POR-15 Tank Sealer

Sunday I woke up and started early on finishing the tank. I ran the hairdryer in the tank for a little bit to make sure the tank was "bone dry" as the instruction say it should be. The sealer hardens best in a temperature of 72 degrees Fahrenheit, so I used a small space heater to heat my garage up to about 70ish as it was about 46 degrees out.

After breakfast I removed the hairdryer, sealed up the tank (just duct tape this time), and started mixing the POR-15 tank sealer.

Mixing tank sealer.

Alot of users had commented that this stuff does not come off your skin easily, so I took extra precautions to wear a long sleeve shirt and double layer gloves. I also wore a breathing filter/respirator mask; the fumes are very nasty and I did not want to have the door open the whole time.

After mixing, I poured the sealer through a funnel into the tank. There really didn't seam like too much sealant in there and at first I thought I was going to run out. After sealing the filler hole, I shook the tank slowly to disperse the sealant throughout. I would set the tank in random positions on my workbench so that the sealant could slowly creep over the inner surface of the tank and coat any bare surfaces. After about 30 minutes or so of doing this, I peaked in and checked everything out. The tank looked beautiful, entirely sealed.

Coated inside

Finally, I opened up the holes and let the remaining sealant drip out. There was very little left, about 10 cc's of fluid. It is now Friday and I have let the tank sit upside down in the garage. The solvent smell has left, so I am assuming the tank is cured. I do not have a battery for the bike yet, so I see no reason for me to fill it with gas yet.

The entire process wasn't hard to do, it was quite time consuming though; definitely a weekend project. If I had to make any changes, I wish I would have had more Metal Ready solution. About twice what I had used would have been nice. Also, some sort of metal aggregate would be a nice addition for mechanical rust removal (like a chain or some ball bearings). That is something I did not do, which I would definitely do in the future.

POR-15 Metal Ready Application

I ended up going to bed last night earlier than expected and never got around to draining the tank. I figured that nothing bad could come from leaving the solution in there overnight and nothing did. After I got home from work I drained the tank and flushed it with water many times.

I evacuated the remaining water, about 10 fl ounces, with my favorite turkey baster/clear tubing combo. It left very little water in there. Next I dumped in the metal ready solution, which is alkaline. It will clean the remaining rust and etch the surface of the tank for the POR-15 coating.

A number of south park episodes and tank turns later, I emptied the tank into a bucket so I can filter and reuse the solution for another project. I boiled 4 or 5 large pots full of water and dumped them each into the tank: dump, shake, drain, dump, shake, drain...

My dump station

I finished clearing the solution and used my turkey baster combo to evacuate the remaining 3 fl ounces of water. The tank looks much cleaner now, there was a significant amount of rust removed. I suppose the rest will be coated with the coating I set in there tomorrow.

Before Metal Ready

After Metal Ready.

Currently, I am drying out the tank with a hair dryer and an air mattress pump. I use the hair dryer for about a half hour and then switch off to the air mattress pump and then I switch back. I want to set the coating tonight, but the tank must be absolutely dry. We will see the progress I make in drying the tank out.

Dryer setup

POR-15 Tank Cleaning

After a hiatus for the past few weeks, I finally had a whole weekend blocked out where I would be able to get some stuff done to the bike. The big process to take is the tank cleaning/etching/coating. Since the tank was a little rusty inside, I had purchased the POR-15 motorcycle tank renewal kit. In the kit comes a marine clean solution, an slightly acidic etching solution, and the famous POR-15 coating kit (along with fibrous patching in case there are pin holes).

POR-15 kit

The first thing I did was remove the tank, the fuel sensor unit, gas cap, and emblems. Now that the tank was naked I had no reservations with taking a garden hose to the thing and cleaning the gunk out from the inside. Not too much "gunk" came out, more like flakes of rust.

My tank drain site.

Next I sealed the fuel filler with a 1.5 inch expansion test stopper. The fuel sending hole was too small for the test stopper, so I slipped a few latex gloves over a foam cone and duct taped it in there. I took a small cork, covered it in a latex glove and duct taped that inside of the fuel exit.

My makeshift plugs

Now I poured hot water into the tank with the marine clean in roughly a 5:1 ratio. POR-15 suggests 5:1 as a best ratio for most applications. I found this suitable since the tank is quite large, this ratio would cover at least 1/3 of the tank at a time.

Tank on its side

I heard some popping and fizzing in the tank when I checked it 30 minutes later. I feared that the solution had eaten through the latex and was now making a mess of styrofoam in my tank. I opened the test plug to peer inside...

Inside the tank

The tank still looks rusty, but I am not surprised, this process was mainly to remove varnish and gunk fuel, which I believe mine was not plagued excessively. Before I go to bed I will drain and rinse tank and let it sit over night to dry. I have to work in the morning, but when I get back I will begin etching.

And of course, I am always being safe wearing my PPE. I learned something in Chem Lab.

PPE!