Really crusty gas tank cleaning

I would try vinegar. Fill it to the fill hole bung. I dumped a couple gallons of white vinegar into my rusty tank, let it sit for about 5 days or so, and then cleaned it out. Looked almost new inside. If the sealer is flaking, the vinegar should get under it to dislodge the loose stuff.

Ball bearings or small nuts & bolts inside & shaking around helps too.. if you do a search this has been covered plenty of times on the board.

Zeeman said:

Ball bearings or small nuts & bolts inside & shaking around helps too.. if you do a search this has been covered plenty of times on the board.

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I've used dry wall screws and paid my son (he was 10 at the time) to shake it as long as he could for a few days, then flushed it out and it looked almost like new just from the screws rattling around. Add some vinegar to the screws, seal and shake, then flush and reseal.

http://jockeyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86041

I did this ^. It was great. But i didn't coat or line the tank ASAP. The tank sat for some months and rusted. I tried this a 2nd time and the results were not so the same. So i am still on the fence about why it didn't take the second time. But it does remove lots.

I am vinegaring my tanks right now, it really does work, I'd give it a shot.

if the vinegar doesn't do the trick, try CLR from the hardware or grocery store. in either case, after the tank is as clean as you want it to be, take a bit of time to soak some water and baking soda in it to neutralize the acid and prevent further rusting... Trust me on this one.

Clr is acid , be careful is the paint. It's needs to be nuetralized too.

Absolutely! Don't spill it on the tank! I have always topes around the neck and used a plastic drop cloth taped to that to keep any spills off of the paint. baking soda and water for sure after either or you can sit and watch new rust form.

I've cleaned tanks using acid, but none have had the sealer in them.
I'm going to fill it with vinegar saturday and see what happens.

Worst and or best it can do it delaminate the old sealer inside, which is what you want anyway. Just think the CLR would do it quicker. I have actually spilled that product on lacquer paint and quickly wiped it up with no I'll effects... Just don't do if you can help it. For sealer, Caswell has been working great for me!

Brown vinagar is twice the strength of white. Keep that in mind. Plus, the BB trick works best, if you fill a quarter full, seal the tank, wrap in a thick blanket and tape real good, fill our dryer with towels, and stick the tank in the blanket in the center of the towels, and fill with more towels. So the tank is close to center of the dryer basket. Turn on(with no heat if you have that option) and about a hour later, pull the tank, and empty the bb/s and the garbage. You may have to do this a couple of times, but it really shines the inside of the tank, and no damage to the paint. As far as CLR goes, there is another brand, called The Works, that you can get at any dollar store, for a buck, and it is much more potent than CLR. Requires gloves to use, and it eats rust like Pacman.

Nice ass tank, clean it with screws and what everybody else said and then run a filter!

Phosphoric acid- "etching acid". let it soak for several days, drain, let it dry COMPLETEY. The phosporic acis treatment is like parkerizing the inside of the tanK

Radiator shop.

i've used vinigar as well with amazing results...and sinse its a mild acid it is more forgiving as far as time limitations go

I've used vinegar on all kinds of things rusty. Bolts, brakets AND tanks. I flush tanks with fresh water and swirl a little Marvel Mystery oil, no reason I guess but I've had a whole bunch of success. Get mine a the dollar store and no regrets.

sugarlou said:

Radiator shop.

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I tried to get a set of flatside tanks vatted a few months ago.

There's not a radiator shop in Austin that would vat the gas tanks for me. Most of them don't do hot-tank vatting at all anymore. Apparently it's bad for... something...

Doc

Bigblockdude said:

Ok, I got this bitchin digger last week. The tank is fucked up inside. 20 year old gas, and tank sealer. The rust is flaking and bubbling under the layer of deteriorating sealer. I need any suggestions of what has worked to remove this crap and reseal it.
Any and all suggestions are appreciated.

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I got the same issue on my Coffin tank... the sealer is peeling away.
How did this turn out??

diesel some nuts and bolts and shake it real hard
the tanksealend will go loose and the paint stays

i know vinegar works with rust ,but does it work for the sealer ??

fact is that if you use the official sealer remover it hurts the paintjob !!

i use diesel and it works ,after that clean it out with compressed air
and sometimes i coat the inside with OWATROL but you have to let it dry for over a month when you use it for the inside of a gastank !!