Recoating rusty fuel tank

[thibaut]

My diesel tank is not accessible being part of the keel, rusty after 20 years of neglect, what paint/epoxy/? can be use to seal the old rust in place and form a lining?

[Jeff_H]

I am not sure if you are talking about the outside or inside of the tank. On the outside of the tank you can wire brush and vacuum up all of the loose rust, treat with Ospho to consolodate the remaining rust, paint with a zinc rich epoxy primer and then over coat that with a coal tar epoxy. Unfortunately, most steel tanks rust out from the inside and there really is nothing that you can do about that except cut out the tanks and replace them once they rust through.

Jeff

[windship]

Hey Jeff, you''ll love this one,
I know of a guy who had (or has)a leaky diesel tank.
He took all kinds of 5200 and encapsulatsd his entire fuel tank that is located in the bildge.He filled his entire bildge with 5200!!! ''cause his tank leaked!!!
How do you think He''d do in weeds and mud???


Dennis

[Jeff_H]

Do you have any idea how that worked? Did it cure the leaks? If it did cure the leaks I wonder if he still had problems with a lot of debris clogging his filters.

Jeff