Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
- Messages
- 7,735
- Location
- Teesside, England
I know this has been done a few times, but I've just dropped the tanks out of my TVR to give them and the surrounding chassis a coat of paint, and found a pinhole in one of them. It's in an extensive area of cratering on the top face of the left-hand tank, so my guess is that water thrown up by the nearside wheel has been getting trapped between the tank and the rubber sound-deadening mat and quietly doing its thing for a good few years. There are two such cratered areas; oddly the other tank is unaffected.
So my plan is to cut out two squares encompassing the worst of the rot, and weld in two nice new squares
The tank has a number of inlet/outlet stubs, most of which are near the top of the tank so they'll need blanking so the tank will hold water.
I could either use a thin slitting disc (preferred?), drill a hole and jigsaw it (horrible) or get the plasma cutter out
I know once I can get a mirror inside I may have to open the holes out.
Tank is 1.2mm (18SWG?) mild steel so no issues there; I'd probably go for TIG as I can get mine down to 10A (and need the practice) although even messy MIG wouldn't matter as it won't be seen once the tank is refitted.
So what else do I need to consider...?
Pics show the area of crud - you can make out rings where the fuel has dissolved the paint - pinhole highlighted with a pen... the other really rusty bit is under that strap towards the corner at left. I know the tank looks as rough as a badger's nadgers but once I'd wiped it over with a diesel-soaked rag it didn't look too bad - most of the paint is still there. I didn't get a pic as the camera battery had died.
So my plan is to cut out two squares encompassing the worst of the rot, and weld in two nice new squares
The tank has a number of inlet/outlet stubs, most of which are near the top of the tank so they'll need blanking so the tank will hold water.I could either use a thin slitting disc (preferred?), drill a hole and jigsaw it (horrible) or get the plasma cutter out
I know once I can get a mirror inside I may have to open the holes out.Tank is 1.2mm (18SWG?) mild steel so no issues there; I'd probably go for TIG as I can get mine down to 10A (and need the practice
) although even messy MIG wouldn't matter as it won't be seen once the tank is refitted.So what else do I need to consider...?
Pics show the area of crud - you can make out rings where the fuel has dissolved the paint - pinhole highlighted with a pen... the other really rusty bit is under that strap towards the corner at left. I know the tank looks as rough as a badger's nadgers but once I'd wiped it over with a diesel-soaked rag it didn't look too bad - most of the paint is still there. I didn't get a pic as the camera battery had died.
it got to 50 psi before the sides blew out 
