Well no, not really, but that's what she might have thought if she looked in my back yard this fall. They do make a good place to hang them from when painting them! My tank suffered the usual thick layer of rust and varnish inside from sitting for years (decades?) with stale gasoline. I bunged it up and filled it with a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar and let it sit for two weeks that way. After draining and a lot of flushing it was basically spotless inside! I gave it a quick phosphate treating, flushed with water then alcohol and it did not surface-rust up on me. Its good to go without needing to be creamed inside.

Anyway Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to the Magnette and MG owners who read this. Ed

Beautifull Xmas decoration!

Lol! I hadn't thought of it that way, but it is one heck of a tree ornament,come to think of it! Ed

I hear the blooms in spring are spectacular.

---

Rob.


"Now the problem you have is that when you have the unerring certainty of machinery, it is a machine. When something has foibles, it won’t handle properly, that gives it a particularly human quality because it makes mistakes. And that’s how you can build a relationship with a car that other people won’t get."
Jeremy Clarkson

Hi Ed,
I see you used a cleaning agent of a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar I have heard that molasses can also clean off rust. Have you or anyone one else have any experience with molasses ?
Happy New Year

Happy New Year to come! I've heard molasses is a good de-ruster but I've never tried it. This was actually the first time trying vinegar to do something like derusting a tank and I was surprised at how well it ended up working out. I figured I had nothing to loose, it was about the lowest cost, and rather safe and non-toxic in comparison to other acids. I guess molasses works by enzymes and not acids, like some commerical de-rusters claiming they work that way.

I've already planted my tank in the trunk of my Magnette before it had chance to bloom! Now I'm trying to figure out where I hid my fuel pump I'll be all set! Regards, Ed

My brother just looked up how molasses works. It seems to form acetic acid when mixed with water, which is what vinegar is. There seems to be an animal feed grade molasses that is very inexpensive. I know the stuff in the store for people isn't cheap! Do they have animal feed grade pancakes to go with that? Ed

Hi Big Ed.
As the SU pump sucked air and as holes in upper part of the suction pipe were suspected, the tank was taken out. If I now blow into lower end of the pipe and put a finger at upper end, I am not so sure there are holes any longer. Suggestions where else the air might have come from are appreciated. New pump is on its way and as the tank now is out, I will clean it before refitting, even if the present condition is not so bad. I am a bit reluctant to use vinegar, or any acid, due to the lap joints of the tank shell and other overlappings inside for the sloshplates. But before I decide, I very much would like to get a more detailed description of your cleaning operation as type of vinegar, concentration, temperature etc. After the treatment, did you apply some high pressure (hot?) water, steam? And most important, how may times did you flush it afterwards? When flushing, were any additives applied or just cold water? Also the final quick phosphate treatment, I would very much like to know more about. Many questionmarks, but I am curious, and I understand the result was very good. No experiances with molasses or other rust removing substances?
Anyway, spring finally has come to Norway and the cherries are already ripe, see picture.
Per.

Hi Per,

I don't have much input on air suction issues with the SU pump. I would think it could only be one of just a few things that would let air seep in on the intake side.

I used a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water. I took out the fuel sender. Being an aluminum alloy it will be eaten up over time even by a mild acid. I put the screws back and a large rubber plug in to seal it up. I likewise put a small plug in where the fuel line connection goes. I put the tank on end with the filler end pointing up and filled it up fully with the water and vinegar mix and let it sit (outside) for two weeks. I had drained and checked it once after about a week. A lot of of the residue had come off but a lot still remained. I partially filled sloshed water about inside of it and dumped it out repeatedly which got quite a bit more of the residue and then poured the vinegar mix back in (I saved it) and let it sit for another week. At that point the remaining residue had come loose. The steel was basically rust free at that point too. Again a lot more fresh water rinsing and sloshing. There was a little bit of surface rust forming but really superficial, so I poured in about a quart of phosphoric acid (readily available at hardware stores for cleaning rust stains from sinks and things) and sloshed it about, poured it out, rinsed it out with water, quickly followed by a gallon of water with baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) to help neutralize any acid remaining in seams, followed by more water, followed by a couple of rinsings with denatured alcohol (about a pint at a time) to absorb any remaining water.

All my water rinsings were cold wate with the garden hose.

Just make certain your tank isn't rusted to the point of leaking. I suspect this may more likely happen from the outside where the tank rests on some foam pad and water has leaked in from the rear window gasket over time, making its way to those pads under the tank.

Good luck with it. Like I said I didn't have anything to loose at that point and I was not real keen to put plastic sloshing tank liner compound into the tank if I did not have to.



Hey, it looks like my back yard, except for the huge cherries!

Regards, Big Ed