Saving Old Seagulls

Hi everyone, my first post here and while I searched around the forum I didn't find the info I am looking for. If this has already been addressed I apologize, please point me in the right direction!

I am hoping to refinish a tank, it appears to be steel and at some point was coated in a plastic-type coating. Was this done at the factory? Previous owner scraped about 80% of the coating off and gave up. So it is not pretty but has good bones.

My main hope is that you can provide some advice on the best approach to refinishing? Despite poor condition of the tank it surprisingly seems to have no dents or nicks whatsoever; damage appears to be inflicted by previous owner only! I will have it stripped down bare and am looking for advice from there.

Thanks all!
Andrew

A very common problem, most of the time people replace them with brass tanks, If you want to keep the tank, wire brush the old stuff off and Hammerite or plastikote it.

I recently refinished a steel tank -
After stripping it, I sprayed it with a light coat of self etching primer, and then finished with some Valspar anti-rust enamel -
This was just rattle-can paint, not fancy 2-part, and I think other brands might work as well - Rustoleum, for example.

After air drying for a day or so, to let most of the volatiles gas off, I baked it in the oven at 200º for an hour, and let it cool in the oven.
It seems to be fuel-proof so far - It's the baking that does it - I got that trick from the folks that restore Coleman lanterns.

I think (correct me if i'm wrong) the original finish with these steel tanks was by a powder coating, either black or blue with corresponding decals.

Rust is the biggest worry with these, not just what you can see on the outside ,but the inside of the tank will also probably be corroded to some extent too. Many owners over the years have probably replaced these steel tanks with a brass tank.

There used to be a 2 pack solution for motorcycle fuel tanks in the good 'ol days. Not sure now though! From memory it was a case of rinsing out as much crud as you could, then apply this "goo" to the inside giving it a good swill around, leave it to dry for a week or so and hey presto.
If you can find anything like this where you are it should work well in a seagull fuel tank.

Jon

There is a two pack solution available to seal steel tanks, however it needs a lot more preparation than just swilling out as much crud as you can.

To start you need to clean out the tank to remove all crud, a couple of handfull of sharp gravel or nuts and bolts, then shake about for a while. Once you have loosened as much as possible a good degreaser such as kerosine or parafin.

The kits you can buy then uses a degreaser, followed by an acid based etcher, which is rinsed, and must be properly dry, then an epoxy resin is poured in and moved around to cover the tank.

Lots of classic bike owners are undecided as the tank can often rust under the liner, thus causing the liner to seperate. Then the liner starts to loosen and break up...

I would suggest cleaning the tank out as much as you can, add some gravel and shake it about until your arms are dead. Then see what it looks like. I've cleaned my old bike out using this method, finished off with adding some phoshoric acid for an hour. It came out looking pretty good.

http://www.frost.co.uk/por15-car-bike-m ... ealer.html