How do you safely clean and seal a gas tank

My advice is find another shop that wants to do it. sounds like you have a shop that really dosen't want to mess with gas tanks but for 400 bucks they will. The first shop I called wouldn't do it and they suggested another that they thought would. the second really didn't want to touch them anymore, but said they might consider it during the summer when all the doors were open but really wasn't interested. They did however point me to a third shop, that shop said no problem and did it for less then the kit from eastwood and the additional supplies would have cost me, and better yet, I didn't have to do it or deal with the mess.

I cleaned the tank on my '29 Hudson by putting a shovelful of road chip in it, with half a gallon of water, and rattling it around for a while to loosen most of the crud. Then hosed it out with high pressure water until it stopped putting out any muck. Then gave it the POR15 three stage tank treatment. This does work, but you must follow the instructions exactly, and have lots of patience. don;t expect to do it in a day, as if there is any moisture at all in the tank you will get incomplete coverage of the coating. The three stages are dissolving the old fuel residues and fluching them out, then chemically treating the metal to neutralise the rust etc. and fluching out thoroughly out with water. When thoroughly dry you use the finish coating, which you then leave to mature and harden. This coats the interior of the tank with an impervious plastic coating. It does work. I have done several tanks this way. And I'm not a POR15 agent.

Geoff.

I had the gas tank from my '49 in a shop, they cleaned it and put silicone over the holes and weak spots. It did not take long and the gas ate through the silicone and gas just poured out my tank. removed the tank a second time and took it to Gas Tank Renu and sure it was costly, but they did a fantastic job, repaired and replaced rusted sections, cleaned and sealed the tank, looked like new. I would use them again.

Don't do the water thing. The water merely traps pockets of gasoline which then explode into the water. My brother tried it on Dad's old Ford and when the torch got busy, the tank got't grumblin an rollin around on the ground for quite a spell. When it was over, the tank had swelled up so they never could get it back in the car.



I drained about 6 gal of stinky gas out of the Terraplane. What to do with it. I thought maybe I could mix it 50-50 and burn it in the Wheelhorse. Next morning the horse wouldn't start for the first time in 40 years. The varnish has stuck the fuel pump poppets fast to the seats. So I dumped it a gallon at a time in the burn barrel and ran a 15 foot gas fuse in the sand and lit it. It was great. The fire went down the fuse and safely exploded the gallon in the barrel with a loud 'whump'.



Now that I've lost all credibility, here's what I did, once with the 49 and again with the 36. Both tanks were solid, but had a lot of crud.



I drained all the gas I could get out. Then I put a gallon of kerosene in the tank and sloshed it all around, and poured it out. What little gas was left, mixed with the kerosene, and left with it.. Repeated with fresh kerosene to be sure. Kerosene will burn but is not explosive.



I put a shovel full of small stones in and tied it to the cement mixer, which repeatedly tried to throw it on the ground. I got the stones out then did the kit thing. I could see a pocket of goo right where the pickup would be sucking. I bypassed this step the 2nd time.



Then I got the Dremel cutter and cut a 5 inch hole right over the pickup. That allowed me to get the 1/4 inch drill with wire brushes in there and give things a good cleaning. The other side of the baffle looked pretty good thru the sender hole.



The goo was a mix of the chemicals I had used to clean, etch and coat, trapped in what was left of the screen around the pickup.



After wire brushing and cleaning, and in the case of the 36, scraping up 1/4 inch of tar with a putty knife, I ate most of the rust with dilute Muriatic Acid, then washed with washing soda, (Arm and Hammer) Dryed it with the blower end of the shop vac, and painted the sealer inside the tank.



I one case I soldered the circle back in place, and in the other I used JB Weld. My tanks are clean and coated and no more problems.



I think if they cast a spotty shadow, I too would take them to Gas Tenk Renew.