Gas tanks officially suck

[Power Surge]

Well, I was going to finsih up the fuel system this week for the project car (now called Thundersnake). The plan was to graft the tank section from a junk Lightning tank into the top of the MII tank, so I could bolt in the Lightning pump assy. I took the MII tank and had it blasted, so I could start with fresh metal. Well, after taking it to bare metal I found out that it has tons of pinholes all over it. I took it to my buddy who has a radiator/gas tank shop to see if he could bladder line it. He said it would not seal with how bad this tank is. He checked his books, and there is no aftermaket replacement. I came home and checked my locators for both a D5 and D7 tank NOS, and both came up not available.

So this is sucking big moose balls right now. I hate to get another used tank, and possibly run into the same thing. And I really don't want to do a custom cell. I did find some NOS Pinto tanks, anyone ever try to put one of those in a II?

 

[77CobraII]

I had mine done. I used the stock II tank and had a Mustang fox body tank top mounted into it. I had a radiator shop do it. They also steamed the tank and cleaned it up. Worked pretty good. I had to lengthen the bracket to get the pump closer to the bottom of the tank.

 

[Power Surge]

The fabrication is no problem, my problem is this MII tank is junk.

 

[parthos]

my local wrecking yard will return parts that are faulty, maybe those in your area would be willing to do the same?

 

[strangeice69]

personally i think the mII tank is too small, a larger tank would serve the cars traction better. they are definately junk tanks though. try mustangtank.com or www.mtscompany.com/ford

 

[Johan]

personally i think the mII tank is too small, a larger tank would serve the cars traction better. they are definately junk tanks though. try mustangtank.com or www.mtscompany.com/ford

I just went through the same routine. Ready to graft sections from a late model tank, only to find my II's tank full of pinholes. I had no luck finding a direct replacement either. Very discouraging. I ended up buying a 15 gallon fuel cell, figuring to mount it centered under the rear of the car. So now it's a whole new ball game.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, every step along the way of this project has been a bigger deal than anticipated.

 

[a351Must2]

If you remember when I had mine done, I had the pump assembly completely grafted into my tank before I bothered to clean the bottom and found all the pinholes. I had two other spare tanks and only one of them was solid.

 

[Power Surge]

What do you guys think of this stuff...

http://www.right-tool.com/pcwhiteppas.html

I'm thinking of either coating the entire tank in it, or at least just the problem areas.

 

[Wart]

Around here we have places that glass the entire tank.

 

[parthos]

well that epoxy stuff could work, give it a shot, let us know how it works

 

[77sleeper]

I still have a leak in my AUX, waiting for the garage,,,,umm,,, house to finish

 

[Apsychotic]

I was sad because my d!(* was small, Then I met a man w/ no d!(*!!!!

my local wrecking yard will return parts that are faulty, maybe those in your area would be willing to do the same?

@

 

[dmoody]

Have you thought about welding new sheetmetal where the old sheetmetal has deteriorated? I'm not sure how bad the tank is, but I thought I'd offer this idea.

d

 

[78CobraII]

I finally got some pictures ready to post. The first 2 pics are the tank during cleaning. I used Eastwood's 4 or 5 step method, and their supplies. Basically Pic 1 is after a thorough cleaning with water, detergent, and degreaser. Pic 2 is after cleaning with their Eastwood's caustic wash, acetone, dilute muriatic acid, and their rust remover. If you look close in Pic 2, you will see dots where I didn't get all the way to the tank metal. These show up again in Pic 3 after the liner is in...

78CobraII

 

[78CobraII]

OK, now for the liner...

The coating is nice and hard, but I couldn't get it to coat evenly. Mainly the tank got too hot outside, but I would have died from the fumes (acetone) inside. So the liner dried too fast to get a smooth coat. But worse than teh uneven coat was the "pimples" in the liner where some dots of corrosion were remaining on the steel. I decided that I needed to try again...

Not pictured is the tank after attempt #2. I was able to dissolve the first liner with acetone, and purchased new materials from Eastwood (they love me). Unfortunatley I didn't do any better on the evenness of the coating. But at least I had the tank clean enough to eliminate the "pimples".

I'll try to get some pics of the tank painted with Eastwood's tank paint.

78CobraII