they'd laid a trial of petrol to the can and lit it. The can took off. It was war time but I don't believe the can would be safe to solder even after that.

Soft solder sounds good to me but assuming the tank isn't going to go bang, it's trickier than you'd think with various fluxes and grades of solder. Best to practice on similar brass and steel with various techniques and fluxes before pitching in on the real thing. However, soft solder is fairly easy to clean away.

Hard soldering I only know through jewellers and model makers I know, but it doesn't fill gaps, everything has to be a tight fit and you have to get it to a dull red heat. The cleaning is critical and they tend to pickle . The fluxes can be a bit nasty do you need good ventilation. Jewellers used oxy-acetylene, model makers got by with MAPP.

Is it possible to get this thing brazed with OA by an experienced welder?

 

[rozabikes]

Thankyou all for your advice - soldering looks favourite, if not brazing. As I say I am not going to tackle this myself so I will source a suitably skilled welder in these areas and let him do what he feels best.

I was thinking of seeing if to a radiator repair specialist would do the work as they should be used to soldering / brazing.

Tim

 

[Slim Shady]

I have welded Brass to steel and brass to copper many times and I would use a silver solder rod thats 40% silver to ensure a good joint. Just steam out the tank first otherwise you will make quite a big bang