Gas Tank tech....warning...redneck ingenuity ahead...!

Remember when someone suggested a few weeks back the best way to clean a rusty tank? Well, I had the opportunity to try it...I've got a '67 Chevy truck in the shop, basically just to get it running and driving for the owner (it has been sitting about 6 years). Well, the tank was one of the worst I've ever seen, about 1/2 inch of crud in the bottom, and flaky rust everywhere else. Poured a bucketful of gravel in the tank, strapped to the tractor wheel, and let it rotate for about an hour. One other thing I did, added a large bottle of brake fluid to the mix...I've got a friend who swears it is the best thing for cleaning out tanks. It did make washing out all the crud easier, I think...not sure. Here's what I learned ....

1. Rotate on the lowest speed...otherwise the rocks just clunk from end to end..at slow speeds they slide down each side.

2. Rocks banging around in the tank are very loud... go in the office and check out the HAMB while it is in progress.

3. Use small rocks only....large ones are hard to get back out!

4. If the neck of the tank sticks down into the tank... small rocks are going to be hard to get out..leading to...

5. If you can't get all the stuff out by shaking... unsolder the neck and remove it. I was a bit nervous about having a flame that close to the tank...but it had been sitting with a water hose running through it for a while. I'm still alive...

Would I do this again? Definitely...the tank didn't come out perfectly clean, but all the scale and crud was gone. Maybe using smaller gravel would have worked better...
maybe this info will be useful to someone, or good for a laugh....!

 

It dont get a redderneckish than that!

 

Genius.

JH

 

Gotta try this one!! Gonna have to buy a tractor, though. Think I could ride around the block a few times on my bicycle and get the same results?

 

I love rednecks. Or at least tolerate them well. You'll never see this kind of ingenuity coming from downtown Chicago or NYC!

 

Instead of rocks put a section of decent sized chain inside the tank. It works great and is easy to take out when finished.

 

In the south they dont have OSHA-....its OHMYGOSHA! Kustom 52- if I'd done that my cheap ass jack would'a leaked down- tractor would ran thru office wall an killed only ME! Funny shit Bro.......

 

Actually, that picture is an illusion...the jack is just sittling there, the tractor is on two jackstands... I did check on it every few minutes though...I kept having visions of something coming loose and tearing up all kinds of shit...probably safer to do it outside but it was raining all day..!

 

I was going to do the same thing, only strap it to a concrete mixer. Didn't do for the tank was full of holes.

 

Rain? What's that? We get this crazy white junk that falls outta the sky!! Really is an ingenious solution to a problem that could be perplexing.

 

ive never heard that before. its funny, but its a good idea, i guess... so let me get this straight, you jack up a tractor, strap a tank to the wheel, turn turn turn, and you are worried about rain?!

trey

 

I was gonna try to strap my 56 safari tank to our commercial grade [2, 5 gallon cans] paint shaker at work once. Good thing I couldn't figure out how to strap it on or I prolly woulda shook dents in it from the inside out.
I think your idea was....uh, inspiring. I think I'd have also gone with rocks instead of chain. Chain against the inside of a steel tank could spell spark.

 

that is stone-cold killer, man. hilarious, and practical. you need to head up here to zanesville sometime, man. my dad has thought up uses for tractors that would boggle anybody's mind.

 

Too bad its not Tech Week.
This one would have had my vote...

 

hahah redneck madness... I love it and was kinda funny too... I pictured you glassy-eyed stairing at the HAMB on your computer. Then the tractor tire hits the ground after your jack saggs enough and bam right over you. keep up the amazing work. haha

 

I did the same thing with a 29 Ford tank. But I strapped it to a concrete mixer. Filled it with corse sand, small stones and water, and let it spin for a couple of hours. Tank got perfectly clean. Prepped it with tank sealer afterwards.

 

Damn spanky Idea!....

I wish I had a tractor.......but that concrete mixer idea sounds like it would work......

 

This whole thing kinda reminds me of my buddy Mike polishing his aluminum Daisy rims for his '55. Only the outer part is polished on these (not the spokes), so he and his partner in crime (Rick) jacked up the back end of Rick's Blazer and bolted on one rim at a time. Rick would drive about 20-25 miles an hour, while Mike held a strip of that Wizard's polishing cloth on the rim....2 minutes a piece and voila! Presto, you got polished rims!

 

well dag nab it you'ns must be some richy folk cause I ain't got no tractor. Only the folks what makes at least $7.50 un hour have such extravigants round here so I tied that darn ol tank to my mule and had Jim bo and Billy flip that sucker round and round, them poor ol boys wus plum tuckered out ofter bout 15 min of that. I isn't the pertiest turn up in the field but I think it would have been easier to just turn the whole dad burn car cause ol "Jack Ass" (thats my mule's name "Jack Ass" I got him by trading eggs and beans to ol man Potter back in 91 that was the year...opps got off on a tangent) anyway ol "Jack Ass" was just a kicking and a neighing and a kicking the whole time them boys was tossing him around, but right at the end I think he started a likeing it cause he started laughing (which was plum unsettl'n. Have you ever herd a mule laugh) Now the gosh dern thing is addicted to roller coasters and I have to take him at least once a year up to Hot Springs to "Magic Springs"(thats a hillbilly them park" and let him ride the "Arkansas Twister" (thats a roller coaster) anyway just a werd to the wise if you Jerk around a Jack Ass you'll pay for it the rest of your life.

 

EHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...Von Tingler...he took the tank outa the car first but you get an A for trying...

 

we gots a mule as well.. her names gladass.. that way you can stop buy and see my happy ass any time you'd like..

 

I tried it and now I've got forty acres of destroyed corn.....WTF

 

Brian, youse ai'nt no redneck. Youse just like me...a damn HILLBILLY!!!! but ai'nt it fun!!!

 

Well my long hair just don't cover up my redneck...

Good idea

When I did the Galaxie tank last year I used big bolts and shook it around alot. The wife's arms were tired for a couple of days after that. Hell, I had to put my own tires on.

Good tech ya Redneck!!

 

Why does the phrase "HEY BUBBA...WATCH THIS!!!" come to mind?!? That's a great solution! I can just hear the reaction from my buddy's when I say....."Well, what I'm gonna do it toss some rocks in there & shake it up!" GREAT tech!!!
Oh, and BTW...be lookin' for your OHIO care package next week. It goes UPS in the morning. Stitch

 

Around here you just stick that old broken set of snow chains in it and throw it in the back of the 4X4 pickup. Then drive around town a week or so doing your normal stuff. (No sense wasting gas like that redneck method sitting in one place). Remember to dig it out of the snowbank in the pickup bed and turn it over after a couple days if bouncing thru the potholes and ice ridges haven't flipped it for you. Works from October thru May. After that, you gotta get outa town and take it fishing.

 

I like Bobbleeds redneck cure for the gas tank...,

"Just bungee a boat gas tank (from a $38,000 Bass Boat) to the backseat of the car and squeeze the bulb on the line to get fuel pressure!!!!"

That way you can leave the gravel and crud in the original tank for ballast!!!!!!

 

you bama guys scare me.......

 

Now I can justify a tractor, "but honey I need a tractor to clean the gas tank"

 

I just threw a halfway decent tank like that away last summer...