Saving Old Seagulls

Hello I have a steel tank on a 1976 silver century,it had a fair amount of rust inside,got loose rust out, I read somewhere here I think that the inside can be coated with a resin to seal it, would anybody know what type of resin I should be looking for,am I barking up the right tree? is there some other method? thanks in advance

You can also fill it with molasses and water 1:10 and leave it so for some weeks (2-4). That cures the rust. Then good cleaning and you are ready to go.

I have two seagulls with long range steel tanks. They go rusty inside and outside.. Having just been given a couple of normal brass "oval" ? tanks - they will get restored and replace the steel.

Thanks ill give the treacle a go, may go for brass eventually thanks again.....

Caustic soda granuals. Tip a fair amount in the tank. Add water till half full. And give it a good shake. Leave it sit for a while. And tip it out and flush. You may have to do this a few times until its all clean inside. The fuel tank will get very hot to handle so wear some gloves.

1650bullet wrote:Caustic soda granuals. Tip a fair amount in the tank. Add water till half full. And give it a good shake. Leave it sit for a while. And tip it out and flush. You may have to do this a few times until its all clean inside. The fuel tank will get very hot to handle so wear some gloves.

cannot comment on the effectiveness although caustic soda is not normally used as rust remover

However if using caustic soda always wear goggles.

If you splash any in your eyes it will be excruciatingly painful! Without the help of a second person you wont be able to rinse it out, and it may well cause permanent damage

Put a hand full of nuts and bolts in the tank and shake vigourously.

Remove said nuts and bolts

Rinse clean and dry.

Then coat inside with POR15

http://www.por15.com/Data%20Sheets/fuel ... %20pdf.pdf

Jeff

I used por15 on a motorbike tank, it failed after a short time, I took the tank to a fellow who restores vintage radiators and petrol tanks, he said he has had quite a few tanks done with por15 that had failed, he advised using redkote which I did and that was about 4 years ago and it is still good

Caustic soda removes the corrosion from brass. In steel it can only clean the fuel remains..

But

Caustic soda works great on steel if you do electrolytic derusting.

Have a look over here http://www.htpaa.org.au/article-electro.php

The important tips are that this procedure is an "eye contact", you will have to sacrifice some parts from iron or steel, NEVER use stainless steel because of the chromium hexavalent produced and in the case you want to try in the inside of the tank you have to place a rod inside the tank that does not get in touch with the tank, only with the solution.

Black powder produced on the surface of the derusted part. This is carbon from the steel. You take off that, with nuts and bolts possibly, and that's it.


Another easier way is rust removal with phosphoric acid. But I haven't tried that. You'll have to search on the web for that. Don't be tempted to try other acids. Muriatic acid which is easy to supply removes the rust but gets into the porous of the metal and is never neutralized, so inevitably the part after a while suffer from harder corrosion. Phosphoric acid doesn't have this effect and by the time you neutralize it with for example with ammonia or caustic soda you have solved the problem with success.

Before trying any of this tips please be sure you know what you are doing. I have tried the first method and I can answer most of the questions but for the second you'll have to search and learn how it works.

Pennies or equivelent copper/bronze coins maybe a kinder alternative to nuts and bolts. No sharp edges. I found three dollars and 12 cents about right for a brass oval tank.