When we were kids, our local mechanic would pay us to shake and roll the old metal gas cans to get the rust out. He used pea gravel as the media to remove the rust and scale. We had fun, received candy bars and a cokes..

 

Would you still do it?

 

There are sealer kits you can use to clean, prep and re-seal your tank. I've used Kreem in the past. I've also heard there are better products but I don't recall the name. It's not difficult, but a 5 gallon tank can get heavy when you're swishing around a couple of gallons of water/solution. The flaking will block your fuel flow eventually.

 

Great info. I will check out that kit. Hopefully I'll get through this riding season and do the tank project next summer.

 

Bare steel works just fine. That's why almost all gas tanks are bare steel. They flash rust, and rarely anything more. Even with ethanol fuels.

Various gas tank sealers exist to solve a non-problem of catastrophic rust, and in fact often create problems, by their flaking and peeling. Older ones and a number still on the market do not withstand ethanol fuels.

Kreem was quite the money maker for us at the shop. Customers would line their tanks with it, then their bikes wouldn't run as it flaked off. We'd do a semi-expensive removal of the liner, and a rebuilding of the carburetors. Sometimes even a carburetor replacement, and or gas tank replacement, depending on the ability or inability of us to get the Kreem particles out of the carburetor passages and off the tank walls.

 

 

That's an interesting take on the non-problem of catastrophic tank rust. Two years ago, my buddy's bike had a problem with catastrophic tank rust. Wish we knew it was a non-problem back then. It would have helped me avoid resealing the tank, rebuilding the petcock, rebuilding the carb, and flushing the gasoline out of the engine. Dang. If only I were an expert.

 

I cleaned the flakes out with nuts and water. Now just try to o keep it full and put MM oil in it to help keep rust under control. Had some kreem but took it back looked like a pain to do with out messing up tank paint.

 

I have used kreme on 2 different bikes. It was recomended by the company I bought the fat bob tank from.

 

I agree & I am having good results with leaving the tank bare, after cleaning out the old lining....

I had the tank lining peel in a 2001 Springer I bought about 18 months ago. It had only 9.8K miles, and had sat for a long time. There was a ton of peeled liner in the tank, along with some light surface rust.

While researching the various liner replacements, they all had at least one report of re-peeling. I also read many who said not to worry about bare steel in the tank.

It was a carb bike, so I only had two small fill/sending unit holes to work with. I removed as many big pieces as I could. I then put a bunch of very small (I forget the gauge) shot in the tank. I would probably use the pea gravel this time, as it probably would have better scrubbing action. I sealed up the openings, wrapped it well in bubble wrap, and then some big blankets, and put it in the dryer. Once satisfied it was wedged in there well, I tumbled it without heat.

I cleaned out the shot, many pulverized liner pieces, and rinsed it well... the tumbling had removed the vast majority of any liner left in the tank. It even seemed to "scrub" some of the rust.

Here is what I chose to do rather than re-coat the tank. I filled/soaked it with diluted phosphoric acid to neutralize the rust. I drained, rinsed, and neutralized the acid with baking soda/water, rinsed with alcohol, then dried completely. After all that, I just left the tank bare steel....

I have not had any issues with the tank since. I do, however, keep the tank full most of the time ...