Hello everyone. I am curious about what you might expect to pay for a fuel tank repair in your area. This is a tough one for me to swallow because I have no experience working on fuel tanks (kaboom?) but feel very confident sweating a joint. There is only one game in town and they want $60 to just look at it. Thank all.

People fill tanks with water then empty them to be sure there are no fumes inisde or use dry ice to get rid of oxygen and fumes. But, really, if you empty the tank and let it dry until you can't smell gasoline you're safe. If your nose works. I've had a chemistry class and have a good nose though so feel a bit more confident than some might. Stick a fan on the fill hole and let some air pump through it to dry it out and see how you feel about it. Then throw some lit matches at it to be sure.

1 hour ago, Zed Head said:

People fill tanks with water then empty them to be sure there are no fumes inisde or use dry ice to get rid of oxygen and fumes. But, really, if you empty the tank and let it dry until you can't smell gasoline you're safe. If your nose works. I've had a chemistry class and have a good nose though so feel a bit more confident than some might. Stick a fan on the fill hole and let some air pump through it to dry it out and see how you feel about it. Then throw some lit matches at it to be sure.

I was thinking the same thing. I did take it to a shop in town on a neighbors recommendation, and they said no dice. They did the fill and drain but residue was enough to ignite. The final one they did it was no able to smell gas and it still went. I am skeptical that if I ran air through it from the shop vac on reverse, it would combust, but the calculation that comes to play, is a replacement cost $200-400 for one on ebay and those are in much worse shape than mine. They would surely require the same of labor this tank would need it I had to do it. IDK, this is all TMI already.

Just curious what people would expect to pay. This job was done on this tank in 1993 by a California muffler shop and they charged $105. In today's money that is $245 (Google), although be the time you read this it may be $250. 🤪

Dry ice is the safe way to prevent it from catching fire. (blowing up) A crew pulled a leaking underground gas tank where I worked. Before cutting it up with a torch, they threw in buckets of dry ice and waited until they could see CO2 fumes coming out of the top—no fire or explosion when they cut into it.

S30.World.com

2 hours ago, Yarb said:

S30.World.com

Yes indeed. Thank you. If it all goes south then I know $665 + shipping will put things back on track.

Just be careful with your heat. The plate and tubing are leaded on - and while heating one thing you're likely to melt the solder in another place. When I was fixing fuel tanks I used my Turbotorch™ and used my small tip (journeyman plumber). Another trick if you have a capable torch is to wet a cloth or paper towel and put it on the places you don't want the lead to melt. Use good flux. Also - this is old school soldering - it's probably 50/50 solder (50% lead / 50% tin) and it melts at a WAY lower temp than most modern solder. If you're not using 50/50 (which may be hard to find) you'll be overheating things to get the the "modern" solder to melt. They try to make "no lead" solder these days - Nanny State. 50/50 was always the easiest to work with.

(and don't cry to ME about lead poisoning... The State Journeyman Test mechanical portion required me not only to solder copper joints of various types, I also had to make and solder A LEAD SHOWER PAN, and a LEAD roof flashing for a vent pipe (of proper slope). I've been esposed to more led than you will in fitty livetimes and I can still spel!)

To circle back and close up for posterity.

I did find a local Portland, OR shop that does fuel tank work still, (Macs Radiator - Portland).

The previous soft solder was removed. Both of the joints and support plate were cleaned then hard soldered (silver solder). I then had them media blast the tank exterior (my 240v A/Comp is not up and running).

Summary:

• Tank bath and weld shop repair (Oregon, April 2026) = $168.50

• Same job done with soft solder (California, May 1993) = $105.00

Looks great. Did they use dry ice or their own inert gas or some other method? Did they pressure check it? Looks like you got some free rubber plugs.

Portland does have some old school shops still around. It's not a huge city so they're easy to get to. McGuire Bearing is a great place for bearings and seals.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/m947oF4LikhPFMYq7

https://mcguirebearing.com/

I would have loved to know what they used as well to create a safe brazing environment. The workman was not around when I retrieved it, sadly. When I picked up the tank I could not smell fuel like before so maybe steam? The inside looked the same as when I dropped it of however, which is to say pretty clean, thankfully.

They did pressure test the tank. Those plugs were mine. Nice to see they persisted.

We do have some cool places around still. I didn't know about that one but one of my favorites is W.C. Winks Hardware.

Another gem is Hippo Hardware & Trading Co.

Edited April 12Apr 12 by DrFeelGood
Grammar

So, they didn’t Red coat the inside of the tank to seal up possible pin holes in the future?

Edited April 13Apr 13 by Yarb

4 hours ago, Yarb said:

So, they didn’t Red coat the inside of the tank to seal up possible pin holes in the future?

No linings. It looked great inside. They recommended that nothing be done with the inside. I agreed with them. It looked good to my layperson eyes aside from a little varnish.

Edited April 13Apr 13 by DrFeelGood