Beware of Ebay tanks

Well, I just got what I thought was going to be a nice tank for my 550 Seca from a guy on Ebay. He had plenty of pics. It looked really nice. Paint was a nice black and it had the petcock, sending unit and cap. When it arrived it was wrapped really good. Opened it up and found a real mess. The guy didn't drain all the gas and it bubbled the whole top of the tank. The front lip was bent and it even has a leak when he said it had none. I sanded away the bubbled paint to find at least 8 coats of paint. This meant I had to strip the tank to get a nice and smooth paint job. Got the paint stripped to find 13 spots of bondo. The worst was a dent that was probably from a good nutshot to the back. The bondo was 3/4 of an inch thick and 4 inches around.

At this point the tank is stripped. The large dent has been pulled and now will require minimal filler to smooth out. My problem now is fixing the leak. It is at the left rear corner at the seam. Inside the tank there is a green rubbery substance that someone previously applied. How do I get that out? Do I need to? What is the best way to fix this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I believe POR-15 sells a kit to help clean/remove poor/bad sealing job materials. Its the "heavy duty" tank sealing kit. Other than that I have no idea.

I hope my eBay tank is not that bad. I knew the paint sucked and inside was rusty, but I haven't had chance to strip it yet.

 

i think acetone takes out most sealers

 

These tanks usually rust in that same spot comes from sitting on the side stand and the water sits there in the back corner. If the tried to fix it with some kind of sealer you can try acetone it sounds like they fiber glassed it though best to seal it before you paint it. I got burned by an Ebay tank one time too

 

There is no fiberglass. The metal on the outside it clean. The inside is a dark green rubber. That makes sense why it is leaking there, Waldo. Not even gonna try to paint it before I get the leak fixed.

 

i had some pinholes on a Kaw Concours take in the summer. The por sealer kit is used sealed them right up. The Por stuff is good . I have used it twice on the Kaw and a Gold Wing and both times great. I even use their rust stopper paint to touch up frames! Jeff

 

Has anyone used the POR-Strip to get old sealer out of the tank? Here is a link to what I'm thinking about using. http://www.por15.com/HD-CYCLE-TANK-REPA ... fo/HDCTRK/