dirtymartini said:
Carbonfibre said:
Might have been worth following the advice I posted related to increasing the chances of a snake oil working in an earlier post, then while you probably are going to need a new tank at some stage, it would take a lot longer for the snake to fail.....................
I did switch to lacquer thinner after your post. I also plan to thin the sealer and do two coats as you suggested. I was thinking of repainting the bike to a 1969 color...I guess I might as well wait until I find a metal tank by the sounds of it. I have read several posts on the INOA site about Caswell's sealer failing after several years.
I would suggest using only soap and water to clean the inside of a GRP tank, as any type of solvent type product will leach into any area of the laminate which has previously been damaged, and come to the surface when the epoxy is curing and make proper adhesion difficult/impossible. Internal abrasion should be carried out using crushed plate glass (broken car windscreen material is ideal) as this is far more effective than the dry liner screws snake oilers suggest, and can be found FOC.
Add something to the epoxy to bulk it out, and while kevlar pulp is ideal for this, its pretty difficult to get hold of, so chopped GRP fibres will work almost as well.
To thin any of the epoxy snake oils, mix the 2 parts, then put the container with the epoxy in it into a saucepan of boiling water, and stir the epoxy until it becomes thin enough to flow properly inside your tank. Caution is needed here though, as heating the resin will speed up the curing process, and the container must be removed from the boiling water and poured into the tank, as soon as it becomes thin enough to be applied properly.
Plug the fuel outlets with modelling clay, and cover the filler cap with duct tape, then move the tank through all planes so the resin covers the inside completely. Heating speeds up the cure process, and depending on which snake you are using, the exotherm process will start quite quickly. When the resin is no longer thin enough to flow easily, remove the duct tape from filler cap, invert the tank and allow excess resin to drain off, and at the same time remove modelling clay from fuel outlets.
When you have done this, the second application needs to be carried out in the same way, and must be done before the resin has fully cured (generally a couple of days), so a good bond with the first coating is achieved.
Its a lot more hassle to carry out sealing in the way outlined above, but this will greatly increase the chances of a longer lasting repair, and the fact that the snake oilers dont provide proper application instructions is something that seems to indicate the complete lack of regard they have for anyone using their products!
