Old Lacquered gas

[rider5]

Have been working on a 305 tank that had been left for 25 years with gas in it. It had alot of rust inside and I gave it 2 doses of naval jelly / water mix, about 24 hours each time.

That took care of alot of the rust but I still had a thick layer of lacquered gas along the bottom of each side. A buddy suggested using acetone (readily available at any hardware store). Used about 1/2 quart & let it do it's magic for about an hour. Then gave it a gas rinse, and another repeat soaking with naval jelly.

The acetone got rid of about 90% of the crud, and the repeat naval jelly treatment cleaned up what had been coated over. The end result looks pretty good. Now it's coated with WD40 inside until I address my petcock issues.

* CAUTION * If you're gonna use acetone in this way be VERY careful with it. It will destroy any painted surface (lucky for me I was forwarned, have never used acetone before).

Just wanted to share this tip. Hope it helps.

[Tango911]

i use metal rescue.

fyi i have an extra petcock rebuild kit if you are interested. 20.00

[rider5]

Thanks for the tip, Tango. I'll try that on my tank too (still got some crud & rust in it).
And I've already got a petcock rebuild kit comin with some other goodies.

Question on the petcock: How does the bottom half come off from the top? I need to rebuild it, but also replace the broken lever. I have both the shop manual & parts manual but not really helpful with this. Seems like the center piece with 2 fittings is probably threaded maybe?

Will keep researching this (before I mangle something).

[rider5]

Got the petcock piece figured out. Once I scraped all the crud out I found where there is a small tab to pry up the metal disk (with propellor-type fins attached). Then I could pry up the rubber stopper fitting inside. After some clean-up here & there she's ready for the replacement pieces in the kit.