Wednesday 24 June 2015

44 - Tank repairs

 This is one of the last big jobs to tackle. The problem I faced was that before I could get the tank painted I needed to do something about the interior. Twenty odd years ago I had put a Petseal tank sealer solution into it, but this had split and cracked. I didn't think pouring in more on top of it would be satisfactory and there was no way to completely remove the old stuff because of the limited access.

 So I had no real choice but to cut it open. Before I did so I found a local boat repair man who specialises in fibreglass and gelcoat repairs. He's going to glass it back together for me and we'll find the best product for recoating the interior. 

 It was a dusty job but not too difficult to open it up. I cut in to it with a thin disc about half an inch from the edge then went round the curved tunnel with a hacksaw blade. Once open the old petseal came off in big pieces, only here and there was it well attached. 








5 comments:

  1. it would be good to know the best anti ethanol stuff
    steve kent uk

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  2. That looks nasty, would a petrol stabiliser prevent the ethanol issues or does it just stop the petrol from 'going off' ?

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  3. Not sure Richard, problem with the high ethanol content in modern unleaded fuel is that it softens the resin in the fibre glass matrix. Over time it would ruin the tank. I thinking of using Caswell this time round. I've a good opportuinty to prepared the interior making sure its all clean and well keyed.

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  4. I might need to look at Caswell myself, my tanks are steel but they can still be affected.

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  5. i am unable to download the model 80 parts manual on this site , can anyone help please ???? , thanks

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