hey guys. the previous owner of my bus had screwed the r&r bed to the rear of the cargo area, and using screws which were about 5cm!!!! he has drilled 3 holes in the fuel tank. I bought some £8 quick steel type putty that says it will repair fuel tanks... but i watched a tv restoration show and the guy had his tank lead welded shut by a pro at a cost of £100. are these "quick steel" types of repairs likely to hold up?? i havent tested it yet but im planning on flushing the tank through with water, filling to see if it leaks, then flushing through with petrol again.
Try FBI or others for an imported tank, shoulf be around that price delivered and you won't have a tank that's been fixed.
take the tank out and remove all the pipes and sender. flush it with water then let it stand for a few hours. After that you can weld it up - just dont put your self in direct line of the filler pipe or sender unit holes as you may get a few feet of flame shoot out Ive welded a lot of fuel tanks up over the years, its nowt to worry about as long as the pressure can escape - hence taking the sender out as well so there is enough escape holes for the air
I think a lot of us have had that problem lol! I wouldnt use putty type repairs for any thing other than a 'get you home' fix personally I've repaired a few tanks, I prefer brazing to welding on fuel tanks as your unlikely to blow more holes in your tank if you have the welder up to high if you cant weld or cant afford the equipmentfor welding then brazing is a much cheaper option and easy to do......a lot of tanks on classic vehicles have the unions brazed on anyway heres a 'how to' I did on brazing up the screw holes in my tank:- http://thelatebay.com/index.php?topic=17247.msg267967#msg267967
Like Diddymen i have silver soldered tanks before, if its needed i have a spare tank here which i think is sound
who would do a thing like that :-[ I cleaned up the metal and ruffed the surface then put a bit of the putty on a self taper screwed it in and then put putty over the screw head not had a leak for a year or more. If you weld it Dont do what a friend did and use a hoover to suck the fumes out or you will end up with a cable with a spinning motor on the end and no eyebrows
I cleaned my tank with water the wire brushed the rust spots on the out side and found a leak spot one screw driver in the tank later and I had a hole just welded it up with water in the tank and painted it all up after
Pop rivet and some chemical metal will do the trick just make sure you clean the surrounding area well and key it up with some 80 grit paper If you can weld then weld it up after flushing the tank with water to push out any petrol vapour If i could afford it id have someone fabricate me a tig welded alloy tank No corrosion problems and i could increase the fuel carrying capacity aswell id imagine
i can weld, and think that i could easily weld a patch over the top of the holes. but to be totally honest i just dont have the balls to do it on a fuel tank haha.
