11/25/2008: Gas Tank Sealed

Several weeks ago, I sent a gas tank off to Gas Tank Renu’s Albany Location. It arrived back today.. It wasn’t cheap, and it’s not exactly pretty, but it’s guaranteed for life to never fail. And together with the stainless fuel line that I had bent up (along with the brake lines) by Classic Tube, there’s just nothing that can rust and crud up my carburetor in the future.

The Renu process involves cutting holes in the tank to access all of its nooks and crannies, sandblasting it inside and out to remove all rust, and then sealing it, inside and out, with a brushed on PVC coating, which is baked on. This sandwiches the metal in a thick plastic coating, which has a lumpy and bumpy appearance.

In the case of this tank, the guy at the renu shop told me that something like 5 holes had to be cut out to get at all its sections. While he was in there, he also knocked out a number of dents, restoring the tank to its original shape. He also replaced a fuel sender stud that i’d snapped off and freed up the drain plug, which someone had soldered shut at some point in the past.

I am sure that this tank will last forever now, though I do wish it were smoother looking. Oh well- it’s a good trade-off.

While I’m thinking about it, I decided to work out a few other related parts, like the fuel sender, gasket, and hoses. I actually have several fuel tank senders, and need to pick one out..

From left to right..

  • my original sender. It’s pretty much rusted out.
  • Another used sender from one of my gas tanks. It’s identical to the original one, but has a plastic float instead of cork.
  • A NOS replacement. Cork float as original, but the electrical connections are spade instead of bullet connectors.
  • Current replacement. Not exactly as original, outlet comes out at a different angle and the float is flipped around.

I think I will use the cool NOS one, but I do need to do some research on how the shellac on cork floats hold up with modern gas formulations.

I’m also getting new hoses for the fuel filler and vent lines. For the vent line, I am using 5/8” (16.0 mm) SAE30R7 fuel line (Gates part# 27008).

The filler hose is more challenging. It’s 50mm, which is between 1 7/8 and 2 inches. 2 inch hose is kind of loose, so I’m trying to find the right metric stuff.