Now I have a 1956 and a 1957-E1962 tank I can get rid of, that I bought on eBay by mistake, thinking they might be correct. First thing I noticed is that my two tanks have a different bracket than the early tank I stupidly sold off. There are two extra ribs in the later-model brackets. Here are two high-res pictures of the brackets side-by-side. If Dave wants to use them in the tech section he is welcome, and I have originals at about twice the resolution.
The later bracket on top has two extra ribs on each side of the center protrusion, compared to the earlier (green) bracket. (Right-click and click on "view image" to see entire image.)
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- K-model-Sportster_oil-tank-brackets_back.jpg (101.69 KiB) Viewed 6715 times
So the 1956 and 1957-1962 tanks I bought were painted by hacks trying to offload stuff on eBay. I refuse to put disguised parts on eBay, so I set about to strip the tanks. Get this-- the 1956 black one turned out to be a chromed tank the seller disguised with black paint. Its one-year-only so maybe its worth something. At least the next buyer will know what he is getting. Please chime in if you think I should not have used Jasco or any other comments about cleaning up old oil tanks. I might bead-blast the brackets, but I fear beads will get in the tank if I get blast media anywhere near the tank. Due to the three-picture limit, I will do a series of posts about my procedure.
Summary:
1) I used Jasco paint stripper to clean the painted-over studs, then sprayed Tri-Flow and waited a day to soak in. Remind me to buy some Kroil. I used a 1/2" impact to rattle off the nuts and the drain plug. There is something about an impact that will loosen nuts better than if you just torque them with a wrench. Nothing stripped. Yeah.
2) Pour Jasco on the tank or bracket and spread around with a small brush. Paint came off immediately. Started to use lacquer thinner to clean, but found just wiping with paper towels worked better. After having Jasco touch my skin, ordered elbow-length gloves from Amazon.
3) Submerged tank in 5-gallon Chem-dip bucket. Used fence wire to pull it out, re-position and re-sink it. Kept in in the Chem-Dip about a day and half. Let it drain pretty well.
4) Put tank in parts solvent, like Safety-Kleen I got at auto parts store. This stuff was as expensive as the Chem-Dip (~$125), what is wrong with this country? Left it sit for another day.
5) Put a couple handfuls of nuts and bolts into the tank, shook around and left in the parts solvent for another hour. Drain the tank, shake out the nuts and bolts. Reach a parts brush inside to try and scrub the bottom of the tank.
6) Wash with dish soap and hot water. Lots of clean water to get all the little flecks of crap out of the tank.
7) Blow off tank with air, then blow hair dryer into tank filler until all the water boils off. If you do this quick, the tank should not rust.
There are some patches of rust inside the tanks, not my doing, but do you guys treat the surface rust, or gosh, try to bead-blast the inside of the tank? Tanks have a couple dents, not bad. In California there was supposedly a guy that had an air-chisel mounted on a bench and all kinds of spoons and shapes so he could take dents out of tanks and there would be no bondo or lead. I wondered if this was a legend. Is there really guys that can take the dents out so we don't need bondo?
I managed to get the 6 rubber grommets I need for my 54 from the two tanks. Even at 6 bucks each, this would cost 36 bucks- I would rather save the old rubber. I have the large flat washers and I wonder, were these parkerized? They are a little rusty, but I don't think they were ever painted. I have the nuts but they don't seem special, one set of three has a little tiny shoulder on one side, boy there are tiny details in those bikes huh?
A big deal is the 1957-1962 tank came with the feed hose, with the compression fittings and nuts all in great shape. Cadmium is great on one nut and rubbed off the other one. I plan to list this hose separate on eBay-- it might be worth more than the tank for all I know. I have to believe this is meant for engines with the 45-degree fitting, its a pretty short hose.
As for the tank I got from JerryR, I don't plan on stripping that, but I will probably run parts solvent through it with the nuts and bolts to loosten up anything on the inside. Any advice on how to prepare a tank for running would be appreciated. I might hit the green bracket with bead blast, before a coat of Rustoleum primer and enamel.
OK, here is the 1957-1962 tank before stripping, I will put the rest of the pictures in the next few posts, and thanks Jerry and Dave and the whole gang here.
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