got this email from one of my students. (he's 15) over the summer he and his father bought a 1915 T roadster its a stocker.. and I have photos somewhere.. anyhow. . today I recieved this email from him. Greetings Mr Y. I have been washing out the gas tank for the model T for quite some time now and there just seems to be no effect. Although some hardened sludge washes out every time there is no end to the chucks of gassy nastiness and less of this junk washes out each time. A friend of mine and my father both suggest i cut the tank open and scrub the inside then weld it back together along the already existing seam. i don't have the proper tools in my garage to do this so with your permission i would like to bring the tank into the shop at school. I am going to advise him to NOT cut the tank open, as his welding skills are not up to this task.. additionally I suspect the tank may infact be soldered, I havent seen it yet .. I was thinking that the first course of action would be to have him load the tank with 3/8 inch bolts and swish it around for a few minutes. any other ideas? how expensive is a new tank? are they repro-ed?
Take it to a radiator shop have them clean and coat it this is what I did very satisfied with the work or clean with muranic acid there are alot of threads on this look under search function
I made a little rotissouri and put pea gravel in the tank and cranked on it till it looked clean,dumped out the gravel and then used the muratic acid.Worked good and didnt cost much.
Same here about the radiator shop . Gas tanks are for the professionals to fix and clean then seal ! The only other safe option is to buy a new one if they are made . RetroJim
I've dealt with this recently with two old cars. For both I had the local radiator guy cut them open, then I had to sandblast the inside (the envirocops are always watching these guys so they can't clean it). Then he soldered them back up and sealed them. The newer gas turns to such goo that no amount of sloshing is going to remove it all.
Partly fill with pea gravel & dishwashing detergent/water solution....then put it in the bed of a pickup & drive with it for a day or two. Then proceed with cleaning & sealing as per individual preference. Or, try a radiator shop.
Jeff, I just bought a repop T tank from Mac's for my roadster. I think it was $150 or so. They have all the different types for T's there. Cheap enough that it's not worth your time and energy trying to clean out a trash filled 80 year old gas tank that may or may not give you problems down the line. On the flip side of the coin, Matt used a really nice original one on his roadster and fought with cleaning it, several leaky solder joints, sealing it, etc... He probably has $500 worth of time in it!
i'm not a big fan of old tanks , you put a lot of time and money into them and then you still wonder if they will be ok or if you will have problems later. Snyder's has new ones for T's....$150 for a round 1915. here is a link: http://www.snydersantiqueauto.com/modeltparts/gastank if he insists on using his old one , i agree with bolts/rocks/broken glass etc to get the big chunks out. as for chemically cleaning it after that...i'd be concerned with whatever a radiator shop would use may cause problems with any soldering. i may be wrong on that , but i would make sure whatever you use is safe
i have used muratic acid recently on a small tank, and it worked great, but anyone thats going to use it must not inhale the fumes!!! do it out side. do not do it in doors , bad stuff.
clean the tank as above and use one of the gas tank sealers available from macs or saramento vintage.
works good but use steel nuts and bolts, easier to fish out with a magnet.... yep, got that little tip here years ago...
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