Topic: clean tank- "The Works" works

[Jay B]

I bought a fuel tank on eBay for my 350f project bike. It's a good tank, dent free and solid, but the inside was covered with surface rust. I tried a couple of rust removers, shaking with 1/4" nuts in the tank,etc. I read in another thread about The Works toilet bowl cleaner, so being the cheapskate I am I invested $2 in a bottle. I dumped the whole 24 oz bottle in and let it soak for about 30 minutes, sloshing it around every 5 minutes or so to keep everything soaked. Man did it clean it out. I can't find a spot of rust anywhere I can see with a flashlight. Looks like new, and didn't appear to corrode the tank at all. There's two types of this stuff, get the one with hydrogen chloride in it. Many thanks to meangenejr who wrote about this in the other thread.

[cbjunkie]

ALSO...
"the must for rust" works too. get it at the Depot. same stuff as in the POR 15 kit - same color, same smell, same taste...okay, okay i didn't really taste it... 

[ProTeal55]

I always taste test my rust cleaner before I use it 

[BobbyR]

Great tip, jsut put an inline fuel filter on her and you are all set.

[Faust]

ALSO...
"the must for rust" works too. get it at the Depot. same stuff as in the POR 15 kit - same color, same smell, same taste...okay, okay i didn't really taste it... 

My local Depot is completely self-help. If another customer can't help you, the staff is lost. Any idea what department you found it in? I am surprised that the "customer service" people can't even find out if a product is in the store.

[cbjunkie]

go to the paint aisle - in my Depot it's the third paint aisle on the left as you're walking in - walk back towards the main middle aisle of the store, right hand side, third shelf up. right next to all the strippers and such...you do have strippers at your Depot don't you?

it's in a squirt bottle and i reccomend you buy two of them if you have any rust on your bike.

i poured one whole bottle into my tank - left it in for about 45 minutes, sloshing occasionally - dump it and rinse with water and blow dry it with heat (don't neglect the rinsing or the blowdrying) and then leave it or seal it.

the chemical, don't know what it is, sorry, bonds with the rust and freezes it. you can see it happen it's really amazing - try it on some surface rust first, just hose whatever part it is down with the stuff - you won't hurt the paint.

it turns all the rust white and you can rub off the excess liquid or white powder and paint right over it.

cbj...

[Jay B]

the chemical, don't know what it is, sorry, bonds with the rust and freezes it. you can see it happen it's really amazing - try it on some surface rust first, just hose whatever part it is down with the stuff - you won't hurt the paint.

it turns all the rust white and you can rub off the excess liquid or white powder and paint right over it.

cbj...
[end quote]
Must be completely different than The Works chemical (Hydrogen Chloride). It went in a translucent sky blue color and came out sort of a greenish piss yellow. I didn't see a single flake of rust come out of the tank, it was all completely dissolved. And yeah, rinse well. I rinsed several times with water, then with gasoline. I set the tank upside down so the filler opening was the lowest point, then reached in with paper towels and dried any remaining moisture around it.

[cbjunkie]

dunno JB - the MFR stuff is pale blue as well - it doesn't make heavy rust flake off it freezes it and turns it powdery white - if you hit a clean looking piece of frame you'll be amazed to see where nascent rust is coming up.

this was the first time i'd used it in quantity like this and it was dark outside when i dumped it in the drain - most times i just spritz whatever part i'm working on and leave it for about 10-15 minutes...

as far as drying goes - if you are going to seal the tank with KREEM or a POR-15 sealer the instructions call for a high level of anality when it comes to fast and absolute drying with hot, moving air.

i stood my tank up in front of my kerosene rocket heater thingy - that did the trick 

[theunrulychef]

Do these also eat away the POs tank sealer?  The guy didn't remove the rust & put KREEM right over it.  Since I've been doing alot of work on my tank (hammering), I've got big pieces of solid KREEM shaking around, but I'd like to get it all out before I re-seal it up. I will be cutting out the SuperSport insert, so I'll be able to stick my hand in there a little, but I'm hoping I can disolve it all before I weld in the new filler neck.

[Jay B]

I don't know if this stuff would disolve the Kreem or not. For 2 bucks maybe you could get a peice out of the tank and experiment a bit.

cbj- I agree, drying the tank like I did wouldn't be good enough to seal it. I'm just going to put an inline filter on it and call it good. Maybe I should have borrowed the wifes hair drier, after all she was at work when I did this.

[theunrulychef]

I don't know if this stuff would disolve the Kreem or not. For 2 bucks maybe you could get a peice out of the tank and experiment a bit.

Hehe, now that's a novel idea (from the "why didn't I think of that" department ).  I'll get a few good pieces out & try out some various solvents. Thanks!

[cbjunkie]

we'll be expecting a full report!

[ProTeal55]

I have borrowed my girlfriends hairdryer a few times to dry out gastanks.
Works like a champ , just make sure the petcock is either off the tank , or atleast in the
"open" position. I burned up her first dryer due to the motor getting way too hot 

[jotor]

I just walked through the shop at work and noticed we have a "cylinder dryer" designed to dry the inside of fire extinguisher bottles

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...just might work for a bike tank.................................................

[Faust]

the chemical, don't know what it is, sorry, bonds with the rust and freezes it. you can see it happen it's really amazing - try it on some surface rust first, just hose whatever part it is down with the stuff - you won't hurt the paint.

it turns all the rust white and you can rub off the excess liquid or white powder and paint right over it.

cbj...
[end quote]


   
I got some of The Must for Rust today and tried it on brake dust. According to the label, it contains Phosphoric Acid. That is the usual rust cleaner found in wheel cleaner. It worked slightly better than high strength wheel cleaner. I suspect a higher concentration of the Phosphoric acid .

This wasn't a fair test. Bonded brake ppowder is only partially rust. The real problem is the binding agent, this redeposits itself on the wheel and binds the metallic brake dust to the wheel.

[Bob Wessner]

Sort of on-topic I guess, I had picked up a used tank intending to use it for restoration. The current tank on my K0 is really from a K2 and in very good shape w/orig. paint, etc. Figured when it was all said and done, I would peddle it to help defray costs. Any way, the used tank had faded paint, a small dent, cap, latch and petcock in good shape with some, what appeared to be light rust inside. I had examined it carefully for any holes and even filled it with water to test. Seemed good to go.

I decided to acid etch and clean the interior. Guess what, started leaking along a bottom edge. The hole grew the longer the acid was in there, maybe 30 minutes total. Lesson learned. If you are considering a used tank for a restoration, make it pass the "acid test" before you invest time in prepping and painting.   I guess, being a pack rat, I now have a pretty good cap, latch and petcock.  

[my78k]

As for drying...I just poured a bottle of acetone in which dissolves (or whatever) the water and once you pour that out you just need to add a bit of gas...slosh it once more then dump it...fill it and you're done....

Dennis

[jtb]

Hey Bob,  I've got a pretty good cap, door, and a lousy petcock on my shelves.  Maybe we should start an "old farts ebay co." 

John

[Bob Wessner]

Hey Bob,  I've got a pretty good cap, door, and a lousy petcock on my shelves.  Maybe we should start an "old farts ebay co."   

John

Or, an Old Farts Pack Rat Club. 

[cbjunkie]

bob w: "you can have this box of used carb boots when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers!"

 

[jtb]

Junkie,  I have a set of used air box rubbers you can add to your carb rubbers!  Let's talk a deal.
John

[DiscoEd]

Not to Hi-jack the thread, but how the heck do you guys see down in the tank?
On my 75' 550 K1, I really am hving a hard time seeing in there even with a good flashlight.
Do I need to stick a mirror down in there?

Regards,
DiscoEd

[cbjunkie]

I hold it at an angle and stand under or near a strong light - flourescents work good because they put out such a wide band of light - then you can "roll" it around and catch glimpses - but that's all you'll get.

we are basically inferring the condition inside the tank from about 30% that we can see...

[bhassell]

Could not find "The Must for Rust" or "The Works" at Home Depot...What I did find was a product for rust removal called Phosporic Plus at $13 Gal.  Seemed a bit steep but based on m results it is well worth it.  I had tried previously 2 Qts of "EvapoRust from Autozone at $8 per and either my tank was too severly rusted for it or just plain did not work.

Extremely satisfied with the Phosporic Plus, did fantastic job removed all rust which was pretty severe in my opinion.  Did not harm any paint and only thing I can say negative is ate thru chain on gas cap and had to fish from tank.  Tough on skin and fairly noxious fumes also...Took about 3 hours start to finish.  Just wanted to provide an additional product if anybody wants to add it to a FAQ.

[Terry in Australia]

Sort of on-topic I guess, I had picked up a used tank intending to use it for restoration. The current tank on my K0 is really from a K2 and in very good shape w/orig. paint, etc. Figured when it was all said and done, I would peddle it to help defray costs. Any way, the used tank had faded paint, a small dent, cap, latch and petcock in good shape with some, what appeared to be light rust inside. I had examined it carefully for any holes and even filled it with water to test. Seemed good to go.

I decided to acid etch and clean the interior. Guess what, started leaking along a bottom edge. The hole grew the longer the acid was in there, maybe 30 minutes total. Lesson learned. If you are considering a used tank for a restoration, make it pass the "acid test" before you invest time in prepping and painting.   I guess, being a pack rat, I now have a pretty good cap, latch and petcock.  

So Bob, old maaaaate, how much do you want for that leaky ol' tank? You can keep the cap, tap and latch, but if the tank is "straight" I'll be happy to repair it and use it on one of my bikes, rather than messing around with bondo'd junk tanks, like I'm doing now? Cheers, Terry.