I've seen marbles used.  You could probably use gravel also.  Crushed 1/2" minus might be about right.  It will pack well in your driveway or sidewalk also, afterward.

I used POR on one of mine almost 20 years ago and its still fine. Used nuts and bolts and anything else that would help scrape the tank clean before I started the POR treatment.

FYI, Natchez Machine & Radiator says they will give it the chemical bath (i.e., boil) and only charge me about $45, so that'll be the first thing I'll do after I drop it.

What would be the problem with missing one or two nuts/bolts, anyhow? 

My guess is nothing fuel delivery wise. But I wouldn't want a few nuts and bolts rolling around the bottom of my coated tank.

1 hour ago, Mark Maras said:

My guess is nothing fuel delivery wise. But I wouldn't want a few nuts and bolts rolling around the bottom of my coated tank.

But wouldn't those nuts or bolts be coated too and stuck to something.

I guess we know @grannyknot isn't OCD. I'd wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat thinking about that one rogue bolt. :-)

 

1 hour ago, grannyknot said:

But wouldn't those nuts or bolts be coated too and stuck to something.

 Probably the bottom of the tank but that could lead to a discussion about how many is permissible all the way to why the hell take any out. They're all glued down anyway. The PO of my 260 used 3/4" (no minus) crushed rock and rolled the tank around the yard for an hour or so.

If you're cleaning the tank why would you not get out the things that are in the tank? Makes the whole thing pointless IMHO.

I've only done two but you could hear a fly buzzing around in those big empty cans. 

Step 1 is done. Dropped! Tank goes to the radiator shop Monday. Noted that there was no O-ring on the sending unit. Both of the big vapor hoses along the tail were dry-rotted. Anyone know of a good source for them?

Before you send it in, you might want to remove the rubber pads. They might disappear when the tank gets cooked.

If this doesn't cover the hose replacement question you have, I don't know what will.

Edited May 17, 20205 yr by Zup