Tank sealant repair

rowdypat

rowdypat

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Location
Melbourne
Hi all, my fibreglass tank was sealed more than ten years ago prior to me owning it. The sealant skin has started breaking away. How should I attack this? Obviously not needing to kill rust issues. Do I need to somehow remove all of the old stuff, keeping in mind that many chemicals may gobble up the fibreglass? ???
Cheers and Happy New Year,
Pat
 

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Might have to try the blankets and cement mixer trick + a few handfuls of carpet tacks and then reseal it...
 
Pat, I had a similar issue with a fibreglass America Eagle tank. I?m afraid I couldn?t find an easy or cost effective solution.
In the end I had the bottom of the tank cut open. This revealed multiple failed attempts at using tank liners. The old liner(s) layers were cut out and the inside of tank re-layered with fibreglass weave and ethanol proof epoxy. The bottom of the tank was rebonded with the ethanol proof epoxy.
On the positive side was the inside of the tank was guaranteed to have a complete coating of ethanol proof resin, the downside was it was not economically viable. I only went down this path as I wanted to retain the original AE fibreglass tank.

Ian
 
Define economically viable. When has any of this stuff been remotely close to that?
You're in the wrong hobby if your in any way trying to apply that. Been down this path with a very rusty Triumph tank, I fluffed about with failed attempts when I should have gone Nuclia from the start. Ian has the right approach sadly.
 
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. Have a couple of ideas I?ll follow up. In the meantime I do indeed already have a carbon tank in the shed so no problem there  :)
 

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This thread's a bit old although the issue remains current. Has anyone tried Bill Hirsch Miracle Paint for tank lining? A coatings guy recommended it to me years ago as a primer for use on raw fibreglass, since (unlike pretty well ALL other paints) it bonds extremely well to f/g. It is also recommended for application over flakey rusted steel where it penetrates and sets the flaky rust, seals hard over it, permanently killing the rust. Important first step is to remove all pre-existing resins and tarnishing using a water based cleaning agent.

Since it also withstands nearly all solvents once it sets, incl petrol, I'm thinking to give it a try inside a f/g tank where I've removed (as best I can from outside) earlier liners. Seems to me it should seal over flakey earlier liner remnants and attach them to the f/g walls of the tank. Has anyone here used it in this application? Did it work?
 
UK. Avgas still has lead- but the fact it doesn’t contain Ethanol means that aircraft products will not necessarily work in a road going motorcycle that will come into contact with 5/10% Ethanol Fuel.
Personally ,I have not had much luck with motorcycle specific tank sealants, one fibreglass tank I lined turned to jelly and I have noticed that the fuel in my old Nuova Falcone that was sealed with stupa-dupa ethanol proof stuff that “Audi use in prototype fuel tanks” has actually turned the fuel red whilst it has stood for a year! Bite the bullet and get your tank cut open and repaired properly!
 
Exmoor beast said:
UK. Avgas still has lead-
Click to expand...
I stand corrected ....... here as well AvGas has lead ...... but very low levels.

Not sure what you mean when you say AvGas won't work if it comes in contact with ethanol though ........ and I still say that anything certified for aircraft will be fine in your bike as the liability issues with aircraft are far beyond anything else. My SFC tank was repaired with an aircraft fuel tank resin in the early 80's ........ you wouldn't even know it was repaired as there is no visible change (except the crack doesn't leak anymore).

Jim
 
helicopterjim said:
I stand corrected ....... here as well AvGas has lead ...... but very low levels.

Not sure what you mean when you say AvGas won't work if it comes in contact with ethanol though ........ and I still say that anything certified for aircraft will be fine in your bike as the liability issues with aircraft are far beyond anything else. My SFC tank was repaired with an aircraft fuel tank resin in the early 80's ........ you wouldn't even know it was repaired as there is no visible change (except the crack doesn't leak anymore).

Jim
Click to expand...
What I was trying to say was aircraft fuel tank sealer wouldn’t necessarily be Ethanol proof as aircraft fuel doesn’t contain Ethanol, aircraft fuel is essentialy what we used to call 5 star leaded fuel. We had very successful brands of tank lining resins that worked for years until the advent of ethanol mix fuels- the same is true of Acerbis made nylon fuel tanks ( Ducati, Cagiva ,Guzzi etc) they all worked fine with good old leaded gas but balloon on a corn fed diet.
Sounds like you tank sealant has worked very well but it’s a lot of shagging about for it just to deteriorate later.
You-are of course right that most aircraft spec anything is top notch.
A Submariner once explained to me that Subs were safer than Helicopters, he reckoned there were more Helicopters on the seabed than Submarines in the sky......
 
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