Rusty tank

[capazzo22]

Anyone have any experience refinishing a rusty fuel tank? MY GT550 has been sitting for about 27 years and the inside of the tank is rusty and foul-smelling as could be expected.
I've seen people talk about using POR-15, and I know there are some other tank restoration options out there. What have you used and what seems to work best?

To clarify, I don't think my tank has any holes in it, just fairly rusty and needing to get re-lined. Would the POR-15 tank repair kit be sufficient? Thanks!

[GT750Battleship]

Hi,I haven't used this myself,but I believe this stuff really works Evapo-Rust,used by the military around the World !
Cheers,
Roger

[akendall1966]

I have a bike with por15 tank sealer in it for a couple of years now seems OK. But can't compare to others available. If the tank is solid you might not need to seal it you got to clean out all the crud and loose stuff before you seal it. Once you do that it may be enough. Google cleaning by electrolysis to convert iron oxide bacvk to metal and it helps loosen the scale. Rinse with something like por15 metal prep which is phosphoric acid \ zinc phosphate which converts any flash rust that forms after the clean and the zinc pasivates the surface. If you fear you may have pin holes or thin metal you could add the sealer. But to be honest if it that bad I'd seek out a better tank as they are not that rare you can't find one.

[oldjapanesebikes]

I agree with all the above suggestions:

• - have done the electrolysis trick - very cheap to do and very effective. Just Google it - loads of Youtube videos out there

• - Evaporust or MetalRescue both work really well, but can get expensive if you have to do multiple passes due to heavy rust

• - don't laugh, but molasses also works well - check Youtube

• - if you are in dairy country, check the farm supply places for milk stone remover. It is a dilute phosphoric acid and also works well

Good luck !

[ConnerVT]

before you try to get rid of the rust, make sure you get clean the tank of all of the old gas, sludge, varnish, etc., which decades old gas turns into. All rust removal and lining methods are futile until you are down to bare metal (and rust).

The cleaner that comes in the POR-15 kit is basically a marine store tank cleaner. It does a good job getting the gunk from the tank. Then, check the tank to be sure there aren't pin holes where the gunk is the only thing keeping them plugged.

Don't ask how I know...