I had a fun weekend working on the Morris Traveller's gas tank, and offer
the following as it may pertain to Spridgets as well.
42 years of rust and goo were too much for the conventional cleaning
solutions, as some of the deposits were half an inch thick and stalagtites
of rust hung down from the top of the tank. After many hours of shaking
with nuts/bolts/chain/whips and various nasty caustic acids and bases, there
was still enough crap falling from the top of the tank to plug up the fuel
intake after a trip around the block.
The final solution, I hope, was to cut three access flaps in the top of the
tank. This allowed me to scrape and scrub every square inch of the tank
interior and remove/clean/refit the fine intake screen basket. One final
etching of the metal and I carefully bent the flaps back into position and
headed off to the local muffler shop to get the flaps wire-welded back down.
This was extreme, but now I KNOW the tank is clean and will not strand my
wife downtown again with a plugged up tank intake. As much as she has come
to love the Traveller, she hates to have car trouble and has not yet learned
to appreciate this nuance of LBC ownership.
Any recommendations for a tank coating, or just keep it full, keep out the
rain, and drive the heck out of it? I'm worried that any coating will plug
up the very fine mesh nylon filter basket in the Morris tank, though I
suppose I could slosh the coating around and then blow compressed air
through the pick-up line to clear the screen before the tank coating dries.
I also wonder how the commercial coatings will bear up to MTBE and ethanol.
Some are formulated for ethanol, but I worry about MTBE and envision the
coating sloughing off and putting me right back where I was this Saturday
with a badly plugged up fuel intake buried in the tank.
Regards,
Glen Byrns
'59 bugeye
'59 Morris Traveller (Winifred)
"I'd like to die in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in terror
like his passengers."
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