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Rust removal from a gas tank - Writeup
matap:
My own personal experience on how to remove rust from the inards of a gas tank.
First off I have a 2003 shadow that I recently re-acquired from an old friend that pretty much neglected and left the bike outside for about 2 years with no cover or anything. Needless to say it now needs copius amounts of work.
Supplies needed:
Distilled Vinegar - amount depends on size of tank(gallons)
Nuts & bolts - about 1-2 cups worth
WD-40
Masking taping to seal holes in tank
Aside from the carbs needing a good rebuild & cleaning, the tank had to be first on the list b/c what's the point of doing carbs and having a dirty tank. :banghead:
Step 1: Remove and drain tank (this won't be bike specific as this is just how I removed the rust) completely then let it air dry.
Step 2: Take about 1-2 cups of random nuts and bolts. preferely with large washers attached to them. This will aid in removing the heavy rust flakes. Tape/seal any openings on the tank. You will want to shake those nuts and bolts inside that tank for about 30 minutes to an hour. The method I chose was to place in the dryer. Yep you read right....the dryer. Wrap in a blanket place inside dryer then wad more blankets or towels until it is completely wadded through so there is zero movement. Run that dryer on spin cycle with no heat for about 30 minutes. Take it out and reverse it's position and run for another 30 minutes.
Step 3: Remove all the nuts and bolts. One of those nut grabbers :ohwow: works great.
Step 4: At this point it's probably real dusty with rust. This needs to be washed out. Take your garden hose and jam it down the fill hole. Shake, rinse, drain, repeat until the water mostly comes out clean.
Step 5: Now most of the hard stuff is out, but if you know rust it's a chemical reaction of H2O reacting with metal so to fight fire with fire you need another chemical reaction that eats rust in the real tight places.....Acid. Use, depending on gallon size of tank and fill it with Distilled Vinegar or Distilled Apple Cider Vinegar. Both work great, but Apple cider vinegar is about 1% more acidic in most cases. I let the vinegar sit inside the tank for about 5-6 days. No heavy agitation is necessary, but I did shake it around once in the a.m. and once in the p.m.. Be sure to seal any holes that would cause draining. Make sure it seals tight and be sure that you fill the tank to the absolute top or you will rust badly at the liquid line in the tank.
Step 6: Once you've let it sit for the whole week you are now ready to drain. But before you completely drain the Vinegar, you'll need to nuetralize the acidity. Pour all but about 1/4 of the vinegar out, then dump about 1/2 cup of baking soda. You'll remember from your science classes what happens when vinegar and baking soda come into contact, yep, it fizzes up, plus it also helps in breaking that last bit of rust. Drain that and start pouring water from hose and fill it up, shake, drain & repeat until it comes out clean. This make take some time depending on how bad the tank is.
Step 7: Remove water. Drain as much water as possible. I also used a shop towel to absorb it up a bit. Before it starts to flash rust pour some gasoline inside the tank and swoosh around attempting to coat the entire inside. Drain it then do it again and drain it again. Now that should help in removing all the water from the tank.
Step 8: preventing flash rust. Now that your tank is all clean, keep it from flash rusting so you don't have to go thru this nightmare again. Take a spray bottle of WD-40 and spray it in the tank. The secret to spraying is to not spray like you are trying to coat a rusted bolt for removal. You want to fog the tank. Best way I've known to do that is spray holding the can horizontal to 45 degrees upside down. This causes it to sputter. Do that until you see it fogged. Close it and leave it alone until ready to use. To clean that WD-40 out when you are ready to use just pour a little bit of gas and swoosh it around and drain it. Tank is ready to use.
Hope this helps someone trying to clean that rust tank project.
works great and the only cost associated is buying the vinegar, nuts & bolts if you don't have them already, and tape, again if you don't have already.
hooter:
:c :c :good:
Gumbo:
Dang good write up :thumbup:
Drewboy22:
Great write up! Who woulda thought, a dryer? Clever... :thumbup:
Tapper:
I don't recommend the nuts/bolts/bb's method, just because it an be a real pain to get them back out of honda gas tanks. I use a different method:
Start with a tank with everything off/out of it. Strainers, fuel pumps, whatever. Nothing but tank metal left. Buy a couple of rubber caps to plug off the vent line, and maybe a big cork for the fuel cap hole.
Go buy a gallon jug of muriatic acid from the pool store, and a bottle of naval jelly (maybe 8 oz or so).
Shake hell out of the tank upside down to get out as much grit and loose junk as possible out of the gas cap. Expect a workout on a honda tank.
Now, in a plastic bucket, pour naval jelly and a gallon of water in and mix.get it nice and smooth.
Do whatever you gotta to prevent any muriatic acid (HCL) from getting on the paint in this next step. I use a paper funnel and a measuring cup.
Plug tank up, and fill about 2/3's with water from hose. Slowly add 4-5 cups of muriatic acid. SLOWLY. DO NOT PUT ACID IN TANK FIRST. WATER FIRST.
Plug up gas cap, then slosh mixture around inside tank for a couple of minutes. Repeat every five minutes for about half an hour.
Turn on a garden hose, and find a good place to dump the tank. the mix isn't all that dangerous, but it will discolor concrete. flood the outside of the tank, remove cap, and dump tank while flooding paint area and anything acid might touch with lots of water. Aim the hose at the mix you dumped out and dilute the hell out of it. acid dilutes very fast and well.
Now, before inside of tank can dry, pour the naval jelly mixture into tank. Slosh it around and rotate tank in all directions to be sure inside is completely coated with the mix. Do this 4 or 5 times, then dump out the mix in the same manner as before, with a hose and tons of water.
Set the tank upright and let dry 20 minutes. Flip the tank, let dry 20 minutes. Then, rinse insides with water.
Remove all plugs, and let tank dry in a nice warm place ( I always set tank in sun) for several days. Tank needs to be bone dry before you put gas back in it.
Thats the process. The muriatic (hydrochloric) acid will dissolve the rust and any remaining varnish/old fuel right out of the tank, and usually leaves it nice and clean. Naval jelly is basically phosphoric acid. It will leave a long-lasting phosphate coating inside the tank that prevents the flash rusting that WILL happen after you clean one out.
Works for me. Good luck!
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