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Author Topic: Fuel Tank: Rust Removal ==> electrolysis  (Read 190 times)

patentgeek

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Fuel Tank: Rust Removal ==> electrolysis
« on: November 26, 2017, 11:18:46 pm »
The original fuel tank on my 1970 NF was rusted beyond recovery, but I managed to source a replacement tank on eBay Germany.  The replacement tank had some surface rust (which was disclosed by the seller) but was structurally sound.

I've cleaned rusty tanks using mechanical (i.e., tumbling with abrasive material inside the tank) and chemical (e.g., phosphoric acid, vinegar, etc.) means.  But I had never experimented with electrolysis, which a friend has used to remove rust from vintage automobile fuel tanks.  So I decided to give that a try.  There are a lot of on-line articles describing how to do this, so I won't go into the details here.  I used tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) as the electrolytic solution and a section of rebar as the anode.  I used small sections of tubing to prevent the rebar from contacting the tank.  Voltage was supplied by a 12-volt car battery attached to a battery charger.

Results seem good!  The tank was consuming about 4 amps last night with lots of bubbling at the filler opening.  I left it overnight, and this morning there were a lot of rust particulates around the filler opening (rust vomit).  I drained the TSP solution to inspect the interior of the tank, and in visible areas only trace amounts of surface rust remained. I rinsed the tank a few times and washed out a lot of rust flakes.  Then I poured the TSP solution back into the tank and re-started the process.  Current consumption was down to about 0.6 amps and the bubbling was less frothy.  I'll probably let it run until current consumption drops to near zero.





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randall

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Re: Fuel Tank: Rust Removal ==> electrolysis
« Reply #1 on: November 27, 2017, 09:06:24 am »

banquo

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Re: Fuel Tank: Rust Removal ==> electrolysis
« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2017, 04:12:27 pm »
Sounds good PG.

I've always fancied trying the molasses method, just because it sounds so unlikely... 8)

This article is quite useful for the electrolytic method. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/rust.htm