Original 35 Ford Gas Tank

[32Bee]

I have an original 35 Ford gas tank and would like to be able to clean the in-
terior as well as possible. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon blowing out
the interior with my shop compressor and need to try and eliminate as much
interior dirt and surface rust as I can. What are some suggestions on how to
accomplish this task? When I restored my 32 5 win. tank many years ago I
had it dipped and then used a tank sloshing agent. The tank I'm now working
on looks very salvageable. Any ideas or comments will be greatly appreciated.

Peter

[Don]

I cut mine open around the flange,had it sandblasted then I coated it with a tank sealer,mig welded it back up poured more sealer in and rolled the tank to seal and coat the flange area.put a little air pressure to ck for leaks (( inches of air pressure ) 1/2 LB or less due to the baffling you'll never get it cleaned or sealed good with out opening up.

[woodburnranch]

My neighbor places small( 1" or less) washed gravel rocks in his tanks and shakes them around to knock things loose and then dumps it out. He seems to think it works well for surface rust. This would not work with baffles.

[flatheadfan]

Peter-

Any radiator shop should be able to boil the tank out. But, before I would do this I would give some long thought about what I wanted to do with the car; restore, driver or what?

Anything short of a total restoration, give some serious thought about installing a '36 tank. This would eliminate the pesky red "juice' fuel indicator. An early '36 fuel gauge would match the '35 gauge color scheme. Only an expert could spot the difference. I did this swap nearly 50 years ago to my '35 and have had no trouble having an accurate fuel indicator with no maintenance.

Tom

[Ralph Moore]

If you use a small enough media, say size "T" or "BB" steel shot, and a good rust eating solution, you may be able to get it clean enough without splitting it. The baffles are not completely sealing off one side from the other.
If you could come up with an innovative way to agitate it, like say tie it to the back of a four wheeler and run down a rough trail(which is what I would have avail to do) then it would be even better.
I remember back in the 90's there was a company selling steel pyramids and odd shapes for doing just such a thing. Do a search on steel tumbling media.

[rockfla]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

If you go the "clean and coat yourself method" I would use about a 3 foot piece of 1/4 or 5/16 link chain to slosh around inside if you don't wanna cut it open. That removes any scale really well. Otherwise, as posted earlier (and depending on correctness) cut it open and cleaning it is the best way.

[trainguy]

Attaching it to the front of the barrel on a old concrete mixer is the way we did it back when.Phil

[B-O-B]

POR-15 gas tank repair kit.
I used it on my 34 gas tank & it sits for 6 months & been on for over a year. Works great if you follow the instructions. I don't care to put rocks in my tank nuts & bolts might be Ok . The POR kit is easier for me.

[Heard]

Originally Posted by trainguy

Attaching it to the front of the barrel on a old concrete mixer is the way we did it back when.Phil

I cleaned a tank once by strapping it to the rear tire of my jacked up tractor. Put it in gear and relaxed in a lawn chair and drank a few beers while I waited for it to finish. It worked really well.

[V8COOPMAN]

Originally Posted by Heard

I cleaned a tank once by strapping it to the rear tire of my jacked up tractor. Put it in gear and relaxed in a lawn chair and drank a few beers while I waited for it to finish. It worked really well.

I was going to suggest something similar, as in strapping it to the same tractor wheel like you say, mow four or five acres, blah blah blah, but the lawn chair and the cool ones does sound way mo' better, or at least......way more relaxing! DD

[32Bee]

Thanks everyone for all your suggestions. I'm going to go with the POR-15
Marine Clean method as I've used the product a number of times on many
different items. I read an old post several days ago written by a fellow with
a Model A and will adhere to his advice of not using a gas tank sealer. My
concern about using a radiator shop to boil the tank out is the possibility the
stripping agent used could damage the interior terne coating.

Peter