Rusted steel roadster tank

WD-40? Yeah, it burns real good. I once turned my shop vac into a jet engine by spraying it on a noisy fan bearing! Good thing hair grows back or I wouldn't have any eye brows, the stuff on top is pretty thin anyway.

I use the POR-15 products to clean & seal rusty tanks. Their Metal Ready product is phosphoric acid & will eat the rust out quite well. I've used isopropyl alcohol to absorb the water after the rinse; the last time I used the blower side of my shop vac to dry it out.

By the way, I would not recommend "sand blasting" the exterior of your tank as I feel that commercial blasters would be too aggressive, peening & stretching the sheet metal & causing all sorts of problems. From the look of the pictures a scotchbrite wheel or other abrasive may be adequate to remove the rust. I'd wager that most would come off with the phosphoric acid.

Good Luck,

Joe in St Louis

wd/40 is only good as cleaning solvent and rather poor even at that compared to other alternatives. Do not trust wd/40 to protect in moist conditions even over night. Only acetone or its meaner relatives is worth while to clean and remove grime and other coatings POR has known history of decay in presence of alcohol and I've learned from others finding flaking POR inside rusting tanks and then carbs and engine. I did my rusted tank by phos acid wash to set the rust stable while shaking some sections of chain and nuts inside to knock off big stuff and texture the surface, then acetone rinse then drying fully which don't take too long in steel tanks, then Caswell's 2 part Novalac and half hour of tumbling to keep a thick layer set up on all surfaces, especially around the filler neck right up to the cap sealing rim surface. Pour in most of a pint, swirl around then dump some the excess out but not enough to prevent a least 1/8" layer remaining. Give tank a few days to set up fully and best to heat in sun or oven on low before putting spiked gasoline in it. I greased wood dowels to run in the fuel taps and a bit beyond so can just screw out leaving the sealer set right up to the tap threads but not inside them.

Coerceing a engine rebuild shop to drop it in their chemical tank for a hour or two would be easiest , or one of the ' redy strip ' outfits who hot tank car bodies / panels .

Strong fresh acids corrosive though , so not all day unless you want to lighten it .

cjandme said:

I'm thinking of cleaning my rusted steel roadster tank with Muratic acid. The outside of the tank is pertty badly rusted in some places so I've found someone who can sandblast the outside, but the inside is actually pretty good. So my questions are: 1) Is using Muratic acid a good way to clean the inside? 2) What would be the ratio of acid to water. 3) How long should it be left in there/ or how quickly should it be removed? I remember some other threads on the topic of cleaning out the inside of a tank, using drywall screws to help knock off the crud while shaking it up, etc. My search on the pats threads for Muratic acid didn't turn up much detail. Does anyone have experience using acid to clean the tank out? Thanks in advance Cj

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Hey dougmatson just told me about this product called Evapo-rust.
you may want to check it out................

I've tried it on various rusted items. Does work miracles. Nearly $10 a quart though. :?

I got a gallon at Tractor supply for about $20. I wouldn't call it magic, but it does something.

Dave
69S

The Por-15 products work great. Use the Marine clean first. I poured about a quart in and filled the rest with water and let it sit over night shaking it about 5 times during that time.
Rinsed it out and drained it the best I could, poured in some alcohol to dry and then the Metal ready product to treat.
No coating for me as the tank was so clean and there were no leaks to seal.
To me coating is a commitment. Once you do it there is no turning back and a bitch to fix if it starts peeling.