Cleaning the tank

[bigbabee]

I used the gas cap when I cleaned my tanks with the vinegar. No problem.

[Im Faster]

okay.. a few questions...
will duct tape over the petcock hold up? or will it leak out the vinegar.. for soaking
if it will hold up will it also in the dryer

should i use some nuts in with the vinegar or is soaking sufficient?

looking at my tank how long should i expect to have to soak..



here is my tank

[hampshirehog]

okay.. a few questions...
will duct tape over the petcock hold up? or will it leak out the vinegar.. for soaking
if it will hold up will it also in the dryer

should i use some nuts in with the vinegar or is soaking sufficient?

looking at my tank how long should i expect to have to soak..

You'll have to knock up a blanking plate to cover the petcock hole and use a bit of old inner tube or similar as a gasket. If the tank has got a fuel level sender it's best to pull that and blank off as well.

No need for nuts in the vinegar (leave the acid to do it's work - no need to shake etc) and it's guesswork about how long it will take - depends on the temperature plus strength of the vinegar. My 1100 tank, which looked the same, took 2 days using the cheapo Asda (= Walmart in the UK) vinegar, daytime temperature in the high 70s.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

I found these (pipe stoppers) at the hardware store and used them to plug the fill hole and the fuel gauge hole.



For the petcock I used a robber stopper. It wasn't perfect, leaked just a little, but it worked well enough.



My Evapo-Rust story is on my website.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Im Faster]

well ive got mine soaking in vinegar..

i will update,..,.

[Im Faster]

okay so after soaking for a week here is the result




how can i now clean out the vinegar and the rest of the crap in the tank?
water? but if i do that.. will it cause rust? again

[Im Faster]

and here is a before and after post with the 2 closer together so you dont have to scroll
before


after

[GEE-S]

how can i now clean out the vinegar and the rest of the crap in the tank?
water? but if i do that.. will it cause rust? again

Definitly no more water just because its free does not mean it will do, buy some metho shove it in mix it round and dump ity and leave it in the sun to evaporate, as this will mix with any water and also remove any resadue with mininmal crap left over.....


I have tried everything you guys have described and more…..

Any acid base will eat away at the metal period, so go hard as that’s all you are doing and remember this, you keep doing this then I will ask you a Q: how long do you think your tank will last until it becomes thin as alfoil A: do it about 4-5times and you get close, for this reason….how many times has the outside been bare metal sanded also!

My GS tank after restos and electrolysis, acid a few times and anything else I tried in the past, is now cut in 2 and is being used as a base to make a tank out of carbon fibre, that was the only way I STOPPED the rust to cut it in 2 and paint it, now I can safely say it will not rust and why did I resort to this? Because I never sealed it (that stuff is damn expensive but. now I have no tank you way it up) it just kept rusting till it pitted out in the corners and once I split it I was amazed at how bad it really was……

If you don’t believe me then hers the pics of the tank and have a close look at the photos you will notice not much pitting around the areas you can normally see i.e. inside the fuel filler area but have a look under it………(that was cut and painted about 2yrs ago and still NO rust trust me that was one of the hardest things to do was to cut the tank, together it would be about time for another resto)

But! All is not lost, life deals in mysterious ways. My current boss is a CV drive shaft, radiator and best of all TANK specialist (me I am a power steering tech by trade) and I have discussed this in length with him as he to restores bikes as well, old triumphs 50-60 models, NOW!

After you have cleaned out all the rust you MUST MUST MUST seal the inside metal again regardless… As it WILL return if you don’t (all fuels attract moisture especially alcohols), I am noticing it with the other tanks I have they are on there way out just like the GS. This all started back when I first got it, I took it to the sandblaster once in 1990…
KNOBS!……Filled it with water as “blasting creates sparks” they said, why didn’t they fill it with sand instead that stuff doesn’t kill things overtime…….

Anyway….. all that has been described works, it doesn’t matter how you achieve the de-rusting as long as the result works BUT, what is the main key here is SEAL IT AFTER, to prolong the inevitable……
By the way my boss who has been doing tanks now for 30yrs, quote “there is a reason they describe it as cancer, just like humans there is no definite cure as yet”

[979roadrunner]

Given my choice I would put a plastic tank inside the metal one, or even, despite the fact it'd be ugly, just put a plastic tank on and be done with it.
All my dirtbikes and my old XL 500 had plastic tanks, never a problem with them.
This may be why the 'Wing has a plastic tank (as well as for mass centralization)
BMW's, I'm told, lines their tanks from the factory. Wish other makers did, too.

[Skaat]

I'm in the middle of cleaning using the electrolysis setup shown on this and BassCliff's site. (pretty cool science-y stuff IMO). The anode seems to be coming out pretty much free of the red rusty stuff, but still gobbed up with lots of black and grey bits. I'm hoping that this is not the tank itself being eaten away by the electrolysis process. Has anyone else experienced this same phenomonon? (sorry, just a little loopy tonite).

[hampshirehog]

I'm in the middle of cleaning using the electrolysis setup shown on this and BassCliff's site. (pretty cool science-y stuff IMO). The anode seems to be coming out pretty much free of the red rusty stuff, but still gobbed up with lots of black and grey bits. I'm hoping that this is not the tank itself being eaten away by the electrolysis process. Has anyone else experienced this same phenomonon? (sorry, just a little loopy tonite).

That's how it works. That stuff you're getting out is ferrous oxide - 'rust' formed in the absence of air. Leave it for a few minutes outside the tank in the air and it'll go brown - ferric oxide or the rust you're used to seeing. Something to do with additional oxygen atoms and electrons ( Fe2O3 and Fe3O4? - but that was a long time ago......).