Quote:
Originally Posted by 1crosscut
I'm not a fan of the tank sealers. I'd give a go with some Evapo-rust or such first and see how it looks after a couple of go rounds with that. Decent chance that adding a pencil filter in the fuel shut off after using the Evapo-rust would do the trick.
If you have a build up of varnished fuel in the tank put in a couple quarts of carburetor cleaner and slosh that around and rinse first before using a rust dissolving solution.
|
Two thoughts on this. While you may not like sealers, let me share what I have found on these...
1) The factory Terne finish is a very thin coating to prevent the metal of the tank from rusting. Two things tend to cause it to fail, -one being that it just wears away as the gas sloshes during driving, --and second, it begins to release from the metal as rust creeps & forms underneath of it. Without any way to seal the bare metal of the tank baffles or walls, rust begins to reform which causes more carburetor issues and before you know it, you are back to the same problem. So even if you soak the tank in some type of pickling solution, the rust will soon return.
2) Often times we find tanks that were sealed in which the owner states the sealer has failed however when they are cut open, we find the tank was never sealed thoroughly. The pictures below are a good example. Notice how the floor and roof areas of the tank are thoroughly coated yet the baffles were not coated. The sealer didn't fail. The person that sealed the tank failed.
The underlying issue is you cannot properly seal a tank unless ALL of the metal is clean. By clean, ...fragments of the original Terne coating must be removed too. Also, any bits of old gas varnish or sealer(s) must be removed. Additionally, any residue from a rust converter must be removed if a sealer is expected to adhere. In the perfect world, being able to mediablast ALL of the internal metal 'textures' the metal allowing the sealer to have a better mechanical bond. This adds longevity to the sealer too.
The other thing we see that is always an issue is one quart of sealer is not enough to coat all the pieces of metal. The only way to ensure the tank internals are completely coated to the proper mil thickness is to fill the tank completely with sealer and then rotate 360° in all directions before draining. So even if you were to fill the tank ½ full, you are still needing to purchase 5 gallons of sealer. Unfortunately, once the sealer has been exposed to the air, it begins the solidification process unless you can store it by refilling a container and vacuum the container to remove any air. Then be able to seal it from any air until the sealer is reused. I tend to think that much of this is beyond the wheelhouse of the average restorer.
.
.