Leaderboard

I didn't trust my ability to hermetically weld the tank. So I assisted a friend while he tacked it together. He then took it to a mutual friend with a TIG welder and finished it up. At this point, I poured more Red Kote into the tank and allowed it to flow over all of the seam. I let this sit for about a month to cure. Then, I sealed off all of the openings and blasted off the remainder of the external paint. Interestingly, there were dozens of small hidden rust spots beneath the paint. You couldn't see them through the paint. But when the media hit it, the paint would flake off, revealing a brown rusted spot. After blasting, ready for paint. I primed and painted it with Rust-oleum automotive paint in rattle cans. It turned out decent. No one will be looking at it. Note I didn't remove the original rubber blocks. They were stuck on really well, and not damaged. I did remove the original foam rubber piece near the sender hole because it was falling apart. I replaced it with a similarly-sized piece of 1/8" (3mm) thick EPDM rubber, just to make sure nothing would rattle. You can also see where I masked off the factory marking, just in case anyone might ever care if the tank was original. Lastly, I leak tested it by putting a few gallons of gasoline in it and allowing it to sit on each edge for 30 minutes. The sun was out, so the tank heated up and pressurized, which was a good sign. I'm happy to report that I've reinstalled the tank in the car, and it works fine. No leaks. And no more plastic gas can bugeed to the rear shelf.

Exactly....Still have both of the original pairs of keys...sentimental, I guess