Fiberglass tank, toss or fix?

Hey folks, rainy day here in Florida. I was hoping on color and clear coat my steel tank but looks like I’ll wait until the holiday. Hope the weather improves.

I have the original fiberglass tank and I hate to toss it. It was mounted incorrectly and wore through from rubbing on the frame which I fixed. When I filled it up it started leaking right though the side through the paintwork so I bought the steel one to get it safely on the road. It has some kind of liner in it.

Has anyone removed a loner in a glass tank and realigned successfully or should I just give up on it? Love the lines of it and hate to toss it.

C

Garage shelf art only.

Fiberglass can be repaired to be as good as it was originally as far as appearance and not leaking. But with ethanol gas/an old tank, whether it's worth bothering with is a different issue. My experience, with an FG tank made of ethanol resistant resin in '08 and coated with Caswells before its first exposure to fuel has been totally positive - no problems at all in 12 years. But an original tank will be subject to all the issues with ethanol after repair. Caswells MIGHT protect it but it would require an absolutely thorough cleaning with something quite aggressive before the Caswell treatment to give it a chance.

I think it's a bit of a crap shoot with the odds not really in your favor for a permanently leakproof tank.

Thanks. I’m thinking anything that would help clean and prepare for a new liner would further destroy the original fiberglass.

I had a Fastback glaasfibre tank the original . Nice shape but ethnolled off. Made a startling discovery that switch to alloytank vastly improved cooling

My thinking is that if you start with a brand new glass tank, ideally ones that’s supposed to be ethanol proof, and you treat it FROM NEW, you might stand a chance, as Mike has shown.

But of you’ve got a 50+ year old one that ethanol and petrol has already soaked into, got into the fibres and separated the bond etc, forget it.

Best case scenario is it causes running issues as the dissolved gel is gradually deposited inside your carbs and engine.

Worst case scenario, well, you’ve got a porous leaking old vessel full of highly flammable petrol… how worst case scenario dya wanna go ??

Just thinking out loud here....
How about coating the inside of the tank with a layer of epoxy resin?
same process as coating with a tank liner I'd imagine.
The tank could then be sealed with caswells or something else to protect the new resin.

I know someone with a fastback that sealed the tank all the way to the cap with a tank sealer
But fuel crept in at the cap seal and bubbled the glass fibre
Although the liner was still intact inside the tank

I would never trust a fiber glass fuel tank that is original. If you drive , not trailer her around to shows.
They can split , crack , strip at the fuel tanks and bubble , or slowly dissolve.
Take yer pick.
Steel or aluminum.

Emgo... just sayin'.

Here is one thread on repair. Sounds like a lot of work. And it could still go sideways and destroy the paint job.