We are going to try to get the tank taken care of this weekend. Before we put it back in, I wanted to prep/seal/paint the seat pan, floor, lower cab walls behind the tank, etc. We are hoping to just get the truck running and driving and a little more presentable than it is now. Having said that, I don't want to do something that is going to cause us (or the next owner) a lot of headaches down the road (trying to undo something that we had done). So, what is the best way to prep the metal? Wire wheel on a grinder? I can see that being effective under the seat but would seem to harsh on the cab walls. What about in the nooks and crannies? Once stripped, do I just brush on some sort of sealer like KBS, POR-15? Can I just leave it like that or do I then need to paint over the sealer? Thanks in advance and sorry for the noob questions.
With either KBS or POR15 it is not necessary to clean to bare metal, in fact "POR" stands for "paint over rust". I prefer KBS as it is much friendlier to top coating with other paint. Just get off the loose flaky stuff and of course any dirt/grease/oil off the surface and paint away---preferably with a brush as it will flow out glass smooth overnight.
Thank you. I was under the impression that you still needed to get down to as much bare metal as possible. I looked into the KBS a little more this morning and I think that is the way we will go. Just going to order their tank kit as well.
Well, step 1 of the KBS fuel tank restoration kit didn't go so well. We watched one of the videos and they indicated to only use 1/2 of the mixture and save the second half for a second treatment. After pouring in 1 qt hot water and 1 qt cleaner, the liquid seemed to almost solidify in the tank. We couldn't hear/feel the liquid moving around after the first few shakes. Added the additional qt/qt mixture and it didn't seem to get any better. We added several gallons of water to get things moving around and poured it out. Pretty bad. Took a while to get the water to drain clean. I guess things were worse off in there than expected. We are going to buy some phosphoric acid today and treat it again before we go on to step two.
Fuel Tank Cleaning Be sure to cut the Phosphoric Acid by three ! . Get a 3 # bag of cheap stamped steel flat washers , the kind with sharp edges on one side , maybe 3/8" size , mix three gallons of water to each gallon of acid then pour it in and add the washers , cork up the openings and begin shaking the beejeebers out of the tank , shake until your arms are sore and falling off then shake it some more , the washers (some use pea gravel or BB's) will speed things up greatly and scrape through the old tar like gas residue and rust . This takes HOURS , when you're done , drain the mixture into jugs via a big funnel lined with clean felt then re use the filtered solution to do it again , repeat until it drains out sans crud then use one last gallon of fresh acid / water mix to finish cleaning it , save the liquid for many future uses , valve covers , rocker boxes and so on , things that are delicate or internal engine parts you must not ever bead blast .
