electrolytic derusting of a gas tank

rollingsculpture

rollingsculpture

Senior Member
http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/electrolyticderusting.htm

I bought most of my carbon rods in China because they are cheap there.
In fact I am in China right now and picked up some more carbon and a big carbon rod for Rusty N. to try on his gas tank.

the above quote taken from the thread on carbs

Holy smokes this seems like a very great idea , would you just fill the tank up with the mixture of cleaner and drop in the anode , cycle through the process and than drain out the goop?

have you or anyone else done this ?
 
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The problem is the tern, or lead, coating used in the tank. This process may pull the lead off and muck up the process. A chemist should chime in here as this is not something I know.

It is forewarned when you read about the process that other materials can throw a wrench in the works.

Mechanically removing the materials with sharp edged items like nuts and shaking the tank. Then attaching (assuming no gas fumes!!!!) a small hose to a vacuum and sucking out the loose stuff. You might also put a liquid in the tank and shake then drain rapidly to get more stuff out.

If you make sure you have the correct screens in the original places, you should have no problems. You might catch a bunch of junk at first, but that should taper down in time.

Brent Terry advocates cutting the tank open for a proper cleaning. Then he welds it back together. l personally do not like that solution, but I am not saying it is a bad solution. He is a pro and has the experience to make it happen.
 
Electrolytic derusting works much better "line-of-sight" The rust attracts to the anode in a straight line. It doesn't come off the metal, go around corners and then attach to the anode.

If you don't have an anode on every side where there is rust, it won't come off.

You would be better buying about 10 jugs of this stuff, fill it up. Wait two days and then rinse it out. The good thing is that you can re-use this stuff over and over and it's non-toxic to the environment.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-gallon-evapo-rust-rust-remover-96431.html

image_3573.png
 
I have found that electrolytic removal is not as “line of sight”
dependent as many people claim. If left long enough it will
remove rust from threaded and or cylindrical sliding parts
that could not be budged without fear of breaking something.
It does however leave a somewhat greasy black coating that would
require some trial and error use of cleaning products to be sure
of it’s removal. Warm water and light brushing works on most
small parts surfaces, but I/m not sure about the inside of a tank.
Remember rusting starts again immediately from just the moisture
in the air, so it would be best to use a tank coating product ASAP.
Double check the polarity of your power hook-up before you
turn it on, or you will have a very clean anode instead of a clean tank!!
Make sure there is a vent space at the filler neck to allow the
hydrogen gas produced by the process to escape and keep sparks
or flames away from the area.
 
I have Anodes all around and every thing that's submerged gets cleaned but not sure about a single anode handing straight down.
 
This process creates hydrogen gas and a spark can set it off. Not a pretty sight. To keep the anode from shorting to the tank I made a full length shroud for the anode from a 1" PVC pipe. I drilled 1/2" holes all around the pipe and put a cap on the bottom so the anode could not contact anything and make a spark.
 
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Vince..Very impressive..

Have you or can you do this on a larger scale, such as those kiddie pools?
What about power?

Thanks, Dudley
 
I was not sure about the lead.

Some where I read about one of the non-ferrous metals causing problems.

A far as line of site. Was doing bumper ends and you know how the bolt can be held in with rust. Just for the heck of it I put an end in the tank for a couple of days. It eroded most of the rust between the bolt and the bumper eye. The bolt cam out fairly easy. Now if I only figured this out for the first 2 bumpers.
 
d.j. moordigian said:
Vince..Very impressive..

Have you or can you do this on a larger scale, such as those kiddie pools?
What about power?

Thanks, Dudley
Click to expand...

As far as size I saw a website where guys were stripping gasoline pump panels. 6-7 feet high and 3-4 wide.

I have done 16 inch wheels in a plastic 55 gallon drum using 10 amp, 12 volt battery charger.

I have read that 24volts is faster.

Wheels with paint take longer ... a couple of days as I remember. I would put anodes on both sides of wheels. I used steel plate 12 by 8 inches.

3/4 inch by 1 foot rebar works too.

The plate did get full of pits after 5 wheels. So be sure polarity is correct or your wheels will be damaged!

See warning about avoiding stainless steel plates here:
http://www.antique-engines.com/stainless-steel-electrodes.htm

General instructions here:
http://www.antique-engines.com/electrol.asp
 
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If you happen to live near Reno, NV, take your gas tank or radiator if you need it rodded out to Mc Carran Radiator Service (1-775-331-DRIP). One of our members gas tank was leaking around the steering column bkt., they boiled out the tank, resoldered both rivited brackets and lined the tank with a sealer impervious to todays fuels. They have been in service over 40 years and are very fimiliar with radiators and restoration and maintenance problems with gas tanks.

Ron
 
Model T Monte said:
Question, has anyone had the nerve to try 110 volts for a short period of time or is it too much too fast??? Monte
Click to expand...

The problem I see with that is that battery chargers put out DC current and 110 is AC. AC will not transfer from one plate to another as well. The polarity of AC is switching back and forth 60 times a second. I would think that AC might eat up the wheels just like getting the polarity backwards.

Would be "a little" dangerious also I would think ...
 
Model T Monte said:
So an old D.C welder might be in order???? Monte
Click to expand...
I would be concerned about the high current of a welder. Seems your parts might get damaged if the anode and part made contact. Might be safe if you turned off welder whenever moving parts in the barrel.

I thought about using a steel 55 gallon drum with the steel barrel as the anode instead of plates or rebar, but after seeing how the steel plate got riddled with holes I decided to use rebar or plates inside a PLASTIC drum. It would not be long until the barrel would be full of holes!

On large size parts:
I saw somewhere on the internet that someone was using a large plastic cattle water tank.
 
I have some closed cab window regulators that are pretty rusty. I was thinking of sandblasting them like I do to most rusted items. However I don't want to screw the mechanism up inside the regulator with sand. Maybe I could used the electrolytic process to remove the rust. Does this look like an OK way to remove the rust on the regulators? I don't think there is anything inside the regulators that would be ruined. Thanks for any suggestions.
 
So where do you all buy the carbon rods? One place I checked on-line said their carbon rods were actually graphite and that a lot of other places were selling graphite rods as carbon rods. Thanks.
 
You can get carbon bars and graphite bars from McMaster-Carr at http://www.mcmaster.com/#carbon-fiber-rods/=8rzb0v

WARNING
If you are going to use this method be sure the anode cannot touch the part or there can be sparks that can ignite the hydrogen gas produced during the process.

Shield the anode with a piece of PVC tubing with lots of holes drilled in it so the action can get from the anode to the part but the anode cannot actually touch the part.
 
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