You got me curious about it myself so I punched "gas tank rust" into a search engine and came up with a lot of stuff. Mostly messages on a car restoration forum. Below is what I considered the "good stuff". "Good stuff" being the things I would think about trying had I a gas tank like you described. I have never tried any of these and have never met anyone who has so I have no idea if these work or not but I guess it is something to look into before junking the old tank. One thing these guys repeated over and over is that an "empty" gas tank makes an excelent bomb and if handeled carelessly will cause the handler to make front page news in every paper in the nation. Many have also said that the tank, once removed from the vehicle, is no longer grounded and so is subject to sparks from static electricty.

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What can be purchased locally to remove and prevent rust flakes in a Model A gas tank, the tank is removed.

Swimming pool acid...more specificly...muriatic acid...available at any pool supply or building supply...it's also used to clean concrete...will desolve rust...on contact...smells really bad..smokes..fumes..but works great...and won't eat metal...after it is finished all ya need is wash the tank out with water and coat the inside of it to prevent further rust forming....a good product is by Fuller Obrien Paint...called slushing compound...its the same stuff that ya buy as fuel tank sealer...it's also popular with aircraft homebuilders and motorcycle shops for sealing a leaky tank...try the acid...it really works well... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- Hi Bryan: Another alternative -- depending on your gas tank condition & your situation at hand, maybe try looking into your gas tank with a flash light to see what it is like, and maybe try calling Resto Motive Laboratories, Division of POR 15, Headquarters, at 1-800-457-6715, Morristown, NJ, (where "you" pay shipping for products), and where you can get a catalog, technical advice for their products, & product information;or try 1-800-777-6715, New Castle DE, for product prices with "free shipping".Ask about the following products: "U.S. Standard Fuel Tank Sealer", approx. $12.00/pint; or; "Sealer & Metal Ready", to treat rust and seal tank, aprox. $28.00;or "Auto Fuel Tank Repair Tank Kit", which comes complete with:"Tank Clean", to remove gum, sludge, and varnish;"Tank Prep" to remove rust and prepare tank for sealer;and high tech "Tank Sealer", impervious tomodern day fuels with high alcohol content, approx. $50.00; or other products available. --Best wishes, Henry

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- : I just picked up a 74 350 today and one of the many problems it has is rust inside the gas tank. It's a dent free 400 tank and I'd like to make this one work. Suggestions?

I have used a product called kreem. availible at any moto parts shop $20. good results and afordable too. it comes as a 3 piece kit. acid,etcher,latex liner liquid... good luck,, ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------

another method we've used, on several old trucks, is to do nothing at all to the tank, but to fit an additional fuel filter, with replaceable paper elements. the sloshing of the fuel will eventually carry the loose rust to the outlet, thence to the filter. at first, one must change filters every 10-20 miles, but after a couple of hundred miles driving the loose rust has been caught and the filters last much longer. that sounds laughable, i know, but it works

hope this helps ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- > > Thanks. > > MS stoic@sprynet.com

Cleaning is pretty straight forward. This is the pre-treating step recommended by most tanks sealant products. They sell their own chemicals at an outlandish price, you can find the same stuff at the hardware store much cheaper.

1. Drain all fuel, remove the stop cock assembly and filler cap. 2. Plug any orifices. Rubber stoppers work well. 3. Pour in phosphoric acid. I use a jelled form of rust remover called Naval Jelly. It should be available in most hardware stores. 4. Swirl it around to ensure complete coverage. Let it sit for an hour. 5. Rinse out the tank in the laundry tub with as hot water as you can get. 6. Air dry for a half an hour. 7. Add 250ml acetone, (VERY FLAMMABLE! Well Ventilated Area!!) siwrl around, pour off excess. 8. Repeat Step 7. 9. Air dry for an hour.

The rust will be gone, it is recommended at this point you seal the tank. I am not very happy with the Creeme product, it leaves an unatural white finish, usually lumpy! If anyone has a better product, let me know.

Doug Hakala Sarnia, Canada. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Follow

From troyce@tnn.net Sun Jun 8 17:23:03 1997 Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 06:50:55 -0500 From: Troyce <troyce@tnn.net> To: Egor27@aol.com, VJMC@hyperreal.com Subject: Re: Regarding rust in my gas tanks.....the tiger is gone!!!!!

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Or you can use a four parts water/one part Muriatic Acid (available at your local hardware) to disperse the rust from inside the tank.

The tank must be mostly free of the varnish left by modern gasoline. I find that a slightly rusted tank will be spotless in about an hour, up to overnight for a badly rusted one. If there are spots where the rust has actually perforated the tank even though the paint is still intact, this mixture will go right thru that, so beware of that. In that case your tank needs more work anyway. This solution isn't too bad on paint either, as long as it's rinsed from the surface immediately.

Rinse the tank with water next to clean out the residue, then rinse with a small amount of acetone [CAUTION: acetone will remove paint and the oils from your epidermis, USE RUBBER GLOVES] - which will mix with the water, carry it all out with it. Acetone evaporates very quickly leaving a spotless surface inside the tank. The other methods, rotating rocks for sure, and chemical boiling probably, won't leave a surface clean right down to the pores of the metal the way this method does.

IMMEDIATELY coat the inside of the tank with the liner as it will start to rust within minutes because it is very bare metal in there. CAUTION: the liners will also eat paint, as they are caustic in order for form a chemical bond with the metal surface.

Any reputable liner will probably do; I use the following because it's always worked well for me, and is reasonably priced. The kits available at a motorcycle shop are simply acid/acetone/liner just as I described above, but are quite expensive and one ends up with leftovers of one or other of the three, requiring the purchase of another kit which only . . . well, the picture is clear.

Downing P.O. Box 461 Irvington NJ 07111

Tank Sealer

1 quart = 12.95 plus $4 shipping 2.quart = 24 plus 5 shipping 1 gal= 46 plus 7 shipping

One quart will do three to five tanks, depending of course on their size and how many coats you give them. I usually find one coat adequate if the tank was in fair shape already, two if there were holes (which I repair with a fuel resistant two part epoxy - "All Metal" or "Bondo" is not fuel resistant; I use the clear stuff that comes in tubes from an auto parts store, various brand names).

I've used the Downing product for about five years now, and have had no failures yet, and all the tanks still look good inside. Again I say, any tank liner product probably works as well. I have no idea how long it actually lasts, but I suspect longer than I will need it too, considering my age. IMHO, the essential step here is the preparation of the tank inner surface itself, which is where the cleaning with stones or muriatic acid or whatever comes in. If there's significant amounts of oxidation or dust or varnish left in there there's nothing for the liner to react with, much less adhere to. It needs bare clean metal - I've laboriously pulled detached tank liner from tanks that were apparently done improperly by a PO (previous owner) and found the liner to be in perfect shape itself, it just didn't stick to the tank.

Troyce ******

I have no commercial interest in this product.

-----Original Message----- From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com]On Behalf Of Ray Nemo Sent: Friday, March 10, 2000 11:44 PM To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM Subject: Rusty Gas Tank. Help!

Gas tank has lotsa rust apparently. It was used. Had someone put it in a few months ago. Guess he didn't do much of a job cleaning it out first. I haven't driven the bus much until the last few weeks.

The rust clogged my fuel filter which made the fuel pump whine alot. (I thought the pump was bad and almost replaced that $180 piece of unobtanium.) Replaced the fuel filter yesterday. Ran great for several hours. Then the symptoms returned.

Pulled the new filter. Rusty particles again. Drained the tank. Probably a cup of gritty rust particles in the pan. Bet there's more, right?

Well, I needed to replace those fore to aft coolant lines anyway.

So I'm gonna drop the tank. Prefer-to-work-on-Buicks grandpa says drop it, clean out the rust out and forget it. It'll take years for more rust to build up. Any thoughts? Is there something I should put in the tank? Sealer of some sort? None at my FLAPS. Where do I get it?

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