leaking fuel tank epoxy patch install tip.

[wayne petty]

yea i know.. epoxy does not work... but there is a way to do it ...

after cleaning the exterior of the area to be patched.  sand paper, scotch bright. what ever it takes to get it clean. no power tools ok...


aluminum foil tape is available at most home centers and hardware stores...

this tape is real aluminum... not duct tape. although that might also work.


lay two strips side by side stickey side up and overlap one onto the other to make a wide piece of tape.

mix the epoxy and spread it onto the middle of the stickey side of the tape and install it...  the tape keeps the epoxy from dripping down and out of place... be sure to press the bottom of the patch to force some of the epoxy though any holes. smoothing as you go. then press the tape onto the cleaned area surrounding the epoxy... and it done...

no leaks , no drips, no errors.... oh yea.. i usually use 5 minute titianium filled epoxy. or at least it says that on the lable.


and for the humor.. decades ago. i had to finish a 69 el camino customers project late one night.  the last part of the job was to fix the leaking fuel near the tank...    oops.. shulda looked first..  where the filler neck goes into the side of the tank there are two metal fatigue cracks. this is do to the spring loaded bellows on califorinia gas nozzles.  so i pull the tank.. wash it out with soap and water.. several times..  run an air hose into it for while with the sending unit removed. i then place it out in the middle of the hand car wash parking area.. ( i've seen tanks blow up from welding)  i took my welding torch , layed down on the pavement and moved the tip of the flame into the filler neck.. nothing... then into the sending unit opening....WWWWOOOOOOOIIISSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH..

it was really loud.. sounded like a huge elephant trumpeting... as soon as it happend ( the tank was huge , but in one piece) i was laughing so hard my ribs were cramping.. i was rolling around on the parking lot holding my chest.. the gas station crew ran over to see how much damage i had caused to myself...they started kicking me trying to get me to stop laughing...

   the next day a friend who lived 5 blocks away came by to ask if i had hurd anything last night..  he said it was the strangest sound he had ever hurd. he thought it was funny once i told him i was only me...


if i had left the air hose or a vacuum cleaner blowing IN. the concentration of fumes would have stayed below the explosive level.

[kiwipaul]

I have a mate that done that a week or so but the tank went trough the side of the shed. Is there not some thing that you can put in the water when you are washing it that will remove the furmes from the tank

[enjenjo]

Years ago, i was working for a construction company as a mechanic. I was gas welding an engine shroud, and the foreman asked me to weld a hole in a garden sprayer we used for spraying concrete curing compound.
I told him to wash it out, and I would weld it. A few minutes later he returned and set the tank on the bench. When I got done with what I was doing, I found the hole, pointed the torch at it, and the sprayer tank shot across the room and out the door. I walked over and picked it up, smelled it, he had washed it out with gasoline! Needless to say, he got a chewing out from me. What was he thinking!!

[t-vicky]

If you hook a hose from a tailpipe on another car to the gas tank & let it run for a few minutes then you can weld on it. (if it docent blow your torch out)

[chimp koose]

why not just fill the tank up with water and then weld it ,no air,no fire.

[chimp koose]

I just remembered doing a "field repair" on a gas tank with a bar of soap. rub it hard over the leak and it fills the crack and stops the leak. not my idea of a permanent repair but it will get you down the road.

[Okiedokie]

When I first got my 53 F100 back together and put gas in the tank I found out that the tank had a hole in it that I was unaware of. It didn't leak prior to disassembly, but after cleaning and painting it did. I had one of those "tubes" of epoxy you see at auto part stores, you pull a bit out, kneed it together, and apply. I think that I did sand off the paint at the spot, but I stuck it on there. No leak since and that was maybe 6 years ago. Keep thinking it will start leaking and I will buy a new tank. Not yet. Joe