The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2

Technical Discussion => BMW Technical Q&A, Primarily R65 => Topic started by: Bob_Roller on April 04, 2010, 01:08:06 PM

Title: Bruce Launceston, How Did The Tank Reline Go ?
Post by: Bob_Roller on April 04, 2010, 01:08:06 PM

Bruce,

You mentioned in a posting recently, that you completed the cleaning and relining of you LS's fuel tank .

So how did it go ?

Any tips for us ?

Title: Re: Bruce Launceston, How Did The Tank Reline Go ?
Post by: bruce_launceston on April 05, 2010, 02:39:26 AM

Hi Bob, I think it will be okay, it doesn't look as even as I would have liked.

I washed the old failed Tank Kreme out 4 times with thinners but it should have been removed with paint stripper to get an even bare metal surface.
I wasn't prepared to do that as I have a perfectly good paint finish on the outside.

I followed all the POR-15 instructions to the letter (apart from the paint stripper) and left it 4 1/2 days before putting any fuel in it.

I don't believe I had a rust problem, it was mainly the flaking old sealer that was the worry.

I used a small paint brush to run the sealer down the internal overflow pipe and to coat the inside of the filler neck and the raised centre seam as best I could. These areas are difficult to get the sealer 'rolled' onto due to the tank shape. You just have to be persistant and thorough.

I started off sealing the fuel tap hole with some dowell but it swelled up and broke off and I had to drill it out.

I went to a home-brew shop and bought a few small corks for the tap hole and a rubber bung for the filler hole, this was easier than trying to cover the fuel cap with cling wrap while rotating the sealer around in the tank.

I totally covered the tank with layers of duct tape and sat it on a piece of pool blanket (bullet proof bubble wrap) in a soft plastic party tub which worked great at holding the tank in any position I wanted.

After the sealer had drained and initially set I stripped off enough of the duct tape to allow me to mask up the flat black lower, sand it and repaint it with a rattle can - K&H Matt Black works great. The original black paint had been streaked by the thinners when I first used it before the layers of duct tape were applied.

It all looks great again now, I bought a new trim ring and sealing ring for the fuel cap to finish it off and hopefully keep any water out in the future.

The water wasn't the main cause of my miss, that was the tight exhaust tappet as I posted previously.