Pin Hole in Tank Already Treated w/ POR-15

[J_C]

Hey guys, about 18 months ago I treated my tank with por15. The end result was stunning: all my rust problems had been solved and my carbs stayed clean etc. The inside looked really smooth and clean.

Unfortunately I recently noticed the paint was bubbling up on the side of my tank. Sure enough, it was a pin hole leak so I poked it and drained it, and then I emptied the tank. Peering in, the insides still look amazing, except for a tiny single black dot which aligns perfectly with the leak on the outside.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what I can do to fix this without ruining my paint? it really is a minuscule little hole... can I put por-15 over por-15? Can I put jb weld on the tip of a stick and apply it on the inside? Any other ideas?

Any advice much appreciated! Cheers.

[posplayr]

Hey guys, about 18 months ago I treated my tank with por15. The end result was stunning: all my rust problems had been solved and my carbs stayed clean etc. The inside looked really smooth and clean.

Unfortunately I recently noticed the paint was bubbling up on the side of my tank. Sure enough, it was a pin hole leak so I poked it and drained it, and then I emptied the tank. Peering in, the insides still look amazing, except for a tiny single black dot which aligns perfectly with the leak on the outside.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what I can do to fix this without ruining my paint? it really is a minuscule little hole... can I put por-15 over por-15? Can I put jb weld on the tip of a stick and apply it on the inside? Any other ideas?

Any advice much appreciated! Cheers.

Welcome back JC. Missed you at the Reno.


As far as your tank it sounds like you had a rust spot that you covered over and it may have had contact with air from the outside and so continued to rust.

I hope you have some type of touch up paint. I think I might try and repair it from the outside; strip a small section to bare metal . Use a blunt punch to push it down then push the jb weld in from the outside and use the stick to spread a but on the inside after you clean that as best you can.

The problem is getting a clean surface that the material can bond to. Seems like the outside might be best.

You probably have other pin holes is the problem. Was the tank stripped down bare before painting?

There are some gas tabk repair materials. The other competing brand from Caswell is supposed to bridge pin holes .

[Nessism]

I don't have any personal experience but have heard people talk about special gas tank sealing compounds. Did a quick google search and came up with this stuff called Pro Seal. Worth a look... http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/...ksealants.html

[Buffalo Bill]

Don't make it hard…

Just a dab of JB Weld. To do more: a little fiberglass patch and epoxy.
Wanna start lookin' for a better tank?

[SqDancerLynn1]

I would maybe scrape/sand the inside a little and recoat it with POR15
Let it set up (hold it to get a thicker coat ?) and give it a 2th coat or 3 coat and see what happens

[posplayr]

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showpost.php?p=1252626&postcount=13

pro-seal?

[J_C]

Well see thats the thing.... the paint is good; it's not a rattle job; it's quasi-professionally done. So whatever I do to fix it, it needs to be done from the inside, and preferably without stripping the existing por15 (because let's be honest, if that's the case I'm never going to get to it; I'm crap out of time these days).

Bill's answer is what I had hoped to hear. I just dont know if the jbweld will adhere to the por 15. I mean it is lierally a pin hole, per the name.

Lynn, are you talking about sanding the por 15 a litle bit and then reapplying over it? That may be an option, but its in an awfully difficult part of the tank to get to in order to apply any pressure... thats why I was hoping for a glob of jbweld on a stick

[78GS1KNH]

I have this same problem. The previous owner of my 78 gs1000C has tried to coat the inside of the tank but did a **** poor job. because of this i have a pinhole leak on the petcock side just above the head. My brother swears up and down about this JB weld stuff, but i want something more permanent not to mention better looking. Currently the tank is at a place in Bow NH for repairs where he is going to pressure test and weld all the holes, clean up the inside a bit and cream it. Price wasn't too bad - $200-$250ish. I'll let you know how it comes out.

[posplayr]

I have this same problem. The previous owner of my 78 gs1000C has tried to coat the inside of the tank but did a **** poor job. because of this i have a pinhole leak on the petcock side just above the head. My brother swears up and down about this JB weld stuff, but i want something more permanent not to mention better looking. Currently the tank is at a place in Bow NH for repairs where he is going to pressure test and weld all the holes, clean up the inside a bit and cream it. Price wasn't too bad - $200-$250ish. I'll let you know how it comes out.

if you "creme it", you will have nightmares. Use the Por-15. Sounds like JC's painter did not strip the tank down before painting.

[Nessism]

Just me but I don't trust JB Weld inside a submerged gasoline application. It might be okay but people report failures when gluing float posts together so that makes me squeamish about the idea.

I think I'd recoat the entire tank again with a second layer of Por-15 sealer instead of trying to spot repair. Por-15 claims their paints can be recoated as long as the paint is properly roughed up first. My suggestion is to purchase a large bag of aquarium rocks, dump them into the tank along with a shot of regular dish soap, add some water and shake the crap out of the tank to rough up the old POR-15 sealer. Hopefully there won't be any chunks come loose. The idea is to take the gloss off the coating so it will accept a second coat. Not sure if it's necessary but a quick phosphate washing may be useful after the aquarium rocks, or maybe in conjunction with them. I'd call POR-15, they have a useful tech line for questions like this. Rinse and dry out the tank (have fun getting all those rocks out - I've done it several times and it's not hard but takes some time) and then recoat again on top of the old layer. When you are done swishing the coating all around, drain out the excess and then leave the tank is a position where any residual will puddle over the pin hole area.

Good luck sorting it out!