Technical Fuel tank liner coming off

I made the fuel tank in my Model A about 15yr ago, and I coated it with the silvery Eastwood coating inside, but now it's coming off in sheets. I suspect it is due to the ethanol in the gas now.

Does anyone have a good solution, it keeps covering my pick up and starving the motor.
Is it possible to get it out, not sure how to clean the baffles..
Can I clean it good and re coat with something more impervious to the ethanol

The pieces flaking off are big so they probably aren't getting to the carb, but they are sporadically covering my pick up.

 

Why does it need to be coated?

 

If you made it, and it was made from new metal, why was it coated? it didn't need to be.

yor best bet would be to find a radiator shop that will boil the tank out to get that garbage out of there.

It might just be me, but I hate the tank coatings, if the gas tank is bad enough to think you need to coat it, then it should be replaced. Since you made yours, I would try to get it boiled out, or at the very least, take it out of the car and pressure wash the inside of it to try and get all that stuff out.

 

I went thru that with my stock Model A coupe and took a mechanics fingers and fished out as much as possible and pulled loose anything I could get hold of. The alcohol in the gas causes the older sealers to fail and peel, I've been running on alcohol gas in my old cars for several years. Quick Trip here has no alcohol gas but the price is higher.

 

I pulled out everything I could see, but I have not doubt it will continue to flake. I would guess 90% of it is still attached and secure, but will eventually fail.

I coated the tank when I made it 15 years ago, I thought I needed to at the time. Older and wiser now, but I really don't want to make a new tank again if I can save this one.

So far the only answer to my question has been boil or pressure wash. I was hoping someone had a chemical solution to melt it or something along those lines.

 

Take one of the flakes and see what makes it dissolve.

 

Dunk a flake in some Everclear. If that works buy a couple gallons and get the rest of it out of your tank. Then pressure check and fix any pinholes.

 

Replacing the tank is the only answer. You know that. You don't want to hear that but you know it be true.

No magic potion is going to help. Replace it now before it kills the carburetor, the fuel pump or worse....leaves you stranded or stalls the car at the worst possible time......like before the impact.

 

I tend to agree, unless he gets lucky with something like very thin aircraft stripper that could be sloshed and could get every last trace of that sealer out.

luckily, I have never used tank sealers,... only because I read way back when the gas started to be changed decades ago, that the first generation of Bill Hirsch tank sealer was now going bad in hundreds of stock antique cars. Hirsch then reformulated their sealer, but you had to think that gas would be changed yet again, and we'd have more troubles when that happens.

we sure do fight a lot of battles with our old cars.

 

As F&J states the stuff we used 20 years ago is now being attacked by the new ethanol fuel. Add to the fact that the new sealer by Bill Hirsch will stand up to the new fuel, BUT, won't stick to the old sealer. I would try to media blast the interior of your tank if possible. Boiling out the tank won't help, it won't remove the old stuff. I just cut out two slots in the bottom of my '29 Model A stock tank and had it blasted and TIG welded up the slots. Then used the new type sealer. Good luck with your problem.