Tank Rehab

Anyone use the services of Expert Radiator and Air to rehab their gas tank. How's the quality, turn around time etc.

Bruce,

Tanks are cheap toss out the old dirty one in favor of a clean new unit.

Bruce,

As Alan said so eloquently, VW gas tanks are cheap, usually around 100 bucks but, in my case, I had to have the tank on my 1973 Porsche 911 cleaned as no replacements were available, not new or reproduction.

The only tanks available were used and I already had a used tank.

It cost me $175.00 to have my gas tank cleaned and they left it in their cleaning solution for 4 days. After it dried they coated it inside and out with a heavy duty material like POR 15. When I got it back, it was like brand new and no chance of rust forming due to the coating/barrier

One word of caution; replacement tanks are not as good and as heavily built as old OEM units. Depending on the condition of the old OEM tank it might be worth it to refurbish it instead of getting an inferior unit.

The trick thing to do when you're faced with buying a "cheap" gas tank as a replacement is to buy a gallon of POR-15 and coat the inside and the outside of the cheap tank. Once that's done, that inferior Chinese tank becomes indestructable and will outlast any OEM tank and, won't rust (inside or out)

Yah, I think i just may get a new replacement. Mine is a std 8 1/2 gal. In fact, I may get 15-16 gal, but not sure if will fit ok in my '95 JPS wide flare. I've already read the knowledge on this, but haven't actually seen one in a speedy to see how low it hangs and what my clearances are up top. May just go for it!

Bruce, I retro fitted a larger tank into my JPS. Obtained it from John Steele in a trade. Highly recommended for travel enjoyment. Tank was a drop in except for the filler neck and cap. It needs to be located on the far right side. Don't know if mine was modified or stock? I have heard it was both ways from different people. Anyway, I drilled a 3 inch diameter hole through the hood inner panel and everything fits dandy. Cap has an easy 1/2 inch clearance below the hood outer panel. Also need to reroute the filler neck vent tube to as high a location as you can find, and then dump it to a spot BELOW the chassis floor. This will minimize or eliminate fuel fumes. Enjoy!

Just as an aside, my current tank was coated. The bad part about it was it probably was not cleaned of rust and dirt before coating. I have seen some of the coating come off and the backing was rust. Therefore needing a replacement and too costly to have the rust removed and recoated. Moral...make sure your tank is clean before using the coating, it'll last longer.

Larry mentioned using POR15 to coat the tank. Actually POR15, has a separate solution specifically for coating gas tanks that works wonders from what I was told at a local VW shop.

Reaching back to my Model T days...rusty tanks were always a fact of life - for pretty much the same reasons. The cars sat parked with less than a full tank (and sometimes it'd take more than one driving season to use whatever was quietly evaporating in there; and the tanks were often decades old, for starters. Some club members swore by the POR-15 product; others swore at it. For whatever reason, many experienced flaking from the coating - no doubt, improper application. I'm expecting to replace my VS tank with a larger unit, soon - and I was considering coating it prior to installation. Then I read the thread on cow magnets.
A couple of those and something better'n a lawn tractor inline filter seem to make a lot of sense.

What are the cow magnets? Tractor inline filter different than reg. fuel filters?

cow magnets... utter useless

Here's a sampling of cow magnets...

http://www.magnetsource.com/Solutions_Pages/cowmags.html

I'll be damned. I thought they were a joke, like muffler bearings.

You learn something new every day. Heaven only knows what I will do with the information though.

A word of caution on the magnets...two in the tank oughta handle the rust bits. More than that, and you have big problems driving through Wisconsin and Vermont.

Or .....NJ !

Soooo whaddya do with these? Do you just drop them in the tank and leave 'em in?

SP I hear ys just drop em' in and they don't mooooo-ve around.

I understand that these 'cow-magnets' prevent rust from traveling from the gas tank to your carbureters. A simple way to keep your carbs from being moo-tilated or ruined beyond use !!