Refurbishing a fuel tank?

[AlanB]

My suggestion would be to go to wal-mart, and buy a boat gas tank. Pick the boat fitting that you like (if I remember they are done by brand) and the hose / primer bulb thingy.

Take your tank off and get rid of it, make a mount to rest the boat gas tank on preferably above the generator, paying attention to things like exhaust or such, put the mating end that you bought at Wally world on the fuel supply line just in front of a nice clear filter, hook up the fuel hose to your tank and the other half of the supply line fitting thingy.

If you plan on running it much, buy two tanks so you can switch out and not have to pour gas from one can into a tank.

I think I could buy the two tanks, and lines and filter for in the neighborhood of what it would be worth for me to fool with Kreeme'ing a tank.

Hope the explanation above makes sense. If not stand in the Wal-mart boating aisle for a minute and you will see.

 

[dcyrilc]

Here are the pix I promised.

These two are of the outside of the tank and the corner where the paint was scorched. If you notice in the first pic, the bottom of the tank inside looks really good.

When I stick my finger into the smaller hole (fuel guage) and feel the top of the tank there is a fine coating of rust on the top inside of the tank and my finger comes out with a light rust on my finger.

Here are pix of the where the fuel line attaches and the filter insert.


This is the inline filter removed from the tank.

 

[dcyrilc]

My suggestion would be to go to wal-mart, and buy a boat gas tank. Pick the boat fitting that you like (if I remember they are done by brand) and the hose / primer bulb thingy.

Take your tank off and get rid of it, make a mount to rest the boat gas tank on preferably above the generator, paying attention to things like exhaust or such, put the mating end that you bought at Wally world on the fuel supply line just in front of a nice clear filter, hook up the fuel hose to your tank and the other half of the supply line fitting thingy.

If you plan on running it much, buy two tanks so you can switch out and not have to pour gas from one can into a tank.

I think I could buy the two tanks, and lines and filter for in the neighborhood of what it would be worth for me to fool with Kreeme'ing a tank.

Hope the explanation above makes sense. If not stand in the Wal-mart boating aisle for a minute and you will see.

Alan,

I appreciate the idea, but one thing that really drives me nuts is when someone jerry-rigs something instead of fixing it correctly. There's no way I'm going to do that. I would spend the $250 and replace the tank before I would try to jerry-rig some other tank above the generator.

 

[crusty 1]

Alan,

I appreciate the idea, but one thing that really drives me nuts is when someone jerry-rigs something instead of fixing it correctly. There's no way I'm going to do that. I would spend the $250 and replace the tank before I would try to jerry-rig some other tank above the generator.

cyril,I think the way I,d do it is empty a couple shoot gun shells(bb,s) into the tank with vinegar (acidic) shake around to remove rust scale,drian&rinse,then use the kreem mentioned earlier.The bb,s work well we,ve done it and easy on the pocket book.Have a great holiday weekend and don,t spend all of it working:laughingave

 

[mmurphy]

I think you can still get a fiberglass patch kit for fuel tanks. That may take care of it untill you decide on some way to do it better. With your tube, maybe a smaller fuel line snug fit pushed inside of tube, sprayed with penetrating oil may help with the kreen method.....????

 

[dcyrilc]

cyril,I think the way I,d do it is empty a couple shoot gun shells(bb,s) into the tank with vinegar (acidic) shake around to remove rust scale,drian&rinse,then use the kreem mentioned earlier.The bb,s work well we,ve done it and easy on the pocket book.Have a great holiday weekend and don,t spend all of it working:laughingave

Good morning Dave,

We took our holiday last weekend and went camping. Less crowds and traffic.:thumbsup: My wife had Monday off so we took the kids out of school for the day, I took vacation, and we enjoyed ourselves.

As for the fuel tank, I'm leaning heavily toward the Kreem method. Now it's just figuring out how to protect the inside diameter of the fuel outlet tube so I can still put the inline filter insert into it. Keep the good ideas comming guys. I wont be doing it for a couple weeks yet so I have time.

 

[banjodunn]

G'day cyril if you have not got any leaks as such in the tank then empty a couple of shot shells into it as mentioned and shake like anything , then sand up the outside and repaint good as new. I did this 10+ years ago with mine and not a problem since just make sure when it is stored it is full of fuel ( i actualy put a bit of 2 stroke oil in mine for storage ) Not a prob since


Jon

 

[dcyrilc]

G'day cyril if you have not got any leaks as such in the tank then empty a couple of shot shells into it as mentioned and shake like anything , then sand up the outside and repaint good as new. I did this 10+ years ago with mine and not a problem since just make sure when it is stored it is full of fuel ( i actualy put a bit of 2 stroke oil in mine for storage ) Not a prob since


Jon

So you think that just cleaning the inside and repainting the outside will be enough? Could be. I have a mirror at work which I plan to use with a flashlight to check how bad the inside is rusted. All the rust is on the top inside so a mirror will be necessary to check what the true condition is.

The rust I can feel just inside the fuel guage opening feels light, but I have no idea yet what the condition is in the area where the paint was scorched on the outside.

I'll post more next week after I have a chance to examine the inside better. It might be interesting to try and get pictures via the mirror. Not sure that would work, but will be interesting to try.

The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that reconditioning of some form is the better option over replacement.

 

[varmint]

This thread is a good example of why this forum is so good- guy has a problem/question, and advice and quidance is quickly provided. I sympathize with the desire to make it like it was, and not to just find an easy way to make it work. Using my dad's whatever often makes me stop, for just an instant, and think about him and years gone by. Even though I have newer and better tools (usually its a tool that's from him I'm talking about here) the ones that were his are important reminders. Maybe because it's Memorial day right now that I'm on this track, but there's value to things with history.
On that note, I had an Austin Healy's gas tank cleaned and recoated, probably around 1975, and it worked fine for as long as I had the car... cost me maybe $35 back then, but a new tank would have been almost $250, if I remember right.

 

[CurlyDave]

It looks to me like the inside is coated with with something.

If the rust on the inside is light, any aggressive cleaning may remove the existing coating, which could make the issue worse.

One possibility is to sand & paint the outside, jettison the existing fuel filter and add a large clear aftermarket fuel filter. This would both protect from rust coming loose and let you see what is happening in the fuel filter.

I know you are against jerry-rigging something, but his preserves the original look of the generator while making only a small modification. Plus, I bet it is more cost effective than cleaning & coating the tank.