Tank repair

[Zithlord]

I removed the tank and found a description on Pelican how to remove undercoating. This is the result after 1 hour.

I found a small hole due to rust. I hope I can weld it or have a radiator shop fix this? Under the tank it looked very good, just a little bit of surface rust near the front bracket that hold the tank. Inside it clean shiny steel!

My goal is to bring it back to original apperance. Coat with POR-15, primer and grey SKS undercoating.

John

[MdJohn]

I went through the same process. Started with the heat gun and scrapper, but switched to an angle grinder with a knotted wire wheel. Did a great job taking off the under coating and surface rust. I've seen gas tank restorations that started out looking like swiss cheese, so I would hope my ancestor's relatives (Mother's side, Dad's Swedish) back in the old country would be able to fix up your tank. Good luck, and keep posting pictures on your progress.

[sithot]

I like chemical strippers. A bit nasty and can be messy but much less work. You still get to scrape a little but it's less intense.

Tom

[Zithlord]

Tank area cleaned, in the pics you can see some rust in the front pan. Should I weld in a new pan and support "beam" or just weld the small holes and spray tectyl in the cavity between the pan and the "beam" underneath the pan? How do you experts think it looks? I suspect there are som rust in the cavity but the underside looks fine. I found one hole from the underside about 1 centimeter going into the cavity under one of the suspension arms where it is bolts to the underside of the pan. The points where the bolts go in look and feel solid. I have the parts needed(pan and "beam") I suspect leakin battery acid to have caused this, because there is very little rust on the rest of the car.

John

[Zithlord]

More pics. Interior is out so no ponit in showing pics until I am finished with it.

[911scfanatic]

My lateral gas tank support looked about the same as yours--maybe a little better. I cut it out and ended up finding all sorts of rot underneath. Ultimately, I had the front pan replaced as well. Good luck.

[911scfanatic]

Here's the surprise I found.

[Zithlord]

Thanks for posting the pics Bill. Thats exactly what I am afraid to find when I remove the tank support. Did you drill out the welds or just use the air chissel? I have desided to stop the rust by spraying tectyl in the cavities and POR-15 on the outside, then I will do the major work of replacing the support and pan next winter.

My tank is delivered to a guy who will sandblast, weld the small hole and acid boil the inside, they I will return it to original finish.

I have found one other spot on the car with rust, after examening every part of the car, and that is the bottom of one of the backseat buckets, I will have to weld in a plate, but where hoping to get hold of a replacement, so that I wont have to make something up myselves with sheet metal.

John

[Bert]

Hi John,

Thanks again for the color brochures.

How did you get the tank area clean? What chemical did you use?

See the attached photos.

I like your tangerine 911T, but I'm partial to this color.

[Zithlord]

Bert; I used first white spirit and then water and soap. After that I used paint thinner to get the reminents of some black goo that some PO had put along the edge where the tank rests. The thinner removes all kinds of crap, but do not ruin the old paint(but will ruin 1K and fresh paint) If you see at the right side the paint has been misscoloured by either battery acid or brake fluid.


John