Plugged up a new fuel filter over the weekend, and I havn't even taken my car anywhere yet I took the sending unit out and looked down with a flashlight, the whole bottom is covered in loose rust flakes. I dropped a magnet in, pulled it back out, and it was covered in ****. My buddy used the eastwood stuff with good results. Any other opinions or tips/tricks to help it go smoothly? I'll also be replacing the fuel line. What kind of fitting screws into the tank on this '47 Ford? Some kind of compression fitting? Another infamous Ford nut?
If its that bad, I'd remove it, take it to a radiator shop and let them clean it and they can even install a liquid to line the inside. Its not that much work or that expensive, Beats second guessing if you have it all removed by yourself. PJ
Yeah,go to the grocery store and buy several gallons of vinegar. Pour it in the tank and let it sit overnight.. Then turn it over and let the top sit in vinegar overnight. Don't forget to do this because there wil be more rust on the top of the tank than on the bottom. Dump the vinegar and the rust out,and neutralize the vinegar with hot soapy water and then flush that with hot clear water. You can save the vinegar in a plastic or gl*** container to use to derust other items if you want. If not,you can just dump it down the drain without any concerns. Just don't try to save it in a container made from metal. It wiil eventually eat through it. IMMEDIATELY coat the inside of the tank with a sealer after doing this because it will be squeaky clean and will start to rust again immediately if you don't. I would recommend painting the outside of the tank with POR-15 to keep it from rusting in the future,and then covering up the POR-15 with a top coat of whatever color thrills you.
I used lacuer thinner (2 gallons) and put a few handfuls of bolts in my tank. Shook it around to loosen the stubborn rust and rinsed it out. Still running just fine..
I'm dealing with the same problem right now. All the local shops want $60-$100 to clean my tank. The tank is a Model T oval tank with a few baffles in it. Ridiculous $ for whats involved (tossing it in their dunk tank on Friday afternoon and hosing it out on Monday morning). I'm considering either using the mol***es trick or muratic acid. I meant to post a question yesterday asking which would be better. My tank has very light rust/scale/dirt. This post came at a good time. JH
$60-100 bucks just for a dip? That price doesn't include coating the inside? If just removing rust is all you are after,the mol***es method is probably the best for you. If you want to remove the rust and coat it inside so it never rusts again,use the vinegar.
>>Why not try the mol***as trick for rust? 3 parts water to 1 part mol***as, let sit a few days. It will remove all rust. << BTW,how do you get all the mol***es out after it has dried? Isn't it a form of sugar that will end up coating your gas lines? A trick my father used to use was to use Red Devil Lye. I do NOT recommend this method to anybody. It is dangerous beyond belief. I saw it eat right though his thumbnail once. If it splashes in your eyes you are blind. Anybody who suggests using lye to you isn't your friend. He used it on both gas tanks and radiators.
I think the mol***es you want is the kind you get from an animal feed store, not the grocery store pancake mol***es. You DON'T want the low sulphur grocery store kind because sulphur is what makes it work!
Thanks for the tips. The vinegar sounds like a good idea, followed with sealer. I guess I'd need a lot of vinegar! Anyone else try the eastwood kit? Worked good in my friend's car, took him and a helper about 5 hours of washing, rensing, etching, sealing, ect... and the $50 kit dosn't come with some of the acid and stuff you need locally.
Call around. I am getting my gas tank hot tanked and sealed as we speak. $40 for the hot tank and $40 for the sealer. I just called every radiator shop in town and went with the cheapest. There was a wide variety of prices with some as high as $85 just for the hot tanking. If I had seen this before I would have just tried vinegar as it is pretty cheap and easy. It would probably take a while until it becomes problimatic again. After all my tank has lasted almost 60 years as is. But oh well at least I know it will not get rust in my carb anymore. Those tiny particles were making it past 2 filters and I had a couple tables****s worth of it in my float bowl.
>>Call around. I am getting my gas tank hot tanked and sealed as we speak. $40 for the hot tank and $40 for the sealer. I just called every radiator shop in town and went with the cheapest. There was a wide variety of prices with some as high as $85 just for the hot tanking. << That's pretty cheap. Even 10 years ago I was paying right at 100 bucks in the Norfolk/Portsmouth Virginia area to get one dipped and coated. One radiator shop in Portsmouth used to do a excellent job,and they would even put extra drain plugs in the tank you could unscrew with the 3x/th ratchet. The old man died and his son took over,and the price jumpted to around $250,and this was ten years ago. He screwed some people who dropped off tanks without asking the price because they had done business there before,but I doubt he does many tanks now. I now take mine to a place in Va Beach. The first one I took cost me 100 bucks,and when I took my tractor gas tank up there last year he had raised his price to $125. >>If I had seen this before I would have just tried vinegar as it is pretty cheap and easy. It would probably take a while until it becomes problimatic again. << I don't think you have too much trouble if the car is a true daily driver and you are always filling the tank up all the way and driving the car. Rust never really gets a chance to establish itself because it's always being "washed off" by the gas sloshing around. A car that may sit for months at a time without being driven can have problems,though. >>After all my tank has lasted almost 60 years as is.<< That's one of the problems, The tanks are thin and it doesn't take much before they start leaking. When you get them coated inside you are curing your problems forever and making the tank thicker and stronger,to.
The Eastwood kit worked great for four years, then Sat. it took three filters to get it home. Tank full of rust. Was told some stations add alcohol to the gas and it eats coatings. Can't prove it but I ordered a new tank.
i think i remember reading a post about how someone put a bunch of little rocks inside their gastank along with some kind of solvent or the tanny fluid and coke a cola mix or something acidic, and tied it to the rear wheel of a big tractor, jacked up the *** end and let it run for a couple of hours. sounds kind of unnecessarily elaborate though.
I cleaned a tank on my daily Olds with muriatic acid. Filled it with gas and drove it every day. It took about a week for the tank to be rusted again. Gas floats over water, so the sloshing idea just doesn't hold. I used Gas Tank Renu on over five tanks, and never had a problem. Remember, new tanks are coated (zinc plating on some) and once that coating is gone (via cleaning), it will rust until it's coated again. I also tried POR 15 on one, and I got so good at changing fuel filters I had it blasted and re-done with Gas Tank Renu. Not saying you'll have a problem with POR 15, but *I* did. Cosmo
I've seen the por15 gas tank suff, but it's just a sealer. You still need to clean it. According to eastwood thier stuff resists alcohol, and they arn't just saying that because they sell it either Still, that's the way I'm leaning. Seems the cheapest route too, by the time I buy all that vinegar and sealer seperate. I'll have to see if anyone local dips 'em.
Well you guys are making me feel better about spending money on getting mine dipped and sealed. I guess I made the right decision after all. For the price of POR 15 and such I thought it would be better spent taking it to the radiator shop. I was too broke to buy a new tank. Plus, I have heard of people having trouble with it sticking. I guess if there is any rust left at all it will not adhere as it should. Then you have bigger problems. I don't know though. I didn't want to risk it. I still think you can find a better deal by calling around if you choose to go that route. I can't wait to get mine back tomorrow. I haven't been able to drive it for quite a while because of the rust. I rebuilt the carb this weekend too and it was hosed. Everything that was supposed to move didn't and half of the stuff was clogged up. I highly doubt one bank of the flatty could have had enough fuel. Not to mention the linkage wasn't allowing the ****erflys to open all the way. Maybe now it will be a little quicker than a moped which is where it was at before, and that was when it was running well. Good luck on getting that rust out of your gas tank. It sure does make a mess of things. I blew out my fuel line with compressed air and didn't see any dust come out of it so I think I am good there. We'll see.
I was talking about painting the outside of the tank with POR-15 to keep it from rusting out from the outside. BTW,I called POR-15 a couple of years ago and asked them about using it to coat the inside of gas tanks,and they panicked. Told me to use their gas tank sealer instead,but wouldn't tell me why. Since that stuff is damn near bulletproof and even paint remover and brake fluid won't touch it,you would THINK gas woulnd't affect it,either. Nonetheless I decided to take their advise and not use it inside a tank. BTW,I don't trust the sealers you apply at home. I had some of that **** inside a set of Harley 5 gallon "Fat Bob" tanks with a custom paint job on them,and the **** kept dissolving and clogging my gas lines and filter. Maybe whoever put that **** in there didn't do a proper job of cleaning the tanks before using it,maybe it was too old,or maybe it was originally done before gas was reformulated. I don't know. I do know it kept bleeding white ****. From now on I just take my tanks to a commercial business that does this professionally and pay them. The $125 I have been paying doesn't sound like much when you compare it with what it costs to get hauled back home on a rollback and have to take the tank out again and redo it again. Spend the money once and be done with it so you can go on and face other problems.
The vinegar can be saved in a plastic gas can and resued to derust other things. It's not going to wear out. Just run it though a screen or something to filter out the trash and rust. I like to use it to derust the little bolts,nuts,and washers that I wear my fingers out on using a wire wheel on them.. Also works good on larger stuff if you buy larger open plastic containers to pour it into. Just dump the stuff in there one day and let it sit overnight,and then take it out clean the next day. No fumes to worry about exploding or rotting your lungs out,and you can just pour it right down the drain or along the edge of your workshop or house to kill the gr*** and weeds so you don't have to whack them. I also like it because it is safe to handle. You con't have to worry about splashing a little on you.
This topic couldnt have come at a better time for me either. The 54 olds I picked up two years ago has been sitting since late 66. i got it started last week for the first time. http://home.att.net/~oldsranch5/movies/HPIM0022.MPG The radiator leaks like a showerhead... And i have a half-tank of "something that was gas 40 years ago" in the gas tank. Taking the cap and taking a whiff was an experience I will not soon forget. http://home.att.net/~oldsranch6/corvette/MOV00046.MPG
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