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Just finished cleaning and lining my VT500C tank. I found three old plastic intake tubes inside the tank, not including the one I had to forcibly remove with pliers from the tank nipple when I took off the petcock. Apparently the inside of tank's petcock nipple had rusted and seized on the intake tubes which came off when previous owners, myself included, removed the petcock. I found it necessary to ream the rust out the inside of the nipple to install the new intake tube. If you have the same problem I would recommend you do this before lining the tank. I did not do this and had to take extra precautions to not leave filings inside the newly lined tank. Also, if you have any temporary leak repairs (I had one bondo patch leak repair) do it before you start the whole cleaning process. The system I used was POR 15 and it will seal up most small leaks and there are instructions on how to make bigger repairs in the kit. The kit includes three parts: an industrial degreaser, a primer/rust remover and the liner for about $50.
This is the second tank lining I have done. The first was a leaky tank for a 72 CL100, which took 4 hours start to finish. Set aside takes 4-6 hours to do it right. Especially important and tedious is getting the inside of the tank COMPLETELY dry. I found it impossible to get all liquids out of the VT500C tank because of the lip inside the fill opening. I used a Harbor Freight liquid transfer hand pump to get the last quarter cup of water out. Then I used a heat gun to heat the tank (on the underside only to prevent damage to the paint) to help evaporate the remaining moisture and followed with pressurized air to blast out the moist air. When wisps of moisture no longer condensed on my chrome air gun nozzle as I blasted the air through the fill opening I was pretty sure it was dry, and then I repeated the cycle of heating and blowing out the moist air several more times just to be sure. Just this final drying process took two hours.
Just a Tip for you if you decide to line a tank: Collect some old rust items that you might want to coat. The leftover lining is great stuff! I lined an old rust wheel barrow without any prep and it is still in good condition with the leftovers from my first tank job and several rusty tools this time, otherwise they tell you to collect the leftover liner from the tank in the can it came in, run water over the top and let it set up. That is such a waste of great product. The finish is hard and durable and is impervious to most solvents and leaves a nice shiny silver finish.
This is the second tank lining I have done. The first was a leaky tank for a 72 CL100, which took 4 hours start to finish. Set aside takes 4-6 hours to do it right. Especially important and tedious is getting the inside of the tank COMPLETELY dry. I found it impossible to get all liquids out of the VT500C tank because of the lip inside the fill opening. I used a Harbor Freight liquid transfer hand pump to get the last quarter cup of water out. Then I used a heat gun to heat the tank (on the underside only to prevent damage to the paint) to help evaporate the remaining moisture and followed with pressurized air to blast out the moist air. When wisps of moisture no longer condensed on my chrome air gun nozzle as I blasted the air through the fill opening I was pretty sure it was dry, and then I repeated the cycle of heating and blowing out the moist air several more times just to be sure. Just this final drying process took two hours.
Just a Tip for you if you decide to line a tank: Collect some old rust items that you might want to coat. The leftover lining is great stuff! I lined an old rust wheel barrow without any prep and it is still in good condition with the leftovers from my first tank job and several rusty tools this time, otherwise they tell you to collect the leftover liner from the tank in the can it came in, run water over the top and let it set up. That is such a waste of great product. The finish is hard and durable and is impervious to most solvents and leaves a nice shiny silver finish.
