Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Ross,
AWESOME!!!

Ross,

Nice. So it is one long piece, and a second one welded in the middle for strength? is that a 3 or 4 inch tubing?

I have finally got my lift installed, just been lifting the 400 up and down.

That's 1.5 x 3" x .093 tubing that happened to be sitting around from a pickup truck project. With the extra piece in the middle it hardly flexes. There are pieces of angle welded onto the ends that fit into the sliders. That keeps it from shifting left and right or from flipping--also the reason the reinforcement is on the bottom.

Gas tanks are a pain, and expensive to send out. Cheapness won out again and I decided to do my own for the Carrera Panamericana car. I have had less than sterling results cleaning nasty tanks with chemicals and chains and rocks, so tried a more direct approach.

After a good washing to get rid of any gas and fumes, I cut the tank all around a half inch above the seam with an extra thin cutting disc. I then sandblasted the tank in and out till it was VERY clean. Shooting sand up and down the fill piped did a great job on that too. Blasting was followed by a phosphoric acid etch. When that was fully dry I scuffied and blew out any extra acid residue and welded the tank back together. That was not as hard as one might imagine--the shape of the tank is such that the top half will easily slip over the bottom with a little finesse and tapping. I overlapped them about 1/8".

Of course this all would have rusted in a heartbeat without sealer, so I sloshed it with Hirsch's excellent tank sealer. A test piece showed that it stuck quite fast to the etched metal--could only scrape it off with difficulty. Since the tank was so clean nearly 2/3 of the sealer came back out when I drained it. After it dried I sloshed the tank again and still have 1/3 qt left over. The outside I painted with one of those rock hard moisture barrier paints that Hirsh, Eastwood and others sell.

All told it made a very nice job I have a lot of confidence in and took less time than when I cleaned tanks by other methods. Lost about 3/16 height--maybe a half gallon capacity.

Attach file:

---

  (96.45 KB)


  (109.57 KB)


  (74.34 KB)


  (78.01 KB)

Slick trick. Thanks for sharing it. Did the inside of the tank, after cleaning, seem good enuf that possibly no sealer would have been needed at all???? I realize the sealer is good insurance but also wonder about the possibility of using this process for tanks that are not too rusty or perforated.

OR, use your process of disecting the tank for thorough cleaning but instead of sealing the INside use somekind of a sealer or epoxy coating on the OUTside of the tank. That way should there ever be anykind of new jet age additives to gasoline then only the OUTside coating would have to be recoated. With an OUTside coating there would never be any worry sealer comming loose and plugging the fule lines.


Either way, your cutting and remateing of the tank halves is a revolutionary idea for a rigorous and permanant reliable tank resto.

After the top half of tank was pressed down over the lower half did u weld the two halves together or what???? I would guess that any high heat, such as welding would burn any sealer inside of the tank. That's why i'm thinking more along the lines of sealing the OUTside of the tank.

ok. wait a minute. U sealed the INside AFTER welding the two tank halves together. However i'm not sure the inside would rust any faster than it had over the last 50 years anyway.

Gas tanks are normally made of terne plate which is steel coated with an alloy of lead, tin and sometimes antimony. Once the coating is gone, as is likely after all these years, the steel is susceptible to rusting.

Bisecting and media blasting the tank is the same process that RenuUSA uses, but they charge $400+.

Not in possession of your welding skills, I resorted to a mechanical and chemical cleaning process, a redneck approach, some would say. I simply strapped the tank to a cement mixer, added chains, nuts, and bolts, some diluted muriatic acid, and let her rip. Noisy, but effective.

After cleaning, I thoroughly rinsed the tank and treated the bare metal with some metal prep, dried it completely, and proceeded with the coating, using the system I purchased from Eastwood for around $50.

If you don't mind the inside of your tank having a white coating, I highly recommend the Eastwood system. I tested the stuff on one of the chains, and almost a year later, I still can't remove it. Some that dripped on my concrete floor is there for perpetuity. Gas doesn't affect it at all.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=8950&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=70

Ross, is that a 1951 tank with the whistle? It doesn't look like other 52-56 tanks I am familiar with. Great idea and execution.