Paint/rust

[Scottie]

Just did my tank this fall with the POR-15 product, which is actually called "U.S. STANDARD FUEL TANK SEALER". It's great stuff, but it is a sealer only, and you have to get the tank clean first, in this order: remove vanish, remove rust, then seal.

For vanish, some kind of strong solvent, like lacquer thinner or MEK.

For rust, the main two ways I've heard of are:
-- home electrolysis, using a DC power supply (or car battery) to de-rust (do google search)
-- some type of phosphoric acid solution, and the easiest I know of is to use milkstone remover, usually available from a farm store.

The latter method was easiest for me. After removing varnish, fill tank with 2:1 diluted milkstone and let sit for two days. You can also add some junk nuts and bolts to shake with it to help brake up the rust.

Drain it, dry the tank, and then use your sealer.

Do some searches first, on here and other forums, there may be other tips to use, too.

OR -- yet another way is to buy the sealer kit from POR-15 that already has the cleaner and etch solution. Check their site.

Scottie

[deaddog]

This is how I remove rust from tanks.

Supplies: 10amp battery charger, Bolt (zinc or steel), 3ft. 10 gauge wire, water, Sodium Carbonate (Pool/Spa chemical PH+).

Mix 1/4 cup sodium carbonate for every 2 gallons water. Fill tank all the way full. Strip both ends of 10 gauge wire and twist one end on bolt. Attach other end of wire to pos. lead of batt. charger. Place bolt in tank suspended by wire. Clamp Ground lead to good ground on fuel tank. Plug in charger. It will bubble and start to have a crud foam form. Every couple of hours, remove bolt and rinse crud away, also pour more solution in tank to wash top crud out. Do this until no more crud foam appears (one to two days). Drain and rinse tank. Blow dry and put handful of 1/4 nuts in tank and shake (will Knock black oxide off). Blow out with comperssed air and you are good to go.

This process only eats rust not steel. It converts rust to black oxide. The surface left behind is rust resistent, and does not need coating (unless there is a leak). Acids will leave a surface that will rust quickly. Try it, it worked great for me.

[robb87]

Wow. I think this is a bit over my head, but I thank you all for your advice. This is the first bike I have ever tried to restore, and I've never dealt with this sort of thing before. I will try to post pics once I have them. Again, I thank you all very much, I would not have gotten this far without you. I'll be sure to ask here first from now on.

[mike69]

The Part A of the Kreem kit removes rust. If you want to just use that part of it and use the por 15 to seal it. What I did with my tank was put about 20 pieces of gravel in and shook well to get the flaky rust.Then mixed up the part A solution and was amazed at how well it removed the rust. The inside of the tank was a nice grey color.

[mike69]

The part A of the solution is reusable if you want to do another tank. I accidently spilled mine so if anyone knows where I can find just the part A solution it would be a great help. Or if you know what it's made of that would help too.

[Scottie]

Something with phoshoric acid would work. Mild Phos acid solution leaves behind a light colored coating that help prevent flash rusting. I would not recommend muratic (which is hydrochloric acid, I believe) acid for that reason. My suggestion is to find some milkstone remover. A gallon is $6.89 at my local Fleet Farm store.

Scottie

[gearhead76]

I used Krud Kutter a must for rust remover. It worked Great, you just poor it in the tank and rotate the tank every 5 min or so, so the stuff has enough time to soak after about 30 min dump it out, and flush tank with water, If there's still rust poor the stuff back in and repeat untill all rust is gone, Plus the stuff prevents rust, I did it in a gold wing tank about 1 year ago and it still looks shinny new inside.