Gas tank restoration

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james
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Gas tank restoration

#1

Post by james »

I checked knowledge base first,
Does anyone know who restores/ repairs fuel tanks back to
factory fresh?

Jim
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#2

Post by steve_wood »

Jim,

What's the inside like? If it's in bad shape, you'll save yourself a bunch of money if you clean it yourself. Rust can be removed by:

- put a handful of medium size screws in the tank (anything with nice edges or points will work)
- wrap the tank up in two or three towels really well so it won't come loose
- wait for your wife to leave the house
- put it in the dryer and tumble it for an hour (that's why the towels need to be secure)
- remove the towels
- remove the screws
- rinse a bunch of times with alcohol or methanol (do this outside or wear a gas mask)

If there's still a little bit of rust left, you could also try (carefully) an acid wash rust remover. If you do this, rinse it as soon as your done several times with alcohol or methanol to remove all traces of water which would cause flash rusting.

Another method is to cut an inside section of the tank out so you can get a bead blaster in there to remove all the rust.

Once it's clean, some people like to seal it, some don't. The gas these days is pretty reactive so you need to be really careful what type you use. I haven't had trouble with mine so far but if I had it to do all over again i'd leave it bare.

Now would be a good time to make sure your gas line opening and valve mechanism are all sorted out.

Then you just need to take it to a good body shop for prep and paintwork.

Easy right?
john HD
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#3

Post by john HD »

if you have an old fashioned radiator shop near you you might give them a call.

john
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#4

Post by steve_wood »

John,

I'd heard of radiator shops doing sealing jobs.

Do they also do a good job removing rust and crude?
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#5

Post by FlatHeadSix »

steve_wood wrote:Do they also do a good job removing rust and crude?

Steve, that's why John said "old fashoined", and if you can find one the answer is "YES". The old brass radiators cleaned up very nicely when they were boiled out in a tank of caustic soda. They were literally boiled and the same results were achieved on fuel tanks as they were on brass radiators, came out of the tank as clean as a whistle.

The problem is that modern radiators are aluminum and caustic soda (lye) will dissolve them instead of clean them (they disappear like an Alka-Seltzer in a glass of water), so most radiator shops do not have a tank of hot caustic soda anymore. So, you have to find a radiator shop that still has a boiling tank for brass radiators.

mike
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#6

Post by john HD »

steve,

you may be able to do it at home with washing soda and a battery charger as i did. page 8 of this thread https://www.hydra-glide.net/phpBB3/view ... f=2&t=6667

john
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#7

Post by steve_wood »

Mike, John:

Cool stuff. Thanks.

Will the caustic soda bath remove old tank lining?
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#8

Post by George Greer »

steve_wood wrote:Jim,

- wait for your wife to leave the house
Well, guess what...........I did that waited about a week for the fumes to dissapate on the inside of the engine cases that I coated.........just wanted to use the stove for about a hour.........OOOOPPPPPS

Boy howdy was myass in trouble........opened ALL doors and windows.....still did not get the smell out by the time wifeypoo came home... :oops:

I heard about that for a week......

If your messed up my stove your getting me a new one....

Be careful with wifeys toys :D

George
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#9

Post by steve_wood »

Ain't that the truth.

Flowers and jewelry works.
james
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#10

Post by james »

I sould have been more specific.
Many years ago someone made a repair to the
right tank. There is a patch over a hole. I can't imagine how the hole got there, maybe rusted out. Its about the size of a silver dollar.You can see it
looking in the tank. When I repainted the tanks I cleaned out
the inside and sealed it. It held up ok until now.
The paint is bubbled at the bottom mount. If Im going to fix a
leak and repaint, I would like to have the hole fixed properly
before repainting. Sheet metal work.
So that's what I mean by gas tank restoration.

Thanks, Jim
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Re: Gas tank restoration

#11

Post by Panhead Ed »

D & W radiator repair Archbold Ohio does excelent work.. !
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