Page Forty-Six - Rust in the Tanks

(These are the Organ Donor's tanks. I forgot to take a
before pic with the others.  They weren't this rusty.)

 Like everything with Alphie, I have four gas (um, make that petrol) tanks to choose from.  The Organ Donor’s are very rusty but not dented while Alphie’s took a driver’s side smack at some point but only had minor rust.  In this case, the dents are more fixable.

First, I applied some soap, a stiff brush, and the pressure washer to remove as much of 60 years’ worth of dirt as I could.  Cleaned, the rust turned out to be mostly on the surface, sanding handled the rust on the outside, but the inside required electrolysis.

Normally, the rust part is submerged in a baking soda and water solution with a sacrificial anode pulling the rust off the rusty part.  With Alphie’s tanks, the soda/water solution is in the tank with the anode suspended with rubber tubing to prevent them from shorting against the tank.  With the battery charger connected to the (positive) anode and (negative) tank, the rust broke lose from the inside of the tank and adhered to the anode.  I left it on the charger for about 8-ish hours, and it worked wonderfully.  Now for the dents.

Driver's side tank in the electrolysis bath

Alphie’s driver side tank had a small cave in on the wing (fender) facing side, meaning, once installed, the dent isn’t visible, so I didn’t have to fix it to invisibility.  I grabbed my Harbor Freight Stud Welder dent puller kit and went crazy.

Of course, when I gave one stud a sturdy yank, it pulled out, leaving a hole in the tank.  AND of course, when I applied the MIG, I burned through the metal, then burned through again, and again, etc. as I chased the ever-growing hole in the tank.  Eventually, I found enough solid metal to stop burning through.  BUT when I ground down the welds and held a flashlight (torch for the Brits among us) I could see pin (and bigger) holes of light breaking through.  After sealing all but the smallest of the holes, I spread some JB Weld over the welds to smooth them over a bit and seal any remaining pin holes from the outside.  The tank sealer will seal the holes from the inside.

The driver's side tank. OK, so it isn't the dent repaired side because I forgot
to take a pic, but you don't see it when installed anyway, so leave me alone!

The tanks' innards were rust-free, but far from clean.  I used a combination of diluted muriatic acid, etching solution, some old chains (for scrubbing), and lots swishing about, which required more exertion and longer than I expected.  Satisfied that the innards were sufficiently clean, I dumped in a bunch of acetone (to neutralize the acid) and returned to swishing.

Ready for the sealer

Cleaned, neutralized, and etched, all that was left was blowing the lose particles out and applying the tank sealer.  I chose Eastwood Company’s Gas Tank Sealer.  They size the bottles so that one bottle will seal a motorcycle tank or tank up to five gallons.  I bought two, one for each of Alphie’s tanks.  De-rusting and cleaning the tanks is involved but sealing them is dead simple.

I used some old hose clamps and rubber gloves to block the inlets and outlets, uncorked the bottles of sealer and poured one bottle in each tank.  The instructions say to turn the tanks in all directions to ensure that all inside surfaces get an even coat of the sealer.  I let them sit for a bit, then repeated the turning process to give each side a second, and then a bit later a third coat.  With all sides showing a solid white coating, I poured out the excess, which the instructions say shouldn’t be left to harden in the bottom of the tanks.  The instructions also say that there will be a lot of excess; true to their word, I poured out 1 ¼ bottles of excess.

I painted them with Eastwood Company's Extreme Chasis Black (primer and paint).  The stuff takes forever to cure, but it leaves an awesomely shiny black!

Sealed and painted with upgraded clamps and new rubbers.
(You giggled, didn't you?  I know you did.)

Now everything needed to sit and cure completely.  I figure that it will be another year before I’m ready to fill ‘er up and crank ‘er up, so plenty of curing time.

Series IV and V Alpines have a curious (sketchy) way of connecting the two petrol tanks using three connecting tubes running through the space at the rear of the boot, just forward of the rear bumper. The petrol line attaches to the center cross-tube to transfer fuel to the engine.  Rear end collisions give me pause, and I’m guessing Sunbeam’s design probably wouldn’t pass muster under current safety regulations.  Seems at least as dodgy as the crimes committed by Ford’s Pinto back in the 70’s, but Brits OK’d it in 1964, so here we are.

Passenger side tank installed with sketchy cross-tube,
ready for a rear end collision

I decided to use but upgrade the original wire type hose clamps.  I recovered enough clamps for the mission, bead blasted, and clear painted each.  I swapped out the flat-head screws for some spanking stainless-steel Phillip’s head ones because I will abide no rust, and I really hate flat-head screws.  With new rubber hoses and tank-to-filler neck rubber, Alphie will drink clean petrol eventually, you know, once I rebuild everything else.

Driver's side tank.  I'll add the vent/balance tube
when I get the correct size and length hose.

Oh, I also ran a new petrol line from the boot to the engine bay, brilliant!  (I’ll run a new vent/balance tube between the tanks soon, just haven’t bought the hose yet.)