Fuel Tank Solutions

[Old Mose]

My bike was destroyed in a wreck and I'm starting over again. I acquired an 81s frame and tank to mount my engine and so on to. The tank has very lite spots of surface rust in it. more like discoloration than anything else! Is there anything I can do that will help remove the rust and keep it from rusting more while waiting for the rebuild to be complete? I know I will need to install a fuel filter but I'm concerned with keeping things from getting worse. I may be as much as 6 months before I can get it back on the road!

 

[Wolfe_11B]

You can soak the inside of the tank with something like metal rescue, and it will get rid of the surface rust. I used it on mine and it worked perfect. It's expensive, but you save it afterwards and reuse it on anything else rusty. Lasts a while.

Another option is electrolysis, do a search on here or google, its been done a million times and works well. It's just a slow process.

To stop it from flashing, there's a few things to do. Getting fuel in it right away will stop rust. All you need to do is get the petcock on to seal the bottom, fill it up, and put the gas cap on.

While mine was sitting, I had it in a sealed bag with an industrial silica packet. Kept it rust free for over a year. Just make sure its not a breathable bag, trash bag would work. You can just use a few silica gel packs that come out of beef jerky packs or other food products

 

[Old Mose]

Thanks for the info! I found that Summit Racing has metal rescue in 1 gal. and 5 gal. sizes. Can I pour the one gallon in, seal it up and slosh it around or do I need the 5 gal. size to fill it up?

 

[rshutchinson]

I used sodium carbonate (washing soda, not baking soda) a 3/16" rod and a battery charger. It's the electrolysis method mentioned above and was quite simple.

Removed the rust in no time.

I left it on for a few minutes, removed the rod and cleaned the rust off it, then replaced and let sit again, then repeat.

 

[Wolfe_11B]

I used the 1 gallon. You just need to rotate the tank every few hours. If you do it like this, you need to seal up the gas fill hole since a gas cap vent will leak out the solution. If you use this stuff, make sure to have the tank in a plastic tub so you don't lose the stuff.