Pinhole leak in gas tank

[AlphaDogChoppers]

You can take it to a good radiator repair shop locally.

That's what I do now. Cleaning the inside of a tank is a time consuming task in my shop. I just take it to a nearby radiator shop and they de-rust a tank for around $45. They can do redcoat liner, too, but I have never had them do that yet.

 

[Scruffy]

Well worth it. I had a CL100 tank done in 99 at the local radiator shop. They boiled it out, soldered all the holes in the bottom and baked in a liner. Other than it is in dire need of a fresh repaint, the tank is flawless.

I did save a set of 1938 Chief tanks halves via the dimple, solder and line method. Major league pain in the ass, but some parts are too scarce to try and track down good replacements. If I had to do it again, I'd send them out.

 

[onetruepunk87]

I ordered a quart of Red Kote off of Amazon for $30 with free shipping, it just got delivered this morning. I'm at work now but before I left I emptied the tank. When I get home I'm going to swirl some nuts/small length of chain around in it to knock loose rust and fill it up with vinegar. I took a cork from an empty wine bottle I'm going to wrap with Duct tape and plug the petcock with and let it sit. According to the Red Kote website holes up to 1/32nd of an inch (1mm) can be coated and sealed safely. I'm gonna give it a try. After the vinegar sits I should be able to clean it out with hot water and a detergent/degreaser then let the tank dry completely and add the Red Kote. I have a 3 day weekend so I'm going to take my time and get it done. The Red Kote site has a really helpful pdf. that spells out the process from prep to finish.

http://damonq.com/TechSheets/Red-Kote.pdf

 

[onetruepunk87]

I can't get the smell of vinegar and gasoline off of me.

 

[onetruepunk87]

The vinegar did a good job cleaning out the tank. After I dumped it out I filled the tank with hot water and 10 oz. of soap (2 oz per gallon of water) and let it soak for 15 minutes then dumped it and flushed it out with my hose. Here are the results.

Nice and clean! I used my air compressor to get as much of the water out as I could, now I'm letting the sun take care of the rest. I have one problem though... The sealer says to remove all plastic pieces from the tank before coating it and I noticed that there is a plastic filter in the petcock hole that I have no idea how to remove. Any thoughts?

 

[Kanticoy]

That's the old strainer filter for the petcock. You'll have to reach in there with whatever you can and just pull it out. Looks great man!

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

That fuel strainer usually stays attached to the petcock. You may have to push it into the tank, (if you can't get a grip on it to pull it out,) and then shake it our of the filler hole. You will want to reinstall the strainer on your petcock if it isn't damaged.

 

[onetruepunk87]

Thanks for the help guys. I had to get creative and ended up hand screwing a tap into the fuel strainer to get a good grip and then wiggled it out. It didn't really do any damage to it but the strainer screens look like they've seen better days so I'm just going to replace it with a new one. Also I decided to err on the side of caution and got the pinhole soldered closed before I coated the tank. Hopefully It'll be leak free now. I'm going to wait a day or so to make sure the Red Kote is fully cured and then I'll do a second coat.

 

[AlphaDogChoppers]

Don't skimp on the cure time. Cure until there is no odor. Can take 4 days with some tank coatings.

 

[onetruepunk87]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm in no rush and don't want to screw anything up.

 

[Scruffy]

And then give it another week. Trust me on this... Red Kote is nowhere near as DIY friendly as they claim.

 

[onetruepunk87]

As of this morning the tank still has a faint chemical smell to it so I'm still waiting to do a second coat. The stuff has been pretty DIY friendly so far. I think as long as you follow the directions it's pretty straight forward. The only thing I think I'd have done different if I had to do it again would be to thin the stuff with acetone before doing the first coat. It says that by doing that it will drain out easier and dry faster but may need multiple coats. Doing it undiluted took forever to drain the excess from the tank. When I do get to the second coat I'll be thinning it out.