Tank sealer

[Nessism]

I'm getting ready to seal the inside of my tank with Caswell. I took out the sending unit and petcock and the inside of the tank has surface rust but no scale. Basically in pretty good shape. In your opinions would I be better off just cleaning with acetone and rocks or screws and cleaning it and leaving it alone or would you go ahead and seal it anyway to keep the rust away forever?

Controversy abounds on this subject; some people remove the rust using phosphate/Evapo Rust/electrolysis and then call it done and others like to seal the metal using one of the popular sealing kits. The sealing kit sellers like POR-15 and Caswell's will tell you that you don't even have to remove the rust before applying the sealer. My opinion is to remove ALL the rust using one of the methods already mentioned and then decide on the next step. I tend to prefer to seal the tank unless the rust is light.

 

[Steve]

One of the funniest things I ever read about was one of the guys on the XS site who took his tank andput in a good handfull of wood screws, wrapped it in bubble wrap and some pillows and stuck in the clothes drier for an hour Needless to say, he did that when the boss was out

... rather than spend an hour exercising, stuff the tank in a clothes dryer with a bunch of quilts to prevent bouncing. Then run the dryer with NO HEAT for a half hour. ...

One of my GoldWing buddies has cleaned a few gas tanks by putting in about a pound of drywall screws, then wrapping the tank in foam and stuffing it into a small cement mixer. Same principle as a clothes dryer, but there is no way the boss can complain. He changed the position of the tank every so often so that the screws would hit different parts of the tank.

.

 

[jwhelan65]

Found a radiator shop that will dip mine, obviously no guarantees on the exterior paint, but I am having it repainted anyway. Anyone ever done this?

 

[tas850g]

Just had mine down from a shop. They voted it with 2 coats of red-kote. Do a google.it seems like good stuff. However, mine came out with some air bubbles. The shop guy said not worry about it. I'll find out this summer. Definitely get it coated before you paint it.

 

[charger71798]

I'm the opposite of Josh, I don't trust the radiator shops.

I'd call POR-15 Tech Support and ask them their opinion. The POR sealer is pretty slick stuff so you may have to etch the coating before applying a second layer.

Local radiator shop that does tanks all the time with Red Kote almost destroyed my tank. It is now at the body shop trying to fix it. The tank was perfect and I was just putting the liner in as a precaution.

For what it's worth.

- Cris

 

[GTGS]

Well it's done. I cleaned the tank with acetone, aquarium rocks screws and lots of shaking. Tank had a little surface rust but all the seams were in excellent shape. I used the caswell last night and this morning I had a nice hard shell inside the tank. The stuff works well. If I was going to do it again I would probably have the chemicals a little warmer. I did it at about 68 degrees and it flowed very S L O W L Y. But I eventually got it all covered. Follow the directions carefully and everything will work out. I used the expandable rubber plumbing plugs that someone mentioned on here. Excellent idea! Thanks for all the help folks. It made this project easy.

 

[Jimmyd]

Tank Sealer

Tank Sealer

I have heard that sealers might not always be the best idea, as they eventually break down.

I bought a a bike with a sealed tank (the creme stuff) , an have been wondering if maybe I should have it removed.
Looks like an even bigger project to remove the tank sealer , but I'm wondering if I have to eventually worry about the sealer breaking down and clogging jets, passage ways etc. .

Any thoughts or ideas on if I should or how I could remove tank sealer?

If these sealers can easily stand up to long term exposure to gas what could be used to strip the sealer?

 

[Nessism]

I have heard that sealers might not always be the best idea, as they eventually break down.

I bought a a bike with a sealed tank (the creme stuff) , an have been wondering if maybe I should have it removed.
Looks like an even bigger project to remove the tank sealer , but I'm wondering if I have to eventually worry about the sealer breaking down and clogging jets, passage ways etc. .

Any thoughts or ideas on if I should or how I could remove tank sealer?

If these sealers can easily stand up to long term exposure to gas what could be used to strip the sealer?

How to strip the sealer is clearly detailed in this thread up above.

Regarding if you should strip, that depends mostly on if the job was done properly in the first place.

 

[Guest]

Other than a leaky tank would someone enlighten me as to why lining a tank is necessary?
Came bare metal from the factory correct?
Why not just clean it and go?

Seems like an aweful lot of trouble for nothing.

 

[bwringer]

Other than a leaky tank would someone enlighten me as to why lining a tank is necessary?
Came bare metal from the factory correct?
Why not just clean it and go?

Seems like an aweful lot of trouble for nothing.

True, the lining is not necessary unless you have something worse than very, very light surface rust.

If the tank has heavier rust, cleaning and lining the tank helps reinforce the metal that is left, and can even seal many of the small holes that pop up down in the seams.

FWIW, my '83 GS850's tank has never been lined. It's never stood still long enough to corrode.

 

[Guest]

The tank from my 78 has a deteriorating lining in it now and I've been contemplating on how to handle it.
I think Im just gonna clean it and go as long as it dont have any holes.

The tanks on my other bikes arent lined either.