This is probably old school.......

[brcree]

I have a tank that is very rusty....and have heard the tank sealer is so so.......took a handful of bolts and closed up the openings. Gave it a good rattle for about an hour, and vacuumed out the dust best I could. I have some solution that turns rust into black zink and kills the rust. I've used this stuff for years. Watered down the tank inside to neutralize rust solution and letten it dry. Will see how it works out.

[CatatonicBug]

Did you remove the petcocks and the fuel sender? The bolts and other stuff can kill those items.

[brcree]

old school

Yes, the petcocks and sensor were out....I should say I used nuts instead of bolts.

[jmnjrpa]

Black Zinc??

I have a solution that does black oxide (gun bluing, same) but never heard of a black zinc that could be done outside of a plating tank. Would love to have some info on it!

[brcree]

tank rust

Here ya go man, Its made by Eastwood and turns rust into zinc phosphate. It looks black and has some white areas after you rinse with water. Its called Oxisolv.

[TADracer]

Coat it!

Without starting an arguement over the issue of 'coat or not to coat', the reason most tank coatings fail is because the tank was not prepared well and the coating done right. If any rust is not neutralized before coating the tank the rust will continute to fester and the coating will fail. Caswell Plating makes an excellent epoxy tank coating that I have been using for several years now without fail. In addition to the coating kit you will need a gallon of Acetone and a pound of drywall screws. It is a bit of work but the result is long-term and worth it. Here is what I do.

First, if you are not intending to repaint the outside of your tank, take great care not to injure your paint finish. Take out the cocks and sender plate on the inside of the tank tunnel and make some light aluminum seals to close those holes up. Then I put 1 pound of the coarse thread, black drywall screws into the tank with a half gallon of Acetone. Shake well for several minutes and alot of the flaky rust will come off the tank walls and the acetone will disolve any impurities inside the tank. After the tank was dry, I used some rust inhibitor (similar to what you are using) that I got at Home Depot in the paint department. It was about $7.00 for a quart and turned the rust inside the tank black (also works great on headers before you do ceramic coating). Then I repeated the screw/acetone thing again to remove most of the newly formed flaky oxide from the tank walls. Take off all covers and let the tank air out, preferably over night.

The Caswell Plating kit says half of the kit is enough for our tanks but, use the whole thing. Put all covers back on and mix up the kit and pour into the tank then cover the filler neck with aluminum foil and masking tape to seal it off. Now, SLOWLY ROTATE the tank in all directions to coat every square inch of the inside of the tank. Get the shake, rattle and roll mentality of the screw/Acetone cleaning out of mind because this stuff is thick and moves very slowly. Have a beer or two handy as this will take the better part of an hour. Remove the foil/tape from the filler neck and look inside with a dental mirror and a flashlight to make sure everything is properly coated (especially the sides and top of the tank and by the filler neck). If not, continue rotating to try and get the uncovered areas. Once EVERY SURFACE is suitably coated, open the filler neck and petcock holes and let the excess drain from the tank and let the coating harden up overnight.

Then remove all remaining covers and trim up the epoxy flash around the petcock and fuel sender openings. If needed, chase the threads of the petcock and sender cover holes with a tap and then put it all back together.

If you do this right the coating will last because it is impervious to gasoline and the rust has been changed into an inert oxide that is covered over by the epoxy. The imediate thing you will notice is that there is no more fine rust deposits collecting in the bottom of your carb bowls. Works for me.

[brcree]

tank rust

WOW......thanks TAD for that info.....I will try it out! Glad to have this forum, it will make this project so much easier!