Clever bit of engineering eh?
Indeed it is! He put in a cup of coarse aquarium gravel and a litre of water (say...a quart) and simply let it go
roundy-round. Some people use nuts and bolts, some use rooking nails, some use small stones - but the aquarium gravel is nice because it is "clean" (no sand particles) and it rinses out easily.
After about, I think, two hours, he poured out a messy goo that looked like stale coffee and then he rinsed the tank out a couple of times (with water) and put in another load of clear water and gravel - and let it go for about 24 hours. He may have rinsed it once or twice more but I think at least 90% of what had been in the tank came out in the first rinse and then after that, the tumbling operation was really just a final clean-up. After that, he simply squirted some WD40 in there to coat the interior to prevent flash-rusting.
I'll tell ya - that tank was super-duper clean inside after that!
All of that was done at least 2-3 years ago (my work schedule keeps getting in the way of my fun activities) but the tank is still nice and clean inside and at this point,
@Jim has painted the outside
(and THAT is a whole tale of woe in itself) - and now it is very pretty indeed!
Pete
...and here is the whole set of parts for my cafe bike (note the extra-large Yamaha XS1100 headlight bucket which will make packing in all those wires much easier....
