Some of you reading this will remember those old Exxon gas commercials boasting of putting a tiger in your tank with Esso gas. I always wanted to get my hands on one of the signs or posters that featured the tiger, but never did. And for those of you who were not around back then to have experienced that level of gas advertising I say to you...too bad! But I'm not here today to discuss gas advertising or even the quality of today's gas. But I am here today to tell you that you could very well have a tiger in your tank & not even know it.

Rust. That's right, rust can be eating through your vintage tractor's gas tank like a tiger right now & you may not even know it until it's too late to do anything about it. Recently I had the misfortune, or maybe good luck of discovering two almost microscopic holes in the gas tank of my model 70 lawn tractor. I've been restoring a 1973 model 70 lawn tractor now for about the last two years. Work has been slow on it due to finding parts & of course the spare funds as well. In any case I am now about 95% complete on the restoration & now I'm getting the fuel tank ready for a fresh coat of paint & new decals.

Two years ago when I test ran the tractor before tearing it down to the frame, I did not see any gas leaks nor did I pay much attention at that time to the inside condition of the tank. The outside of the tank was in need of the usual cleaning & re painting but overall was in good condition. So I simply poured out the leftover gas & allowed the tank to dry out & vent for about a week. I did at that time take a peek inside the fill hole & saw what appeared to be a very slight surface rust condition which I saw as no big deal & something I did not have to deal with until much later in the restoration process. Well here I am at the near end of this restoration & suddenly I find myself dealing with a serious rust problem.

While the original surface rust really did not grow because I made sure to dry out the tank & seal off the fill hole & the fuel line connection, I thought this was going to be an easy tank to clean up internally & be done with it. So to remove any loose rust, I took a few roofing nails, some lock washers & some quarter inch nuts & put them down the filler hole, put the cap on and proceeded to do my version of a martini, James Bond style, shaken not stirred. This technique I have found to be fast & quite good in the initial removal of any loose rust or scale. So after about five minutes or so, I poured out all the non essential hardware as well as a pretty good amount of rust colored dust & flakes. I then poured in a mixture of hot water with a little Simple Green for the grease cutting detergent. Shook things up again, poured the sudsy mix out & gave everything a final rinse. I then used my air compressor & blow gun to dry & force out all the leftover droplets of water. This is really an important step because you would be surprised at how much water remains inside a gas tank that you claim to be perfectly dry. I've see moisture roll out of tanks that were left sitting in the so called dry state for over a week.

It's at this time I took the tank out into the strong mid day sunlight to look down into the filler hole. And to my delight, the tank was nice & clean. At this point I a usually take some clean kerosene & carefully pour it into the tank. Just enough to cover the bottom of the tank. Then I move it around an carefully check for any leaks at the tank seams. Well to my absolute surprise I start to detect this very fine trace of moisture at the bottom of the tank. Upon very close examination I see not one but two almost undetectable leaks. These had to be even smaller than what we generally refer to as a pin hole. They were so small that I had a real difficult time in actually trying to get light to pass through them.

What I did next would strike you as being counter intuitive, but I took a very fine wire(twist)drill and by hand used it to increase the size of the holes to clean off any rust around the edges of the holes. Then from the outside of the tank I used an epoxy sealant that is not affected by moisture or fuels to seal the two pin holes from the outside of the tank. My next step in this restoration/repair was to use one of the popular gas tank sealant's paying very close attention to the cleaning, etching & coating process laid out by the sealant manufacturer. This is crucial in order to get long lasting trouble free results.

Thinking back on this, I believe that when I used those roofing nails, washers & nuts to loosen up the thin coat of surface rust, they opened up those two tiny pin holes which was a really good thing to have happen. Remember, when I originally test ran this tractor prior to tear down, there were absolutely no gas leaks. At that time I ran this tractor long enough that I would have spotted the leaks. Had I not discovered these leaks, the results could have been disastrous. Tractor fires, while rare do occur for various reasons. One of those reasons is a leaky fuel system. Other causes are wiring issues, accumulation of oil & grease in areas that should be free of oil & lubricant's. Lawn clippings, leaves & other debris left to pile up & ride under pulleys & belts. These are some of the more common reasons for fires. Generally a tractor fire means the end of the line for the machine. And it could also mean sever & life threatening injuries to the operator.

One of the best things that we can do is to change our thinking about these fuel tanks. Especially the original equipment tanks that we all must deal with. If at all possible we should be pressure testing these tanks. That would be far superior to just an eyes only examination of the tank which may not be good enough. Old vintage tanks are very difficult to replace as you all probably know. And cost of a tank may be the least of the problems. Most tanks are very difficult to find even among collectors & hobbyists. However after thinking about it, my attitude has changed on some of these issues.

Many of us restore & collect tractors as a hobby or for whatever reason. And a lot of us proudly put them on display on our front lawns, or in the Town parade on those special occasions. And many many times, we have our children & grand children in the operators seat or along side of us. That is why it is so important to take every possible step that we can to insure that every critical component part of these machines has been inspected, tested, rebuilt or replaced to the highest possible standard that can be applied. A fresh coat of paint or a new set of decal's does not make up for any shortcuts in the rebuild, replace, restore cycle. Paint & trim is not a restoration in itself. While we all have our own reasons as to why we do this to begin with, we must constantly remind ourselves that personal safety comes above everything else.

Jerry