I have used both the electrolysis and vinegar methods to good effect. Tank liners are best avoided use as a last resort.
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cleaning gas tanks
- Thread starter Vintagemcycleguy
- Start date
Just goes to show that we can all get along as long as we are talking about gas tanks and not PMA's or the quality of Mike's parts or virtues of restoration versus hard tailing or if rephasing is the answer or tossing BS38's in favour of flat sides or ......
Still looks like a healthy community!
Still looks like a healthy community!
.....or which engine oil, or what brand tire, or how to protect electrical connectors from corrosion
......
......KevoInNJ
XS650 Member
I'm finally getting to my rusty tank now, I've been lurking on the site for awhile and decided to go with apple cider vinegar and an old chainsaw chain which I've had in there for three days now (turning and shaking). I have Evapo-rust coming in the mail today and I'm going to dump the vinegar,r wash with warm water and baking soda, dry it with a heat gun, and then pour in the Evapo-rust. My question is do I have to coat the tank when I'm done? I was just gonna hit it with WD-40 until I have the bike reassembled.
My post electrolysis routine is to rinse the tank with meths , then dry. Meths is alcohol so mixes with water. Then place about a cupful of diesel in the tank and slosh it round to coat the inside.
The Evapo-rust will chelate it and form a protection for a few weeks. The warm water and soda may be a bit of overkill, a quick water rinse and then swishing the Evapo-rust in it is good, then you could mix a small amount of gas and oil and swill it around in the tank, but in the outside air of course, let it sit till ready to use.
You have already acid etched and scratched the inside of the tank. The factory liner (whatever that was) is gone. No need to waste Evaporust at this point. Continue with the acid until the rust is gone. If it's going too slowly for you, fill the tank with water and add two cups of phosphoric acid. Depending how bad it is, it should be done overnight. Neutralize it with baking soda solution and dry it as quickly as possible. WD40 will help. Coat the inside with 90W gear oil. A quarter cup ought to do it.
When exposed to moist air, your tank will rust. I would line it. I recommend Caswell and a half kit will get it done.
http://tinyurl.com/yd43m2cn
Isn't there an acid that reacts with the steel and gives it a gray/black coating that doesn't rust? I thought it was phosphoric acid. Iron phosphate coating?
FLEA
XS650 Guru
the phosphate acid is a rust convertor but you still need to get rid of any major rust first or it wont work ie .. wont penertrate
I did the vinegar, shake, let sit, repeat for a couple days. Then rinse with HOT water with a little baking soda. Finally treated with http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klean-Strip-1-gal-Phosphoric-Prep-and-Etch-GKPA30220/100406369 . It has sat dry 4 months since then and no rust has come back.
KevoInNJ
XS650 Member
So many different ways it's kind of dizzying. I just checked the vinegar and it has worked really well, surprisingly so. I already bought the Evapo-rust so i'm just gonna swirl it for a day and see where i'm at. If I had known the vinegar would work that well I wouldn't have even bothered with the other stuff. I'm just gonna spray it with WD-40 and pour in a spare can of 2stroke oil (thats what i have handy). After seeing how effective the process was i'm not too worried about doing the process again if needed. Thanks for the all the input.
Use the vinegar until the job is done. Use the Evaporust for something else. WD40 will evaporate and the tank will rust. Line it to assure it won't. Use heavy oil to coat it for a delayed decision.
Don't need a chain with vinegar, I buy the supermarket brand white vinegar off the shelf. All the shit comes to the to the top. a chain can dent.
Muriatic acid.. also known as hydrocloric acid... also known as driveway cleaner will have the inside of a tank to bare metal in less than an hour. Years of experimenting and lots of wasted money taught me that it has to be at minimum a 28% solution. I used to keep a 5gal. bucket to put rusted parts in. You can put a bolt in it that's rusted half in two. Pull it out an hour later and it's still half gone, but ALL the rust will be gone. If you want fast and easy, that's the stuff! Ace hardware, Amazon has it... It's pretty common stuff. A word of warning though, just a wiff of it will have you hacking for days. It burns the hell outta your throat! Use a good respirator. Or as I used to do, put a house fan between you and the bucket. Seriously nasty shit that's strictly outdoors use, but man it works good. Another interesting rust remover that I've never tried is Molasses. Seriously, go to Youtube and search for molasses rust removal. You'd be amazed...
Jim.
Jim.
KC 120
1980 XS650
Lots of good information here, very interesting read. Kudos to the contributors.
The time to use Evaporust or Metal Rescue is at the very beginning if the tank has rust spots in it. Those products will remove the rust without etching the rest of the tank. You remove the rust and drive on. IMHO, the acid etch is the cheapest way to deal with the badly rusted tank. I follow up with a Caswell liner.
If you're able to get all the rust out, you might consider tin or zinc plating the inside. Doesn't seem too crazy.
http://www.caswellplating.com/elect...in-plating-kits/tin-electroplating-kits.html#
http://www.caswellplating.com/elect...in-plating-kits/tin-electroplating-kits.html#
Molasses works. Used it on rusty tools and to clean up an old set of gears that were rusted together. Temperature is crucial for the time it takes. In the cooler weather, (talking about winter here, 26 Celsius max and 10 Celsius min), it works slower. Use at a rate of 20:1 and melt the molasses in some hot water first. It fument's creating the acid and the smell can get very strong.............leaves a black surface and the gears were still stuck, a little penetrate and a couple of taps to vibrate things loose and then some wiggling by hand and the cogs and bearings ran as free as the day they were put together
Mole asses...........I stomped on this critter one night in the yard while closing up the workshop, didn't realize what it was until the next day.
Scott
LOL, I looked for mole asses the other day at
Home Depot, was told they were sold out.
Seriously now, I had my tank lined with Red Coat, a local radiator repair shop did it. They hot boil the tank which absolutely removes everything from the inside and unfortunately from the outside as well. So if you are going to repaint this in MHO is the best way to go. Red Coat stays flexible, gets great reviews, cost $165 for the whole job. Maybe I'm just lazy, but was kind of nice not having to monkey around with the Chem's and then hoping the coating would stick and not fail.
Home Depot, was told they were sold out.
Seriously now, I had my tank lined with Red Coat, a local radiator repair shop did it. They hot boil the tank which absolutely removes everything from the inside and unfortunately from the outside as well. So if you are going to repaint this in MHO is the best way to go. Red Coat stays flexible, gets great reviews, cost $165 for the whole job. Maybe I'm just lazy, but was kind of nice not having to monkey around with the Chem's and then hoping the coating would stick and not fail.
