Tank condition:

Smooth rust on walls with mottled or layered rust on bottom. However, there are no visible particles, flakes, etc.

I stirred and scraped with my hand and can feel some grittiness from the walls. The fuel clouded up, but still no visible particles, not even sand grain size, only microscopic sized that clouds up. The small "sock" screen feels "clean".

Since treating a tank is an expensive proposition, what is the determining level of rust acceptance?

I don't want to spend 150 bucks just to have pretty fuel.

just think of sand blasting your jets or fuel injectors.

Get a micron filter until you can get it pulled and cleaned.

Too much is when your fuel filters get clogged with rust flakes.

Your tank sounds pretty funky. A peak inside Toast's tank revealed no rust at all and it was very clean, yet she had accumulated enough debris to clog her filter.

Personally, tanks are cheap, I'd get another one, have it cleaned out at a radiator shop, paint it all pretty, and then swap it out for the one you have. I'm not overly fond of the tank coatings, it's too easy to find a nice tank and do it right.

When I looked inside the tank on my '71, I expected to see some rust, since I'd been having problems with clogging idle jets. I was surprised at how little there was. The "sock" was orange, and the return had a ring of orange goop on it, but the tank walls themselves were 95% rust free. A few spots near the bottom, but nothing else. I cleaned the sock and flushed the lines, and fit two new fuel filters, and haven't had any more trouble.

I coated mine 2 summers ago with the POR tank kit. Made the inside look like new.

so far so good.

JR

PLEASE PLEASE take care of it while you have it open.....

My dad didnt when he "restored" it and i'm left to fix it....

How hard is it to restore a tank, what tasks are involved? Isn't it just draining the tank, cleaning it, and then coating the inside with some tank-lining liquid and let it sit overnight? I'll have my tank out soon

My tank was a mess with rust. I used the POR15 tank kit:

POR15 Tank Kit

Took about a week to totally do it but the inside of the tank was nice and clean.
Used 1 fuel filter in 2 years.

Spoke

$50 bucks to get boiled/stripped, por 15 kit, por 15 outside

I am NOT a fan of tank liners. Heard stories about improperly applied liners coming off and clogging tanks. And besides that, the tank is fine as long as it's not sitting. Sitting = Rust.

QUOTE (McMark @ Sep 30 2005, 03:18 PM)

I am NOT a fan of tank liners.  Heard stories about improperly applied liners coming off and clogging tanks.  And besides that, the tank is fine as long as it's not sitting.  Sitting = Rust.

Mark,

If a sealer is not used, what keeps the bare metal of the tank from rusting again?

If not using the sealer, can I simply have the tank "boiled" at a radiator shop and leave it at that?

Has anyone else used this Por kit?

..

nothing keeps the tank from rusting except either POR15 OR keeping alot of gas in the tank.......

A quality radiator shop will boil it and coat the inside with an epoxy system...POR 15 is not the only thing out there.

I had mine done, 150 boiled and epoxy coated.

In order to get it really clean, he did drill a 2 inch hole on the drivers side to get behind the middle baffle and ensure it was all cleaned out.


Rich

If you cheap out on your fuel tank, you'll live to regret it. $150 too much to invest in a fuel tank? Fuel injectors are at least 2/3 of that each.

Gastank Renu, OK? If you go with the interior and exterior coatings, you'll get a lifetime guarantee, and thier coatings are baked on and will not come off. You can get a interior only coating which, I'm sure will last your lifetime, but you'll only get a two year guarantee. If you go this route, you can paint the exterior of your tank for a "correct" appearance, if that's important.

I've heard horror stories of DIY fuel tank coatings that have sloughed off and made a real hardcore headache.