Trial and error:

There was no way to mount the rack so I had to make a way. My father has a lathe in the basement that I used to make little attachment bits that I can braze into the gas tank and then screw a bolt into the threaded hole to attach the luggage rack. Using the lathe to make parts was a new experience for me and I believe it is a very valuable skill to have for the future.

we had to braze the crack in the front of the tank shut. We brazed instead of welding because the braze doesn't deform the parent metals that you are attaching together. It just fills the gaps. Brazing is just like soldering but hotter using brass instead of tin or similar metal. Also with welding it would end up all lumpy and would require extensive filing to get it smooth and ultimately make the metal around the weld thin and brittle. Braze is pretty smooth after it is solidifies and needs little filing therefore keeping the parent metal close to as strong as it was before the brazing process. After we brazed the crack we pressure tested the tank with an air compressed and some soapy water. If you spray air into the tank with the outside of the tank covered in soapy water, wherever the tank is leaking air a soap bubble will form over the leak. There were about a dozen little pin holes on the bottom of the tank. These pin pricks were most likely from rust and condensation build up due to the part of the tank that had the most holes being the lowest point in the gas tank when the bike was on the kickstand. These holes were easy to fix with a little braze. However, the crack did not pass the pressure test. Heat made initial crack bigger so we had to hammer it back together a bit to make the crack smaller so that the Braze could get in between the two layers of metal and attach them. It seemed like an endless cycle of pressure test then braze, pressure test then more brazing. We decided that we need to file all of the Braze off of the crack and redo that area in hopes of creating an airtight seal . I will update tomorrow on if that worked or not. Consider this post "to be continued."