Fuel Tank finish -Tanks for the help

[kcmash]

I have seen a lot of your restored cars out there and seen beautiful shiny steel fuel tanks on everything with refinished tank straps.

I have my original tank with a few dents but in otherwise good shape. What I notice is it has sound deadener/undercoat spray on the bottom and sides. Why do people not spray the undercoat back on the tank when restoring? I am sure mine was a factory job based on how it is coated on the sides and above the weld seam.

I just plan to "freshen-up" the undercoating so it is a clean black. What are your thoughts on this.

View attachment 22879

View attachment 22880

View attachment 22881

 

[Austin Vert]

Hi KC,

To the best of my knowledge, the factory tanks were produced with a anti corrosive coated steel finish, and the repro ones today are the same.

I would think that in many cases over the years, owners of our '71/'73s, ran into situations where they themselves or they would get someone to spray different types of coatings to the undersides of their tanks while they were still installed. For example, black schutz might have been used, or maybe a quick dry black enamel.Maybe someone in the know, could tell us if Ford factory color painted any of their tanks, or just sold them plain coated steel.

Many owners today prefer the look of the plain steel finish, but in your case, choosing to undercoat and refinish in black or any color you desire, is perfectly fine.You can choose to go 2Pak or lacquer black, flat, satin or gloss black, the choice is yours on how you want the finished tank to look. In my case, i paid a company to pressure clean, acid treat and respray with an industrial black 2Pak the entire underside of my '73 Vert including the original tank. The only thing that annoyed me was the paint they used was a gloss black, as i wanted a satin black finish instead. Gloss black was the only finish available in the special paint they used.Overall, it looks fairly good.

Hope that helps,

Greg.

 

[judge]

According to the MCA. You could have three possibilities from the dealer. Non-undercoated cars should have a natural look (like the repo tanks come). Or if you have an undercoated car it could be one of two ways: #1 tank completely covered, or #2 the upper sides and back could have over spray from the trunk floor bottom being sprayed.

 

[kcmash]

According to the MCA. You could have three possibilities from the dealer. Non-undercoated cars should have a natural look (like the repo tanks come). Or if you have an undercoated car it could be one of two ways: #1 tank completely covered, or #2 the upper sides and back could have over spray from the trunk floor bottom being sprayed.

Mine has the sides and bottom coated. The top had some surface rust so I wire wheeled it and hit it with some zinc rich primer. The undercoated surfaces have Argent and Grabber Blue overspray from the multiple re-paints.

Thanks for the official information. I think I will use the original tank with the sound deadener to keep tank resonance down.