Corley
New Member
I'm in the process of salvaging a gas tank. It's actually a Model A tank, but the process is the same for most any old tank, so I'll ask the qustion here. Anyway, I've cleaned it out, first with high pressure water, but of course that does nothing for the areas I can't reach. It has some baffles, and also the nozzle can't get at the top side. Anyway, after that, I used Muric acid to disolve the rust, and it was amazing how much crud and mud I got out of it. I put it in, sloshed it around all surfaces, waited 5 minutes, sloshed it again, etc. for half an hour. Then I drained it and started flushing it. After about 5 flushes with water, it seemed pretty clear, so I looked around inside with a mirror. I could still see some rust on the top surfaces, so I repeated the muric acid wash again, sloshing it for another 30 minutes, but this time almost no crud or mud came out. After flushing it repeatedly, I got all the water I could out, then put a quart of Acetone in, and sloshed that (it absorbs moisture), and drained that out. One more time of Acetone, then I applied warm air to dry it. That was yesterday.
It still shows some small hard rusty looking spots on the top. I'm wonderring if the tank sealer will cover those, or if I need to work on more rust removal again? I don't want to have the sealer flaking off and getting into the fuel system... Those spots are very small, about the size of a pencil lead, but there are quite a few of them. The bottom looks good. Anyone with experience with this?
(Now, before someone jumps on me for using a hazardous acid material for cleaning, let me say: Muric acid is dumped into swimming pools to correct PH balance. Muric acid is dumped on concrete by the gallons to brighten it, and also to remove a layer of fresh concrete if an exposed agregate job sets up a little too quickly. Once it's done it's job, they simply hose it off. It is easily nautralized with baking soda, and is considerred harmless if diluted with enough water. It is mixed with concrete stains, and when I stained the floors of my new house, I used 4 gallons of it that was simiply flushed away with water, vacumed up, and dumped. Didn't even kill the grass. With all the rain we have, it is highly dilluted further before reaching any stream beds. It's really not all that bad... You just don't want to get it on your clothes or body...)
Corley
It still shows some small hard rusty looking spots on the top. I'm wonderring if the tank sealer will cover those, or if I need to work on more rust removal again? I don't want to have the sealer flaking off and getting into the fuel system... Those spots are very small, about the size of a pencil lead, but there are quite a few of them. The bottom looks good. Anyone with experience with this?
(Now, before someone jumps on me for using a hazardous acid material for cleaning, let me say: Muric acid is dumped into swimming pools to correct PH balance. Muric acid is dumped on concrete by the gallons to brighten it, and also to remove a layer of fresh concrete if an exposed agregate job sets up a little too quickly. Once it's done it's job, they simply hose it off. It is easily nautralized with baking soda, and is considerred harmless if diluted with enough water. It is mixed with concrete stains, and when I stained the floors of my new house, I used 4 gallons of it that was simiply flushed away with water, vacumed up, and dumped. Didn't even kill the grass. With all the rain we have, it is highly dilluted further before reaching any stream beds. It's really not all that bad... You just don't want to get it on your clothes or body...)
Corley