Somebody just smack me with a two-by-four...

[Justin B.]

I am coming to the realization that I am set in my ways and stick to certain products for good reasons.  I decided to be adventurous and try a different tank relining product for the purpose of A - to report here how it worked, and B - it was from a supplier who's products I think very highly of, and C- it wuz on sale...

NC Steve graciously donated his old gas tank to my "Junkyard Refugee LS" project so I figured I better clean and reline it before it turned to swiss cheese like the original.  I ordered a gas tank sealer kit from Eastwood and I started the process yesterday, or at least tried to.  The kit comes with a "Metal Wash" product, an acid based "Rust Neutralizer", and the sealant.  I thought, OK, a pretty complete kit so this should go pretty smooth - yeah, right...  I got out all the ingredients and started reading the instructions and about the second prep step is to use Muriatic acid to tackle the rust so I had to go on a quest for acid.  Finally found some in a 2 pack at Home Depot so thought I was ready to go.   I got home, was about to start the process, and noticed a few more steps down that I needed a few quarts of acetone!  Damn, back to Home Depot for acetone.  So far, my $10 cheaper than POR 15 reline kit has now cost me about $10 more for all of the extra crap I've had to buy to go along with it!!!   [smiley=furious3.gif]

I'll let you know how the liner goes in a few days and if I ever suggest to anybody to use anything other than a POR 15 kit just get out the 2x4.  I would, however, like for somebody to try the Caswell Plating kit as the thought of a two-part epoxy based liner sounds very good to me...

[Bob_Roller]

Don't feel too bad, trying something new every once in a while works out sometimes.

You'd never discover a new product or process without a little experimentation now and then.

But if it makes you feel any better, I've got a 4x4 ready, the next time you need it !!

[Justin B.]

OK, after marinating the tank in hydrochloric acid for approx. 14 hours I can at least proclaim I have the cleanest R65 tank interior in town, the state, hell, probably the whole freakin' country!  After how the tank looked inside initially I remember thinking there was no way I was even gonna put a dent in the rust, but I can say I'm impressed.  The interior of the tank is absolutely spotless.  The acid removed every bit of rust scale, old factory red liner, etc, and left me with purely clean bare metal.  At this point I then pickled it with the supplied metal prep that leaves a phosphate coating, did the mandatory two flushes with clean acetone, and poured in the liner and sloshed it around for 15-20 minutes.  The instructions state to let cure for minimum 48 hours so I guess next week I'll put it back on the bike and do a couple more laps around the back yard.

[Bob_Roller]

That's good to hear ,that a good soaking in acid will get the rust off of the interior of the tank.

How much acid did you need to use for this ?

Was it industrial strength acid, or more on the lines of swimming pool acid, 35 % strength ?

[Jon_P]

nope never i have tried a bunch of those seal kits i will stick with the POR15 sealer kit. the only thing i would have to say is the POR15 kit doesnt seem to hit the large build up of rust like the straight acid baths. i have a vendor at work that does raditator work for us and what ever he uses eats rust like the cookie monster eating a plate of cookies! plus alot of the time he just says buy me a beer when i see him out riding. kind of feel bad when he says that cuz i dont drink and ride so i never see him.

Justin how much are you getting a POR15 kit for? the first place i found it at was like $30 a bottle so by the time i was done i almost dropped a ben. thought that was crazy but it work well, found another place on line and i can get the whole kit for @ $30.

[Justin B.]

Jon, Seems the last kit I bought a few years ago wias somewhere between $30 and $40, $36 seems to stick in my mind for some reason.  The Eatwood kit was on sale for $26 but once the extra crap was bought actually wound up costing more.

I don't think POR-15 worries about getting the rust out as their product seals and neutralizes - I think.  For rust to form you have to have a combination of things happen/be present so if you take away just one then rust can't continue or initially form.  If you perfectly seal the existing rust you take away oxygen from the process so the rust monster can't continue.

All of this is based on little tidbits being extracted from deep within the cobwebs of some obscure corner in my brain so my conjecture may be complete bunk...

Bob, I used a gallon of the "swimming pool" variety diluted 1:1.

[Justin B.]

The liner has cured for about 4 days and it appears to be pretty hard stuff so I guess time will tell whether it's worth all of the effort required to do it.  For grins I put some heavy-duty water soluble degreaser (mixed 1:1) in the ultrasonic cleaner gizmo and dropped the fuel petcock in it and let it run for about 30 minutes.  It did a fairly respectable job of cleaning it up.