Re: gray powdery substance in gas tank

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2020/6/29 9:24:17

Gasoline tanks of that era were typically made from a product known as terne plate which is sheet steel coated with an alloy of tin and lead; terne plate was pretty much the standard metal used for industrial containers for flammable liquids. No organic coatings or lining was used in the original tank construction. Though I can't recall ever hearing of it before, possibly the white material is tin oxide resulting from the oxidation of the terne plate, in turn resulting from long term exposure to moisture.