[DeTomaso] Aluminum gas tank repair and question

[Richard Barkley]

   I'll start with the question. The US Panteras were retro fitted here
   with a wrap of fiberglass, supposedly for safety reasons. Something I
   read made me think that the European cars with aluminum tanks were
   never wrapped. Anyone know if this is true? I removed all of it when I
   started looking for the leak. It is only one layer thick (0.03") and
   rips very easily. It seems impossible for me to believe this would have
   any benefit in a crash severe enough to rupture the tank. So I'm
   considering not re-coating it and just painting it, probably silver.
   Any thoughts are welcome.
   Now the story and repair. Zonkey's aluminum gas tank started to leek a
   few months ago which came as a big surprise as it was clean with no
   sign of corrosion 14 years ago when I did the restoration. The car has
   been apart for the last 5 years as a result of a rear ending. I'm now
   starting the re-assembly and repairing the tank is the first thing on
   my list.
   So last week I pulled the tank and looked inside. Everything was very
   clean except for a few patches of some very strange stuff in spots on
   the bottom of the tank. It was somewhat granular, sort of like clumps
   of very large salt crystals stuck together. It crumbled easily with a
   little finger pressure. I didn't think much of it at the time as I was
   pretty sure the leak was somewhere other than the bottom as it had
   stopped leaking with 3 gallons or so left in the tank. Under each clump
   was a discolored spot which turned out to be corrosion. I have an in
   tank electric fuel pump to feed 4.6L Cobra Mod Motor and the pre-filter
   sock on the inlet was gone. I suspect the the material from that was
   somehow transformed into the strange clumps which trapped water causing
   the corrosion.
   Anyway, I decided to repair the leak with the POR-15 tank sealer:
   [1]http://www.por15.com/POR-15-Fu...ank-Sealer_p_64.html
   It is a three step process, cleaning with their strong cleaner, acid
   etching with "metal ready" and then sloshing the tank with their
   sealer. When I started the process I thought I had one very small
   pinhole. The cleaning step revealed two more smaller pinholes. However
   the etching brought out a total of 7 pinholes. All had grown larger,
   and all of them were in a corroded spot. I'm confident that the POR-15
   will be more than sufficient to permanently seal the tank although I
   may add a couple layers of fiberglass on the bottom to strengthen it
   and prevent possible corrosion from the outside.
   Richard
--
-----
Sincerely, Richard Barkley

To Ski or not to Ski, that is the question!

Richard Barkley (310) 373-6695 (home)
E-mail:  rlbpantera <atsign> earthlink.net
ZONKEY'S home page: [2]http://home.earthlink.net/~rlbpantera

References

   1. http://www.por15.com/POR-15-Fu...ank-Sealer_p_64.html
   2. http://home.earthlink.net/~rlbpantera