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anybody ever cut open their fuel tank?


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After pulling the tank out of my Brat I thought I'd try and pressure wash it inside and out to see what condition it's in. Didn't look too bad from the outside. Peering through the sender and filler holes it looked like the lunar surface on the bottom. Pressure washed it best I could and a lot of nasty rust looking stuff came out. After spraying the outside some holes in the top appeared. Looking back inside the bottom is really rough. Can't really tell if there are pin holes or not because the outside is covered in a rubberized coating. Fuel supply line is still stopped up.

 

So, I'm thinking I may saw off the top half, make repairs then braze or weld it back together. Anyone else tried this? I fixed a 1964 Rambler fuel tank by tumbling stones inside then coating it with an epoxy resin, but it was basically just a huge box with little in the way of cut outs like this Brat tank has. I was able to fix it just using the sender and filler holes. There was also not a half rusted off baffle hanging around inside to get in the way. And the other issue is the pickup screen would be impossible to cover up to keep the epoxy from coating it.

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Old tanks are just that, old tanks.  Not always wise or safe to be cutting or welding on them.  Rarely worth fixing them.  If a tank is failing, my recommendation is get a new one and properly dispose of the old one.

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Dee2 you are correct. They can be dangerous. I thought I'd fill it with water while cutting. After it's open and fixed it should be clean enough to weld back together without concern for explosion issues. I'd jump on a new tank but don't think there are any. 

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Once you have cut it up and re-welded it get it professionally gal or zinc plated. Make sure you can show the plater that it has been apart and chemically treated (they won't plate anything that has petrol residue).

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I haven't seen a new ea81 gas tank for sale in at least a decade.

 

They're definitely discontinued from Subaru. When my friend bought his (now my) Brat probably 10 years ago, it came with what was supposed to be the last new OE tank in the country....it's from a hatch. We had to make a plate to span the 6 inches or so between the mounts as the hatch tank is much smaller.

Edited by Numbchux
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On the old tanks I've seen you get holes in the upper part, like on this one, then you'll have an area low in the tank with additional holes where the water was sitting. I'm hoping since this one had a layer of "protective" crap on the bottom it might not be tooooo bad-- ha. I think it's going to be worth cutting open to make a better assessment. If it didn't have the rubber coating on the bottom I think I could probably tell from the outside if it was going to be worth the effort.

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They're definitely discontinued from Subaru. When my friend bought his (now my) Brat probably 10 years ago, it came with what was supposed to be the last new OE tank in the country....it's from a hatch. We had to make a plate to span the 6 inches or so between the mounts as the hatch tank is much smaller.

 

We had difficulty finding a brat/wagon tank in the late 90's for my first brat. We ended up doing the same with a hatch tank because a local Subaru nut had a solid one laying around that he sold to us for next to nothing. The smaller tank was definitely annoying because of having to stop at the pump more often, but it was worlds better than only holding half a tank of fuel lol.

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fuel cells will need some creativity as far as the fuel filler neck goes. you can always go custom, but that means doubleing the price most times. i have seen a custom cell for a 1932 model a ford, still had factory fill location but im sure the pennys were really shiny on that job.

Edited by 87subbomber
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  • 3 weeks later...

Doing a little outside clean up and planning where to cut and how to put back together. As expected, after hitting it with a wire brush a number of new holes appeared and some existing ones got larger. The metal that seems to not have pin holes is kinda thin. Once open I may be better off fabricating a whole new top, we'll see. post-65087-0-35898200-1485875529_thumb.jpg

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It's open! Good news and bad news. The top part is worse than expected. Metal is pretty thin in some spots. I had planned to pop rivet some tabs to hold it together for the epoxy to do it's thing, but the rivets pull right through. May just have to fabricate a whole new lid.

 

Good news is it looks like Subaru poured some sort of tar like coating along the bottom of the tank. In some places it was 3/8 inch thick or better. It covered pretty much the whole bottom, any where water would have collected and caused rust. The sealer was flaking along the surface and some chunks along the edge were just loose inside. Really messy looking. The good part is that it's fairly easy to chip out and underneath the metal looks new!

 

The baffles are in shambles. I'll need to figure out something to do about that. Overall I'm pretty optimistic about getting it back in service.

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Here it is open. I'm going to have to fabricate a whole new top. The old one is just way too rotted to work on. I plan to cut it back to good metal and make a new piece to rivet in. 

 

Called every place around here looking for some raw sheet metal, no luck. They had plenty of zinc plated or galvanized, but didn't really think that would be a good idea considering I want to coat the inside with epoxy. Turns out Amazon sells sheet metal, who knew! It's on the way. I've got to make some measurements and check the area where the tank mounts to make sure it will fit back once completed. I'm probably going to go for some 90 degree corners rather than the curves just to make it easier.

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Once you have it open like you do, you could totally make a whole new one. My concern was to see what it looked like on the inside and then mimic it and built a new one. I am finding out that us guys that what to keep our Subies running and looking good, we are just going to have to become fabricators, and it is fun learning to. Really, you just have to get into it and it is easier than we think most of the time. 

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Moving along on this at what seems a snails pace. Have had some work projects getting in the way. Hopefully they are just about competed. 

 

Soaked the lower half in some oxalic acid to clean off some of the rust thae wire brushed it. Seems pretty clean now. Depending on how I end up doing the top I probably wouldn't have to actually coat the inside. I'll wait and see how that comes out before deciding.

 

The fuel supply line and the return line were completely impacted with something. Could not get either to free up. The fuel supply has a couple of 90 degree bends and a 180 so trying to unstop it is nearly impossible. Decided the best was was to cut out the section that I thought was likely the problem. Figured I could either get it unstopped or just replace it and solder back in. I believe I will be able to reuse the filter once it's cleaned. Finally made some progress on the stopped up section and have it soaking in carb cleaner. That should get in nice and slick. 

 

Next step make some cardboard templates for the top section.

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making some progress. I've got all the side pieces cut and bent just need to get them jigged up. I've decided to forget trying to salvage any of the upper half of the tank, it's just too thin and rusty. Also going to rework the vent line so it's a little easier to fabricate.

 

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I'm liking what you are doing. I may have to do a custom fuel tank for the Brat because I have the 2.2T and are being told that the older tanks don't have the baffles to work with the efi engines. Plus it is such a small fuel tank. Either a custom one or a surge tank. But a surge tank doesn't fix the capacity I can carry.

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This tank does have baffling. Or at least what's left of it. It appears that most of the rust particles in the bottom of the tank were from the deterioration of the baffles. I'm going to work on fabricating a replacement for those today. Last night I finished up brazing the collar together. I simplified one little section on the right side where the vent line was located. I'm going to put it back under and make sure it bolts up before going any further. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Making progress. Clamped up for welding the collar.post-65087-0-73960700-1488858637_thumb.jpg

 

Collar complete, mostly. Still need to add the curved corners on the back side. post-65087-0-73354700-1488858705_thumb.jpg

 

First baffle post-65087-0-70797500-1488858807_thumb.jpg

 

Top trimmed completely off. post-65087-0-41135500-1488858859_thumb.jpg

 

Clamped up for brazing the collar to the lower half. This took quite a while. I had to do a little planashing around the edges to get it to fit. Probably cut the lid off a little short in a couple of places. Worked out ok. Also did just a little at a time then switched to a different location to keep the heat down. I suck pretty good most of the time at running a good bead. As much as I tried to clean the old metal I still had some trouble. I plan to coat the inside with fuel tank epoxy so some weld porosity is not a big deal. post-65087-0-46281700-1488859137_thumb.jpg

 

I used an 8mm tube nut as a fitting and silver soldered the fuel line back together. I also pulled it off the floor of the tank in order to get good coverage of the epoxy. post-65087-0-21233300-1488859259_thumb.jpg

 

Next is cutting out a lid and getting the baffles brazed in place. This has really taken a lot longer than I anticipated. Hope to finish soon so I can move on to something else. 

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The simple way to do this was to cover the holes with aluminum ducting tape and then pour in an epoxy liner..... which I simply drop it off at my radiator guy to do. Optionally the tank can be acid dipped first to remove all corrosion.

 

But nice job. Just could have been a lot simpler IMO.

 

I probably would have looked for one a little more solid to start with. They are out there. Wagon tanks are the same as Brat, etc.

 

GD

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The simple way to do this was to cover the holes with aluminum ducting tape and then pour in an epoxy liner..... which I simply drop it off at my radiator guy to do. Optionally the tank can be acid dipped first to remove all corrosion.

 

But nice job. Just could have been a lot simpler IMO.

 

I probably would have looked for one a little more solid to start with. They are out there. Wagon tanks are the same as Brat, etc.

 

GD

thank you for your participation

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  • 1 month later...

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