Repent ye procrastinators.....

[Mike Sal]

....Lest you suffer the same fate as me. Some years ago I started working on a '66 Commander. The fuel in the tank had turned to goo, but there was no rust. I had the tank boiled out & it was nice & shiny on the inside. Other things got in the way & I didn't get back to working on the car till now. I picked the tank up & heard something sliding around on the inside. I had stuffed rags in the openings when I put it away in the machine shed, but didn't consider condensation on the bare metal......

The pics tell it all....what was thought to be a nicely restored tank was full of rust....the bottom is so thin it flexes easily. You'll notice how easy it is for rust to clog the pick up tube on these tanks also.

The lessen here is if you are going to drag out the restoration of your car, do something to protect the gas tank. Either seal it, or at least pour some oil in it & keep it sloshed around. Wish I had.....

Fortunately I brought home a rust free one from the Chuck Naugel sale.

[sals54]

Funny you should bring this up right now. I just got done putting the 56 Wagon up on jack stands cuz I gotta pull the trans. I'm just going to do front, rear seals and pan gasket. But my work schedule has been brutal. So, the weather broke yesterday. It was only in the 90s today and tomorrow, but going back to 104 this weekend. I'll try to get it outa there by Friday. Then it'll go back in when the weather breaks again next week. But, yeah. I'm thinking work has to take a back seat to fun once in a while.

[parts2]

Bad power steering leak.. It;s been over 105-110* here for weeks, I made a mistake,,I designed my home with a west facing shop..

So until Monsoon..which finally arrived yesterday and cool things down,,
Now i can maybe get under and around to pull the tank and fix..

[55coupe]

Boy do I understand this subject I'll tell you more later.

[sals54]

Boy do I understand this subject I'll tell you more later.

C'mon... that's dangling the bait... we wanna know...

[Lou Van Anne]

Guess it's good to live in rust free California!

[cultural infidel]

.... my gas tank has been 1/3 - 1/2 full since '76 haha.

It is my next item to mark off on my list.

[StudeRich]

That is THE MOST serious Rust I have ever seen in one of these Mike!

You do have to wonder if the people that did your "Cleaning" properly neutralized that Acid afterwords?

[Mike Sal]

Yes, I thought about this also, as it is really really scaly rust. I'll bet I could fill a 2lbs coffee can with all the loose stuff.

I have used this shop in the past on antique motorcycle gas tanks and they always did a great job.....
Mike Sal

[SScopelli]

This rust is not regional and will happen even in rust free Arizona.

The reason you can find good ones at Chucks, because they were empty.

The issue at hand is the ethanol blend in all the gasoline today. If the tank is low on fuel, it is even worse. It happens because the ethanol will condense water inside the tank on temperature changes and humidity. So much so that you might actually get more liquid in the tank than the original volume of gasoline you had in the first place.

Draining the tank for storage, or using a gas stabilizer will help avoid the Rustieez.

Amazing how you can leave aircraft 100LL in a tank for years and not have this issue, yet leave 15% ethanol blend in for 6 months without driving and BAM!

[RadioRoy]

But... procrastination is my strongest talent.