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[Ted Schefelbein]

I’ve never owned a used bike before last weekend. I bought ‘em all new, before this one:



The bike will get a valve adjustment, plugs, carb sync, valve cover gasket and washers, some rewiring of added electrics (horns) hydraulic flush of everything, and a rebuild of the clutch slave. I figure the brakes and tires are good enough for this season. I’m thinking about cleaning and greasing the fork stem bearings since I’m there, and I need to think about a tank cleaning. The tank has some rust, not bad for a thirty year old bike, but, more than I want there. Electrolysis is pretty intense, I might use steel shot and solvent to work the furry rust down, and just keep an eye on it. I have to think about that.



I really enjoy working on a bike.


Ted

[red]

Ted,

I'd suggest a length of small cheap steel chain as an agitator, instead of steel shot.  Lots easier to get it all out, afterward.

A battery charger, metal bar,  and some mildly doctored water is not what I call intense.  It goes into places that nothing else would.  Try it on some test pieces of rusty metal in a plastic bowl, and see if you agree.  Just a thought.
       
.

[andyoutandabout]

Ted, I did the electrolysis thing last Christmas and it worked really well. There’s plenty of YouTube tutorials. I watched  a handful and was ready to go. A couple of hours, a few flushes, repeat over a few times and that’s it. I replaced the petcock seal and the fuel sender gasket for good measure. Easy.

[Ted Schefelbein]

What did you guys do about the float and sender in the tank?

Ted

[andyoutandabout]

Undid the 4 small bolts and removed it. Made a rubber seal out of bike inner tube to seal both that and the petcock hole during electrolyzing. Having this sender hole made for a great drain when flushing out the gunk.

[Ted Schefelbein]

Thanks for the tip. Because I’m a cave man at heart, I was just going to duct tape them shut. Might give your suggestion a run.

Ted

[red]

Thanks for the tip. Because I’m a cave man at heart, I was just going to duct tape them shut. Might give your suggestion a run.
Ted

Duct tape sounds like a recipe for failure.  I don't think it will hold the weight of water, at least not for more than a few minutes.  I would try the tape with plain water, first.  A cover plate, bolted in place, should do the job, though.
.

[Ted Schefelbein]

Busy night:



Built my anode, silver soldered a 10 gauge wire lead into my cold rolled anode, and glued split hose on each end with some RTV to keep it off the metal. Got the petcock and fuel sender out and built a cover plate for the sender hole. I’ll replace the petcock with new, but, the sender seems to be unavailable. Would be nice to replace it, but, it does work.
Where do you get a new gasket for the fuel sender?
Thanks.

Ted

[Ted Schefelbein]

Found it! RPM to the rescue.

Ted

[Ted Schefelbein]

Here is my block off plate I built from the bottom of a coffee can. I put a smear of RTV around it to seal it



I reinstalled the petcock, and will replace it with new when this is over.

I can report that old fashioned toilet chain, which, I thought would be an ideal inside of tank scraping substrate, gets pretty firmly stuck in the side panels of an FJ tank. I rattled two kinds of chain around, and was rewarded with some rusty dust I blew out of the tank with compressed air. I think disturbing the surface of the rust is supposed to allow the electrolyte a head start on the cleaning. I have used this method with cast iron car and tractor parts on restorations I have undertaken, previously. Never on sheet metal.

I’ll give it a few hours to cure, then I will cook it. Hope to be done with this tonight.

Here is a photo of my last restoration project:



This ain’t my first rodeo.

Best,
Ted

[RPM - Robert]

Ted, we started a tank cleaning thread over the summer using electrolysis. We were not able to get the tank completed before winter set in and the temps dropped making the paint stripper useless.

There is still a significant amount of sealer that was polled into the sides of the take we are struggling to get out. We do not want to leave that because there is most likely rust under it and it will cause more problems down the road. This project will be back on the stove once the weather gets warmer and the paint stripper will work.

http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=18811.0

[Ted Schefelbein]

I’m not using paint stripper! Wash soda. I’ve heard of using lye, but, no need for that, here.

Just doing the INSIDE of this one.

Ted

[racerrad8]

Just doing the INSIDE of this one.

Ted

We are not stripping the outside of this one either. The stripper was required on this one to get the bad kreem coating out so a solid base can be established before sealing.

Randy - RPM

[Pat Conlon]

I have heard that the electrolysis works best over a span of several days, depending on how bad the rust.

[andyoutandabout]

To give some idea how much mine needed it; I remember filling up and looking down into the tank and it was like one of those snowstorm globes except with rust flakes. This demonstrated how good the inline filter is, since I still had to ride home and not so much got into the carbs.
I ended up running the electrolyzing over a couple of days for about 6 or 7 hours each time. It was quite amazing how much rust stuck itself to the anode. The only thing I found myself doing that wasn’t mentioned in the online video array, was flattening the battery with a bulb as once it was fully charged, the charger shutdown the circuit and the process stopped.