Wanting the green light

sham

sham

Been Around the Block
So, I've been doing some reading on how to remove rust from the inside of tanks and I was just wanting some feedback on what I envision to do before I do it:


The rust on my tank I believe, is reasonably new (developed within a month). I inspected the insides when I first got the bike and it seemed fine, and so I left the petcock and tank lid open for about two weeks after taking it off the bike. When I went to have a look at it again (after reading about all these rusted tanks), it had got pretty rusted - I closed the petcock and tank lid, but it seems to have got worse since then. However, it is light orangey shade of rust.


So from my reading, I intend to go with the hydrochloric acid/muriatic acid -> water/bicarb rinse -> denatured alcohol option -> methyl ethyl ketone option. But seeing as I believe the rust is mainly surface rust, I don't really want to go through the process of re-sealing my tank with POR15, which is way too expensive for my budget. Having had so much success in the past with vinegar, I'm hoping to use this as a gentler substitute for the hydrochloric acid. Would this whole process seem ok? And is there much point in using the methyl ethy ketone if I don't plan to seal it? From what I understand, its similar to the denatured alcohol anyways...


Thanks.
 
Stay away from MEK if you are at all opposed to using muratic acid because of the strength. That shtuff is bad bad stuff. It is called in the industry Methyl Ethyl DEATH!

[font=geneva,helvetica,arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]A large amount of heat is released when strong acids are mixed with water. Adding more acid releases more heat. If you add water to acid, you form an extremely concentrated solution of acid initially. So much heat is released that the solution may boil very violently, splashing concentrated acid out of the container! If you add acid to water, the solution that forms is very dilute and the small amount of heat released is not enough to vaporize and spatter it. So Always Add Acid to water, and never the reverse.

If you dilute your muratic acid it is not as "scary" to work with and is a bit "gentler" .Takes a little longer but .....FWIW -

then I dump in some naval jelly, swish and drain with some gas and then top off with gas and keep it full. Works for me -
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Go to the dollar store, buy a few bottles of CLR or similar cleaner. Close the lid and petcock, shake the shit out of it for awhile and let it sit. Dump the CLR, spray a bunch of PB Blaster or similar penetrating fluid in, shake repetedly, and leave it on a shelf until your ready to use it. Shake every so often to recoat with PB Blaster if its going to sit for awhile. When ready to use, rinse with a little gas and go. Should cost ya about $10 and an hour of your day. If it just started to flash rust, the CLR will easily eat that.
 
Cool - thanks for all the added advice. I had a look for this PB Blaster and it sounds good and I can actually get it in Aus. Definitely costing more than $10 dollars but - $20 for 311g lol. You guys get things cheap. I've tried using CLR equivalents before but it didn't do much for my nuts and bolts - I tried scrubbing them and everything, so I'll probably stick to the vinegar.

Note taken on the MEK - might switch that the PB.

Thanks. Hopefully I can get it done this long weekend.
 
I cleaned a tank with The Works before. It did the job decently, but I still got rust in my filter once a while. In the end I figured I might as well do the job right and got POR-15. Haven't mounted the tank yet because I still have to spray bomb the sucker, but it looks great with that nice shiny liner.
 
Hey Sham, do yourself a favour and spend the $75 on the POR 15 kit, it will do the de-rust and line it to prevent it happening again.

All you need is a few hours, hair dryer, and a few small stones or washers in addition to the kit.

Whatever you do, be patient, be thorough, and follow the instructions to the letter... you won't regret it :)
 
peteGS said:
Hey Sham, do yourself a favour and spend the $75 on the POR 15 kit, it will do the de-rust and line it to prevent it happening again.

All you need is a few hours, hair dryer, and a few small stones or washers in addition to the kit.

Whatever you do, be patient, be thorough, and follow the instructions to the letter... you won't regret it :)
Click to expand...

Where are you getting your POR-15 kits that it's coming out to $75? The motorcycle kit should only be around $40.
 
NvgtrWiggles said:
Where are you getting your POR-15 kits that it's coming out to $75? The motorcycle kit should only be around $40.
Click to expand...

Mate we're in Australia... double or triple every price in the US and you'll see why we buy so much online from there and don't care so much what shipping costs... :eek:
 
Lol yeh everything is more expensive - by a lot...

I can see why you recommend POR-15. I managed to clean it out after letting the vinegar sit for a night and then using a pressurized hose to spray most of the rust off - neutralized with bicarb - ran metho through it and then did the 2 stroke/petrol mix, but there were still rust bits floating out...

I really wanted to see if the bike would start, so I just rinsed it a couple times with petrol, and finally hooked it up to the bike - but nothing. I'm posting up a video on 1800 cafe - thanks for all the tips and suggestions.
 
sham said:
Lol yeh everything is more expensive - by a lot...

I can see why you recommend POR-15. I managed to clean it out after letting the vinegar sit for a night and then using a pressurized hose to spray most of the rust off - neutralized with bicarb - ran metho through it and then did the 2 stroke/petrol mix, but there were still rust bits floating out...

I really wanted to see if the bike would start, so I just rinsed it a couple times with petrol, and finally hooked it up to the bike - but nothing. I'm posting up a video on 1800 cafe - thanks for all the tips and suggestions.
Click to expand...

Bugger... but yes definitely do the POR 15... see I'm recommending it again... haha
 
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