I recently learned a lesson working on the Ninja. I was doing some rewiring and a few other things that required the tank to be removed. Unlike the Savage, the Ninja tank is very easily removed but it isn't easy to drain the fuel out as the petcock only has ON, OFF and RES. It is vacuum driven like the Savage, so without a PRI setting you get nothing when you open the fuel line (watch...Dave will somehow tell me what I did wrong   ).

Anyhow, I had maybe 1/3 fuel in the tank so I just lifted it off and sat it on the bench tipped up to keep the weight of the tank off of the petcock. Fast forward to the next day and the shop smelled like fuel. I looked at the tank and realized fuel was dripping out of the cap vent and down the tank all night long soaking my bench and towel it was on, and worse, ruined the paint in an area about 1" x 2".

I cleaned, sanded and primed the spot and had some "close enough" red automotive paint that I used to repaint and seal it mainly to prevent rust. I then used a tank pad that matches the one that is already on there to cut to fit the top of the tank over the spot. Problem solved.

Lesson learned...don't let your fuel drip and mess up your paint!  

Here is the before...

After with the new tank pad cover...

Usually I would have been very ill and thrown the whole thing in the trash, but for some reason I had already had a crazy day and just said, "Oh well..."

I got a new tank bag anyhow (before this happened) so it is all covered anyway. Yes, I think it's on backwards but that's how I like it.

Tip: To keep the tank bag from rubbing marks into the tank paint, I cut a piece of clear shelf liner to fit the footprint of the tank bag and stuck it to the tank. You never know it's there unless you are looking for it and that stuff peels right off very easy. I waxed and polished the tank beforehand just to make sure it had a smooth surface to adhere to as well as peel off of.