wholey tank blues

[JOEY]

Ok I started sanding the tank on my 82 xj and a whole by the petcock opened up to about a 2'' long strip by 1'' wide what do I do??? I put my tank off of my xs on it and it fit perfect but so I have an xj that looks like an xs. Is there any way to repair the other tank?

[geniusloerts]

yes there is......


is it rusted through? or a hole that someone cut out before?


here is what you do.......

if rusted...or if not.

1. cut away all bad material leaving a rectangle or square hole....

2. get same thickness of steel and cut to the hole size...

3. Tack weld in place.....
(spread your tacks apart...avoids warpage...only do a few at a time, allow to cool naturaly before doing other tacks.....repeat so it is tack welded all the way around.......) this will take some time.

4. grind welds down until smooth surface....be sure that there is a complete seal....

5. apply bondo as needed and finish tank


be sure to have all gas out of tank!!!!

[Shuriken]

You can also seal from the inside out (or in addition to sealing from the outside) if the hole is not too big. Caswell Plating makes an epoxy coating that goes inside the tank to prevent rusting. I found that it also works fantastic for tanks that have holes in them. I've used this stuff on at least 6 different tanks:

http://caswellplating.com/aids/epoxygas.htm