Fuel tank is out. Moving the exhaust pipe interference was more difficult than advertised but I managed.

 

Nice work Gene- that tank looks to be in very good condition. Hope the inside is as good, but as mentioned, they are pretty thick metal.

 

Thank you Chuck

I was surprised at how good the outside looked when I got the tank out. That sender looks like it was replaced "recently". I peered around the inside with a flashlight - THAT is where the rust is. I don't feel like I can capture that with a camera unfortunately. I also noticed a dent in the bottom, right around the drain plug. I may post that in the next day or so. You think a previous owner might have bottomed out on the gas tank? Or maybe some amateur put a jack under there?

 

yea-unfortunately there are lots of ways to dent the gas tank. Depending if you can get to it, you might be able to bang it out through the hole for the sending unit.

 

I will look at that. Metalwork is intimidating to me. An additional complication is the pipe that goes down the middle of the drain plug filter. If it is what I think it is, it should move down as well. I believe it is the feed tube for the fuel line

 

This s the fuel pick-up pipe and is fixed. There should be a close fitting gauze metal filter around it which is attached to the drain plug which is in turn sealed with a washer. Sometimes, the pipe can be offset to the centre of the opening which makes re-assembly of the drain bung a little awkward!

 

Well, I did a couple of short sessions with the metal wash last night and I learned a couple of things:
- Removing this rust is a heckuva workout
- The metal wash removes a lot of rust
- There's still a lot of rust left

I think, in future, I'm going to restrict myself to one, maybe 2 20-minute session per day until the water runs "clean". Otherwise I don't think I will be able to do a proper job. I have 2 social gatherings this weekend so progress is going to be slow.

 

After a week of shake/rattle/rolling metal wash and a bunch of nuts to get the rust off I inspected in the hole for the fuels sender and the drain plug. I could see where some rust had been removed but not nearly as much as I was expecting - :P

So I'm taking a different tack. I put a gallon of Evapo-rust in the tank yesterday and stated turning it every so often. I'll try this for a bit. If it removes most of the rust then I'll move forward with the preservation steps.

 

a radiator shop is still a good alternative for cleaning out the tank. Then you can do the sealer if you desire. But perhaps the Evapo-rust will do it for you!

 

I had a Commanding Officer once accuse me of having a habit of "getting wrapped around the axle" with problems.

You may be right. Maybe it's time to move on...

Thank you for your support Chuck!

 

At least someone is making progress. I have just been working on minor parts like the tail lights.

 

I know I've mentioned this before, but my rad shop simply sand blasted the inside of mine.
They made holes in the tank to reach everywhere and then welding plugs in place.

 

I was pretty happy with the boiling it in the radiator tank. But we will see how well it works in the car. It certainly looks clean enough inside, and got rid of all the loose junk.

 

Boiling the gas tank may end up being the best way to get a gas tank spotless. After dumping the Evapo-rust last night, I spent a lot of time last night scraping what I could reach. BTW, the Evapo-rust removed lots (grams!) of rust.

There looks like there's a seam that runs all the way around the tank. Wouldn't it be nice if we could un-bolt that to gain access to all the internal baffles instead of drilling holes like Jeff's shop did?

In any case I'm sure my tank is in a ton-load better shape than it was. Even if I only put gas in it right now I don't think I would have much trouble for several years.

Still... I'm down this rabbit-hole... And the Red Queen(the rust) is not yet dead - haha

 

That does not seem minor to me. Everyone who sees your car will see your progress. No one will see mine.

Are you keeping the incandescent-bulb lights? Or are you converting to LED?

 

I am keeping the incandescent bulbs for now. Seems easier to me.


Picking up a large load of re-chromed parts today, so excited about that!

 

I've seen that lot... Pretty!

I believe the Evapo-rust is doing its job. I'm seeing a lot of grayish metal where I had seen dark rust. A couple of more days with this stuff in the tank and I think it will be time to move on to the next step.

 

Kind of like body work. How do you know it is good enough? When the level of effort required to make it better exceeds the fractional improvements that come out of that effort.

 

LOL - Exactly!

Today may be the right day to buy my rebuild parts then(gaskets, washers, etc.). While they are in transit I'll finish the tank cleaning & sealing.

I tried to bend the dent on the bottom of the tank with the tools I have and the metal didn't budge. I didn't beat it too hard since I didn't want to mess up the drain plug threads. I might have a pro look at it some time in the future. For now it will be part of my car's "endearing charm". I don't think it's going to affect capacity much(a cup/200mL maybe).

 

So... For a couple of weeks I had been running chemicals through my fuel tank and occasionally scraping it with a long pry-bar. One time while I was sloshing chemicals around I found a pinhole leak (Grrr, yes, a leak!). So I checked the inside and it still looked like there was a LOT of rust left in the area of the pinhole. I have sealer, and thought that it might seal one, maybe two, small leaks. But I thought that, after I removed all the rust from the tank, I'd be stuck with Swiss cheese to try to seal. Poot. What to do?

I doubled down. I've wasted enough time; I'm moving forward. I said the car-restorer's prayer ("It's only money") and the next day after seeing the leak I ordered a new gas tank, all my rear suspension buffers, and a pair of shock absorbers. IMO all this should have been here by Labor Day weekend but apparently UPS and I have a different idea of what "3-day shipping" is. Everything arrived Tuesday :P

Today after work I dove in, removing the tires, the old shock absorbers, and breaking a lot of the nuts free. I liberally sprayed PB Blaster on everything that I'll be removing over the next few days. Some pics of today's progress: