tank lining

[jimborbm65]

Is there an article that will explain simply how to reline my petrol tank here in Manchester England.
I add where I live because the chemicals used seem to be restricted here or different to the ones you
seem to mention in other parts of this planet .
The tank, on my 1979 r65, has what seems to be a coating of red paint inside and its crumbling off
blocking the petrol tap and filter . I read it may because of the new petrol additives , it certainly
does not smell like the petrol of yesteryear to me , then again after 55 years of smelling .......
So I come to conclusion that I will need to scratch off the paint INSIDE the tank and use something
to coat it............but how ?

Thanks for all advise JIM

[Major Softie]

I don't know how the restrictions of your area may limit you, but there's a few ways to deal with this.

If you could use a new paint job on the tank, then you can take it to a radiator shop and they will "boil it out" (that's the American phrase, they may call it something else there) and can also reline it for you. Here we have a lining product called "POR-15" which can be purchased in a kit that contains a chemical stripper and prep for the inside of the tank. You can put the tank into a dryer and pack pillows around it and run the dryer (on "air," no heat) with a bunch of nuts and screws inside the tank an it will strip off all the loose stuff. RedKote can be chemically stripped with MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone, or butanone). It can also be stripped with acetone. These may be a solvents no longer available to you there, but a radiator shop might still be able to use it - it might just be restricted to special shops and not available to the public. I do not believe the BMW lining is "RedKote" brand, but it is a very similar product.

[dwire]

Hello JIM. the product I have used to coat a tank is POR-15 and is made just for that purpose. Google it as such, "POR-15 gas tank sealer" You'd wnat to get entire treatment kit; for which I can say I am not highly impressed with the materials (chemicals) they provide to remove your old red coating - and part of that I suppose is that BMW knew what they were doing both in the prep process and selecting a coating - meaning the stuff that IS NOT FALLING OFF is dang hard to get to come off with any method. The best I was able to do was use a large number of drywall screws thrown into the tank sealed up with their treatment and run for maybe 10-20 hours in a tumbler (like and old dryer.) Afterward, there was STILL some coating left in the tank. I moved up to more powerful stuff which did better, but in the end, the vast majority of what I was able to remove was all the loose stuff; the coating that was well adhered; well frankly was going nowhere.

Now I was told, and indeed the instructions that comes with the cleaner, prep, and paint and such concurred, that if you did not remove all the paint, even if it was still baked on and adhered properly, this was a recipe for disaster and the new coating would not properly adhere to anything but metal. Since I was at the point that I would need to bake all the paint off the tank inside and out and then cut it open to accomplish what the instructions noted, I threw caution to the wind and ignored there was still some paint that had lasted 40 years and would not come off with 30 hours or so of tumbling with sharp drywall screws inside. So I proceeded with the final repaint coating after all was re-cleaned and I was to that final step in the process.

I can report thereafter, no leaks and no flakes of anything stuck to the screens. I did not have a flexible bore scope to put down in the tank to really inspect it, but did notice that regardless of my efforts to get all of the coating material out when it came time to dump it, there appeared to be a few places visible that the coating "sort-of" puddled when it dried; not something I was pleased with as I would think something like that, which would amount to a "run or drip" in the painting world might be apt to fail, but to date no leaks in the tank and no red (or now silver) paint coming out.

I, like you read and read and read and never really found a definitive article anywhere on the process; things like the drywall screws, nuts and other techniques merely to CLEAN the tank I've seen posted here and there, but I would not know where to turn you for an entire article. Essentially, if you pick up the POR-15 full gasoline tank re conditioning kit made for M/C's it comes with instructions, do's and don'ts and the Internet can help fill in the blanks for you. Personally 99% of my labor was in trying to get the "bad" (which ended up not being so bad after all) red coating out -prior to any of the other steps to complete the process. I also stepped up to some super powerful not recommended chemicals that did no better than what was provided in their kit really, which at that time seemed rather week to me. I think the largest issue is that the red coating is, darn tough stuff, was baked in and finally in the era of my tank was likely made of chemicals and such far superior to what is available today - and what does not readily come out, wants to do its job and STAY PUT!

Good luck and I hope this is of any help. I would be surprised if the POR-15 full tank treatment kits were not available in your country, unless the company just decided it was too big of a deal for too small of a return, etc. as the chemicals that came in my kit were, well "not "scary" in least" - at least that was my opinion of them. Naturally, they tall you to wear full chem gloves and eye protection - and work in a ventilated area, but as I said, the chemicals sure did not seem nearly as nasty as a large number of things I could pull off of the local hardware store's shelf on many of the aisles...

[dwire]

I don't know how the restrictions of your area may limit you, but there's a few ways to deal with this.

If you could use a new paint job on the tank, then you can take it to a radiator shop and they will "boil it out" (that's the American phrase, they may call it something else there) and can also reline it for you. Here we have a lining product called "POR-15" which can be purchased in a kit that contains a chemical stripper and prep for the inside of the tank. You can put the tank into a dryer and pack pillows around it and run the dryer (on "air," no heat) with a bunch of nuts and screws inside the tank an it will strip off all the loose stuff. RedKote can be chemically stripped with MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone, or butanone). It can also be stripped with acetone. These may be a solvents no longer available to you there, but a radiator shop might still be able to use it - it might just be restricted to special shops and not available to the public. I do not believe the BMW lining is "RedKote" brand, but it is a very similar product.

MS - I must have had special liner in my '71 as MEK, nor Acetone touched the OEM baked on stuff that did not want to come out - it stayed put! I'm not disputing your comment, just lamenting that I was shocked after blowing about a half gallon of each at separate intervals full of sharp drywall deck screws and nuts that after washing the tank back out in between, that neither chemical did squat for the coating that was refusing to come out. - I might add, both chemicals likely guaranteed though to strip any and all paint from the outside of one's tank, so be forewarned in that regard...

That was the point I gave up and rinsed prepped and re-coated; especially since I was "only" about a week into just trying to get ALL the red coating out. I'll get back to everyone (hopefully NEVER) if it fails due to what red coating would not come out in the end.

[Major Softie]

Hey, it LOOKS like RedKote, but that doesn't mean it will come off with the same solvents.

Are you sure your coating was the stock coating? There are some epoxy liners out there, and pretty much nothing will touch them. I don't even think the radiator shop boil-out will affect them.

[chasbmw]

If you do go down the recoat route, just make sure that the company will Gtee that the coating will withstand at least 10% ethanol in your petrol. Some of the coatings done in the last 15 years in the UK have dissolved now we have ethanol in our fuels, and you might reasonably expect a 10 proportion, especially when on the continent.

[melville]

Household vinegar took my red stock lining right off. Think it was $2/gallon for 6 gallons. Rinse with water, dry it out, and apply the new coating of your choice.

[Kurt in S.A.]

I used a kit for spot coating on my R25/2 from Caswell Plating...worked well.

Kurt in S.A.

[dwire]

Hey, it LOOKS like RedKote, but that doesn't mean it will come off with the same solvents.

Are you sure your coating was the stock coating? There are some epoxy liners out there, and pretty much nothing will touch them. I don't even think the radiator shop boil-out will affect them.

Hi Major, I think your comment was aimed at me. I have no idea exactly what it (the original coating) was (is) - it surely looked factory and once I was started, I realized it really likely did not need done. My ex's was ALL FLAKING OFF and rusted to H*** so, I assumed a bike made only a month or so apart, could/should likely be in the same condition as hers was - only "where I could not see it." Hers, just on the frame tube hump it was obvious the coating was coming off in flakes and rusting. One of the petcock's screens was filled and plugged with it and the other petcock was missing most if its screen, that carb was just consuming it and getting plugged non-stop.

I can only say, I've no clue what truly was put in there, though believe it still to be the factory coating, but I do not think one could approach anything even half that tough without burning EVERYTHING off and out of the tank, cutting it open and epoxy coating it. In retrospect, what I did was a lesson in futility and a great deal of other things - not all tanks were created or treated equally thereafter...

I thought MEK, Acetone and a handful of even more toxic stuff I had laying about from industry, surely would remove the coating. Frankly, I firmly believe the drywall and deck screws along with nuts and such more likely took more coating out simply by wear than anything else.So anymore, my largest concern is the comments made by POR-15 about how their product only adhered properly to bare metal as surely plenty still had coating on it. --> Just chalk it up as another one of my learning lesson screw-ups.

[She'llbe]

I gave my Heinrich tank to a fella that cleaned it out and put an epoxy coating in. No problems in 4 years, hope to get 36 more out of it.