Gas Tank Hole: repair vs replacement advice?

[bsrosell]

hi,
our new '57 Golden Hawk project car came with a very good looking gas tank (still very black with undercoating) but a small hole on the bottom. Looks for all the world like a vindictive wife went out in the middle of the night with a nail and hammer! The tank looks a LOT better than the couple I saw at our local Stude swapmeet last weekend; I'm thinking I'd be better off to take this tank off and have a radiator shop (or ?) repair it, and clean it out and then slosh some Bill Hirsch gas-tank sealer around inside before re-installing on the car... Wondering what the best procedure would be to close this hole; do they weld a little plug on it, or what? (again, off the car and flushed out of course!) For now, I am simply going to put a small screw in it with some Permatex on it, so we can at least start the engine and see how she sounds after getting some minor repairs done.....

[41 Frank]

The radiator shop will flow some solder on the hole usually if it is that small.

[StudeRich]

The best test of the condition of a Stude. gas tank is always remove the sender and use a flashlight to have a GOOD look at the inside, it will need to be removed for cleaning anyway. Then you can order up a few of the Sending Unit Gaskets for future use from a Stude. Vendor.

[Bob Andrews]

Any gas tank/radiator shop should be able to do this simple fix. Some weld, some braze, some solder. Any method will work just fine. They can also flush and coat it if you want. I had the one for my Provincial done locally- cleaned and coated inside/out, $250.

[BobPalma]

Save time, trouble, frustration, etc: Take the tank to a GasTankRenu franchisee and let them do the whole thing.

It will come back just gorgeous; sound, tight, coated inside and outside with two different materials, then baked so they stick forever....with a lifetime guarantee on the work as long as you own the car. It's the only way to go to "do" the gas tank just once in any collector vehicle. BP

[bsrosell]

Thanks!!! Feeling better already. How did our father's generation (I'm 46....) restore cars without forums like this? I just finished a 7-year 're-restoration' of my 1930 Model-A Ford, and same deal there, the FordBarn guys were a marvelous resource. Great people in this hobby!!
Looking forward to meeting some of you over the years ahead. I also have my Dad's '28 Stude President that will need attention down the road, so I'm afraid you guys are stuck with the Rosell clan for a few years to come :-).

[BobWaitz]

I took an M5 tank to Gas Tank Renu and although they couldn't fix it, I was impressed by their process. It looked repairable at first but after they blasted it all the pinholes became visible and there were so many that the structural integrity of the tank was compromised. They had a process to repair that which involved spraying molten zinc on the tank but it was rather expensive. If this had been the tank from a pre-war Mercedes there would have been no question about doing it but I wasn't going to spend that kind of money on a tank that I really didn't care for to begin with -- well, not the tank so much as the filler neck running through the cab. I relocated the tank under the bed where it won't burn me up in the event of an accident. But I digress. I took a tour of the franchise and saw tanks in various stages of their process and was really impressed with how well it worked and how nice everything looked afterwards. If I do need to do another tank I will go there first.

[52 Ragtop]

Bob,
Why would they "blast" it? I send mine out to the "dip stripper" and that cleans them completely inside and out. If you have any pinholes, go to a good radiator shop, they should be able to solder up the holes. then use "Red-Kote" to seal it.

Jim

[rockne10]

I had my first project tank cooked and Red-Koted. I'm still happy with it after fifteen years but have saved myself quite a bit on later projects.

Caswell Plating has a really good tank sealer I've used several times. It loves to bond to rusty tank interiors.
http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/epoxygas.htm

If there's a hole in the tank, they recommend Permatex Instant Gas Tank Repair, a two part ribbon putty. Then seal with the Caswell.
http://www.caswellplating.com/permat...s.html#gastank

[BobWaitz]

Did I say they were really big pins? And there were a lot of them?

[silverhawk]

Oh wow, I haven't seen one that bad for awhile! It's still fixable, but I'd check to see how much it would be first.

[rockne10]

I wouldn't be afraid to use the Permatex putty and Caswell sealer on that one. Prime candidate. These tanks are getting too scarce to give them up.

[Edsel G. Tattooer]

Save time, trouble, frustration, etc: Take the tank to a GasTankRenu franchisee and let them do the whole thing.

It will come back just gorgeous; sound, tight, coated inside and outside with two different materials, then baked so they stick forever....with a lifetime guarantee on the work as long as you own the car. It's the only way to go to "do" the gas tank just once in any collector vehicle. BP

I took mine there this last spring and now I know it will not have any problems for my forseeable future. They did a great job.

[BobWaitz]

I reread my first post and realized it was confusing. They COULD have repaired my old tank with their zinc-spraying process but we'd be talking $500+ so it was out of the question for my project. And I was never crazy about gas filler necks that pass through the passenger compartment. That's why I went with this route:


You can just see where the filler neck goes over the frame to come out by the rear fender. It's a Jeep tank complete with bash guard and it fits between the frame rails behind the diff.

If anyone is in love with my old tank I'll bring it to South Bend for the May swap and you can have it for free!

/end threadjack