Removing Sending Unit

The fuel level sending unit is held in by this ring. A simple counter-clockwise twist, aligning the cutouts, and the ring is removed, along with the sending unit.

Removal

Removing the ring.

Sending Unit Withdrawal

Here is the corroded sending unit coming out of the tank.

Sending Unit

This is what the sending unit looks like. A simple barrel-style float monitors the level of the fuel, and is attached to a box which, no doubt, houses a rheostat that tells the gauge how high the float is in the tank.

Rubber Seal

Under the sending unit is a round, rubber seal to prevent fuel leaks.

Tape Seal

In order to get the sending unit hole sealed up, I used duct tape to cover the rubber seal completely, trimmed the excess, then replaced the seal and tightened the ring.

Fuel Line Seal

To prevent small lines from becoming clogged with the sealer, I ran electrical wire down the lines and duct taped the ends up. For the large fuel line, I used 8 or 10 gauge stereo wire.

Taped

Here is a fuel line, with the end taped over.

Marine Cleaning

Extensive washing with 50/50 hot water and Marine Clean cleans out the varnish and crud that has collected in the tanks over a period of 20 or so years... Several hours were spent shaking the tanks up, setting them for some time on one side after another, draining them, and doing it all again until the solution came out clean.

Metal Ready

Metal Ready is poured into the tanks un-diluted. This will etch the surface of the insides, as well as treat any rust that may be inside the tanks (in my case, there was some rust that I could see near the seams).

Turning

As with the Marine Clean, the solution needs to be sloshed around, and set on various sides to work at the surfaces.

Guinnea Pig

Since I didn't get before and after pictures of the insides of the tanks, I wanted to have some sort of gauge as to how well the Metal Ready works. This was my trusty test sample.

Dirty Stuff

I emptied the tanks of the Metal Ready, and you can see that there is a notable color change (virgin Metal Ready is a light blue, not this dark green).

After

You can see here the difference between the part of the pipe that was immersed, and the part that wasn't. This was after sitting in "spent" Metal Ready for about an hour and a half.

The Look of Metal

Here is the sealant. You must stir it (not shake it!) to mix the contents. Make sure that your working environment is AT LEAST 72 degrees F in order to get a good coating. Colder working conditions do not give optimum results.

The Can

Here it is, the product that holds all hope for hopeless gas tanks.

Pour It In

I decided to use a cheap funnel to pour the sealer into the tank. This minimized the mess (and it looked cool against the red funnel!)...

Slosh It Around

I spent about 20 minutes of slowly rotating the tank in ALL directions. The material is pretty thin (watery), so gets around pretty well. 20 minutes was definitely enough time to coat the inside thoroughly.

Looking Inside

From the outside, you can kind of see the new coating on the inside.

Better Look Inside

Here is what the coating looks like, close-up. It's not as impressive as the POR example shows (their example looks like solid aluminum), but everything is coated and protected.