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Message started by islandwahine on 11/14/07 at 18:57:04

Title: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by islandwahine on 11/14/07 at 18:57:04

Aloha!!
It's been a while.
I keep on doing more and more on the bike.
1. Took the muffler off to see if it had any holes that cause back firing.
2. Decided to take rear tire off to check the brakes
3. Seeing the tire was off, I decided to clean the rim up and give it some personal touches.
4. Then I thought, maybe I'll repaint the tank, cause paint is bubbling up. I got all the paint off, and it turns out it is extremely rusty underneath paint.
I put phospo on it. and sanded it all nice and smooth.

Got busy with work, and looked in tank today only to see that it started rusting inside from sitting without a cap on for a few days!! AAAHHHHH!!
So what should I do about this? Will the rust go away once I put gas in it?
Should I put phospo inside and swoosh it around to coat the rust?

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Reelthing on 11/14/07 at 20:09:55

doesn't sound like heavy rust, likely not worth the goop to stick it down - rattle some bb's in there for awhile and use an in-line filter is likely good enough

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Savage_Greg on 11/14/07 at 22:08:49

Gee... are you taking your bike apart? Kinda like me :P

Rust in the tank is always possible. Steel and water vapor. That's all it takes.

If your tank is completely empty and dry (and gonna stay that way for awhile), then spray some WD40 around the inside and stick an oily rag in the filler hole to keep out bugs and stuff.

The biggest problem with tanks is trapped moisture. It settles in the bottom and causes rust where you can't even see. So the idea is to allow the tank to breathe. Leave the cap off so that weather changes inside and out are the same.

When you go to use it again, a little WD40 won't hurt a thing. Just add gas.

PS - if your tank has gas in it, drain it out and put it in your car. You want the tank empty and dry.

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by bill67 on 11/15/07 at 05:04:36

When you get the bbs out put a couple oz of SeaFoam in tank and roll tank around to cover all parts a tank. Then empty out when you put new gas in.And put more SeaFoam in to clean the carb out.

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by T-Mack1 on 11/15/07 at 06:38:02

Islandwahine,
Living in paradise is not always a paradise.

Gasoline expands and contracts with the daily temperature changes. At night when it contracts, it pulls air into the tank (nature hates a vacuum.....). Since you live on the islands, It's pulling in humid air and possibly slightly salty air. That's why for longer term storage you should fill the tank ; or drain, dry, wd-40 it then seal.

If you are re-doing your tank, it would be advisable for you to coat the tank. I'm sure the cycle shops over there have kits to do this.

I really like POR15 because it can also fill pin holes. They have a tank kit available online (clean & seal). If you use this stuff, heed their warning, don't get it on you skin, it sticks really, really good.
see: http://www.por15.com/

If your bike was a California model & "stock" you would have less of a problem because of the canister setup.

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Savage_Greg on 11/15/07 at 09:26:22

That's why I recommend draining a tank and leaving it open if it will be unused for a while. You won't have the temp changes and the humidity will be no more than ambient anyway. Any kind of water repellent will do the rest.

You can also seal it with a product called Kream. Just don't do like one customer that I had...he sealed his tank plus the vent holes in his gas cap.

Put some "cling wrap" under the cap when you seal the tank. The stuff will make a mess out of the vents, seals and maybe even the key lock :P

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by smokin_blue on 11/15/07 at 09:27:56

T-Mack I just took a look at the website...will that stuff work with constant contact with gasoline?

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by T-Mack1 on 11/15/07 at 12:45:42

smokin_blue wrote:

T-Mack I just took a look at the website...will that stuff work with constant contact with gasoline?

The regular POR15 will for regular gas (no ethanol). The fuel tank POR15 stuff is rated to handle Alcohol which means it will handle ethanol.

Also, regular POR15 doesn't like too much UV exposure. Not a problem for the inside of a tank.

EDIT: here's the link to the complete cycle tank kit:
http://www.por15.com/prodinfo.asp?grp=CTRK&dept=11

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by islandwahine on 11/15/07 at 17:36:03

Thanks guys!!
The tank is still empty, and I've finished putting on primer and several coats of paint. (same metallic blue). I did the same to the 2 side covers. I found some cool stencil designs and copied them into MS Word, resized them and printed them on the back of some lightly sticky contact paper. The tricky part was cutting out the different pieces of the design, but it went ok.
Stuck the contact paper on the side covers and spray painted a different color over it and peeled the contact paper back off.
Amazing!! I'm getting pretty excited here!!
Now I'm not too afraid to start on the tank.
The design color is silver, and I'm hoping it can handle Goo-Gone, cause a little bit of the contact paper glue stuck to the paint.
"Talk" to you guys in a few days!

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Savage_Greg on 11/15/07 at 22:15:46

islandwahine wrote:

Do you guys ever have "winter" there? If you did, I bet that we could get you to tear your engine apart pretty soon too. :P

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by barry68v10 on 11/19/07 at 05:28:23

Savage_Greg wrote:

Do you guys ever have "winter" there? If you did, I bet that we could get you to tear your engine apart pretty soon too. :P

Yeah, it gets into the 60's and low 70's there...brrrrrrr, break out the sweaters folks :D

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by rigidchop on 11/19/07 at 05:52:52

the pro 15 is better than the kreem, sometime the kreem will flake and youll have nice little floaties in your tank

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Savage_Greg on 11/19/07 at 06:34:15

rigidchop wrote:

the pro 15 is better than the kreem, sometime the kreem will flake and youll have nice little floaties in your tank

Never noticed that, but then I don't seal tanks all the time either. Maybe it was just bad preparation, because the stuff I've seen has been pretty darned hard.

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Arthur on 11/19/07 at 10:28:57

I've used the POR-15 gas tank kit many times on automobile and motorcycle tanks and I can tell you it works well without any problems. I can highly recommend it. Arthur

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by rigidchop on 11/19/07 at 13:30:15

i dont know if it from bad prep or what, but i have seen a few, the job that was done on my chopper, was sub par, i'll be using the por 15 from now on.

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Mr 650 on 11/23/07 at 16:40:23

Someone, perhaps here, says to get like a $1 gallon of thinner at Wallyworld then as much steel bird shot as you dare. You will need to remove/ plug the petc0ck.
Then pour in 1/2 thinner and a bunch of shot, replace the lid and shake, shake til you drop. Pour out the mess then rinse w/ thinner. It will knock off the stuff that might go to the carb, do it longer like on a rotisserie and it will get shiny, new.

Title: Re: How do I remove rust from inside tank?
Post by Savage_Greg on 11/24/07 at 05:55:58

Mr 650 wrote:

Oh yeah, a gas tank full of thinner on a rottisserie is definitely a good idea. How you gonna fit the tank to it? 8)