Preparing a new fuel tank for '80 FJ40

[Daedna]

Hello,

I am in the process of installing a new fuel tank in my 1980 FJ40 and I am debating what steps I should take to prep the tank prior to installation. The tank only cost $225 and so I was a little hesitant to dump another $200 in it to make it bulletproof. The tank currently doesn't have any coatings on it and it appears to be made of galvanized steel with some tacky lubricant/preservative in some areas (maybe left over from stamping). Anyway, here were my ideas:

Linex the outside
powercoat the outside
rattle can paint the outside
rattle can undercoat the outside
Use a tank liner like "Red Kote" on the inside

Does anybody have any suggestions? If these tanks will last 10+ years without do anything to them, then I would rather not waste the time and money.


Thanks! Dave

 

[meatwagon]

I am currently replacing the tank on my 79 as well. The sticky stuff is forming lube from when they did the stamping. It will clean off with some grease and wax cleaner or mineral spirits. They call the steel "terne" steel but I think it is really aluminized. Which has some rust protection but not fabulous. I cleaned mine, primered it, good coat of spray can enamel, and then am going to put bed liner on the bottom for bumps and scrapes. I think that will do it for me.
Are you using the old fuel pickup-suction line?

 

[Daedna]

I am currently replacing the tank on my 79 as well. The sticky stuff is forming lube from when they did the stamping. It will clean off with some grease and wax cleaner or mineral spirits. They call the steel "terne" steel but I think it is really aluminized. Which has some rust protection but not fabulous. I cleaned mine, primered it, good coat of spray can enamel, and then am going to put bed liner on the bottom for bumps and scrapes. I think that will do it for me.
Are you using the old fuel pickup-suction line?

I ended up doing mine last weekend. What I did was to clean inside and out with paint thinner, apply bedliner top and bottom directly on the tank, and coat with Red Kote inside. For the down spout I had to used a coat hanger to get all the dried gas and rust out, then bead blasted it, then coated the outside with redcoat because it had rust holes in it. Used a new fuel float but have not got it wired up yet.

The bed liner scratched off pretty easy when installing it. I tried to use self etching primer prior to applying the bedliner but the bedliner dissolved the primer on contact. I used Rustoleum "truck bed coating" that you wipe on and mine was a few years old.

The tank works good so far (no clogged fuel filter from the Red Kote) and the down spout sealed (I vacuum and pressure tested after sealing it). If you used Red Kote, 1 quart is more than enough....for some reason they say 1 quart is only good for up to 12 gallons.
I plan to replace the body tub in a year or two so I can touch up the tank then.

Thanks for the feedback