<VV> Re: Repro Tank Life? (Long)

Alan and Clare Wesson alan.wesson@atlas.co.uk
Mon, 9 Aug 2004 21:52:51 +0100


> > There are lots of ways to fix the leak.  For a temporary repair, use
> > one of the epoxy mixes on the market intended for this purpose.

Depends what you call temporary! The tank on my 1956 Anglia had pinholed
badly from the outside, because it sits in the trunk on a porous mat (not
now though!) and the mat had got soaked and rusted it from the outside.

I machine-wire-brushed the rust, treated it with rust treatment, filled the
pinholes from the outside with bondo, painted the outside with several coats
of Hammerite over the bondo (POR-15 would have been better, but I don't
think it had been invented then!), and then treated the inside with a
'slosh' tank sealant which is now no longer on the market (I think it was
too noxious and the EPA or some such banned it - whatever it was, it was
amazing stuff and has formed an amazingly impervious layer inside the
tank!).

I have had no problems or leaks at all since, and the rust has not come
back. I haven't even had to re-do the Hammerite (I check now and then, out
of curiosity and to be on the safe side, and the rust isn't even beginning
to return).

That was in 1981...

Cheers

Alan