Are there any tips and tricks involved with this except for carefully draining the fuel and wash out all the gasoline fumes? Maybe use compressed air just to be sure? I welcome every tips on this.
You can't wash out the fumes even with degreaser. Some brave souls either fill most of the tak with water, or run a cars exhaust through the tank while welding, or fill with CO2. Send it out. I had several "Woof" with using the water deal.. enough to make me think twice now... I have had enough close calls. i did use exhaust, but was concerned the whole time. I won't do them anymore, period
it also may be too thin at the area to do a "nice" job of it..might be time to buy a replacement, cheaper for the trouble....rust..shit in the filter..bla bla bla..ask me how i know
Do it the way the old guys did it and use an old fashion soldering iron. One that has a big fat ass copper tip about 3 inches long and about 1 inch in diameter that you heat with a torch. Just heat the soldering iron, don't get the torch anywhere near the tank or you will go boom!
Just run any kind of inert gas thru it. I would not use exhaust fumes. Since we do suspension, nitrogen would be gas of choice. Give some good blasts to fill and then just leave a small flow to keep oxygen out.
funny, I've welded and brazed on fuel tanks three times recently and none went to a radiator shop. I like good 'ole Dawn dish soap, in liberal amounts, with water. Let your nose tell you after you dry it out.
I just replaced my 2 side by side 30"x40' steel culverts with 2 8'x22'x1/4 thick under ground Gasoline storage tanks end to end. Before these could be removed from the ground they had to be cleaned, then had the 1 end punched with with a 3' V cut to let them air out for a few months. When I got them a few weeks ago you could smell the fumes when the black paint would heat up in the sun. Before we cut the ends out of them we borrowed a meter to test the air inside & I was still cautioned by a guy who worked a USS to purge the tanks with Exhaust Gas from my suburban before cutting the ends out. His 1st week on the job at USS in gary in 1969, he watched a guy cut into a pipeline that had not been used in 30 years. The pipe had rust holes that you could crawl into and was to be scrapped. As soon as the Torch touched the steel, that was it, the pipeline blew and the guy was killed. The gas gets into the structure of the metal and will release fumes. Exhaust has no oxygen.... I saved a ton of cash getting these storage tanks for scrap price compared to a new sheet metal culvert at 3500.00. I shouldn't flood out anymore, so it was worth it to me. For the car, Id spend the 300 and get a new one, and not risk welding on a bomb that will probably start leaking somewhere else in the near future. Good Luck
It's a bomb. Do not attempt to weld it in place. If you want a fix until you get it removed,take a bar of hand soap and rub on the area where it's leaking. It'll react with the soap and stop the leak. TP
I have a friend with 1 eye,half a face that did it for years also. Be safe,not worth it. I have done it myself and I am a welder. Got lucky I guess. I will not do it again. TP
As long as the tank isn't sealed up it wont explode. It's physics no compression, no explosion. Oh, It will shoot flames out of the big hole on top but its not going to explode. Thats why the water thing is a bad idea. your sealing up the tank and making a confided area for an explosion to occur. and water doesn't compress so your directing the explosion from the area with the water to the area where you are welding, and towards yourself.
You could try one of thoese epoxy repair kits. Seems to me like it would be alot safer than welding. Just a sugestion.
I have done this twice. First time was to relocate a filler and blank of the old one. On this occaision I simply filled with water. Fortunately I was able to orient the tank so that the area to be welded was at the highest point. This meant no air pockets inside. Gas welded , tank sealed well no dramas since and that was about 27 years ago. The second occaision was the job was to repair some rust holes. I took the tanks (twin tank set up) to a rust removal place that was in the business of immersing car bodies to remove paint and rust etc. Cleaned the tanks nicely and then set about soldering the array of pinholes that were apparent using gas torch and large copper headed soldering iron. No exhaust gas purge or similar was used. Successful repair. These jobs can be done but you need to be very careful about what you are doing as you are basically playing with a bomb as has been mentioned.
When I was a kid a guy around the corner tried to do a weld repair on his Jeep fuel tank. The tank blew and he was burned pretty badly along with the contents of his garage and the Jeep. He was one of the lucky ones. I can honestly say that because of this, Ill never weld on a fuel tank. To me, its just not worth taking the chance.
I had a leak in my 46 international, I drained it let it dry, cleaned the spot with sand paper, put a screw in it & covered it with JB weld. that was 4 years ago. Poor man's way.....
I've had a couple tear on rocks and I take them to Radiator shops for boiling before welding. If you want it to look good have it boiled then do the epoxy sealer. The boiling also breaks up any junk in there for extra reliability.
I just had some pin hole swiss cheese in one corner of a tank. JB Weld and 4oz. fiberglass cloth fixed it. Got 8 years on that repair so far.
"As long as the tank isn't sealed up it wont explode" Baloney! That's what Terry told me... sounds logical but not how it really is. I didn't think so either. My neighbor Terry was arc welding on a 40 gallon truck tank he was making into a 30 gallon tank. it was dry for years, washed out and wet with some water in it and open and it blew up but didn't hurt him just scared the krap out of him. It turned from a square tank to a steel beach ball. the kwik shop a block away had called the police reporting a bomb went off. My 55 chevy PU tank had a crack. soldered it and it split again, welded it and it split again. It had been rolled and the cab must have had some flex. I ended up just getting another tank. I washed mine out and hooked up a shop vac blowing into it not sucking out while I gas welded. It kept the fumes from accumulating to flash point. every gas that burns must reach a specific concentration before it will burn. The prime factors are volatility, humidity, air pressure and temperature. If you move enough fresh air through a paint booth the paint fumes will not accumulate heavy enough in the air to burn if sparked. If there's not enough air moving in you won't live long
Yep. There are lots of ways to fix a tank that don't require welding. Welding, especially by somebody that ain't done it before, don't assure that it won't leak any more than the other ways.
Sorry, this is not true. I used to work for Trailmobile semi trailer company. They used to weld and repair gasoline tankers, until one of our branches were welding on an open tank trailer that had been steamed and tested, in the crevasses of the tank the gas fumes stayed, even after being steamed and tested. Four guys died and the company quit working on gasoline tankers. Fuel tanks can be dangerous, I would pay for a new one and not risk it. You might be able to get it fume free and safe, but maybe not and the maybe not time might blow up... SpeedAddict
please video what you are doing, i need a good laugh!!!!......................just kidding! dont do it, take it to a radiator shop, they will solder it for you. and pressure test it!
With all the plastic and aluminum radiators being used repair shops are getting rare, at least here in NorCal. I called our remaining local shop a while back and was told that they no longer boil radiators or gas tanks due to some EPA regulation having to due with what was in the water afterwards and how it was being disposed of. Maybe its true or maybe he just didnt want to do it? Last time I drove by there the sign on the gate said "Closed Forever".
yea but he should be in the clear. nevada should still have an old school shop around. we have a ton in so cal!
Boiling out a gas or oil tank in caustics or acids results in hydrocarbons in the wash water. Cleaning radiators leaches copper/aluminum out of them. What you going to do with it, if you're a shop? Put it in 55-gallon drums and pay out the nose to send it to an EPA-approved disposer? A lot easier to just call it quits. It's the price we pay for clean water.
The Jalopy Journal
