Not working on cars all summer apparently makes you as rusty as your 914 tanks. Hard to believe this is my first real project in like five months. Instead of working on cars all summer, I’ve been renovating a house. Maybe one day I’ll shoot some pics of that in a post. But instead we turn our attention to two Porsche 914 gas tanks I have sitting in the garage. One came from a ’74 that had rust holes in every single panel, door rocker, floor board, you name it. It was the car I cut in half (no title) and took to recycle. $50 bucks in scrap metal never felt so undervalued. But I kept the tank and the 2.0 liter motor and intend on putting them into a ’72 chassis I have sitting in storage. The other tank is a ’70 or ’71 as evidenced by the fuel sender unit.
Both tanks will serve me well when it comes time to make another car run so I thought I’d tackle them both. The motivation? I sold some early ’70s Porsche Recaro seats on Pelican Parts so it’s time to get the project cars moving while I’m flush with cash. The tanks will both be “Renu”‘d. Sandblasted from the inside out and coated with a patented lifetime guarantee of a goo that will never rust again. First step, strip the tanks down.
It started easily enough. A 22mm spanner, yeah I said it, on the nuts holding down the fuel pipes and a stiff yank was enough to loosen most everything. However I did run into a spot of trouble with the last nut. Nothing a little heat won’t cure. Or blow out through the bottom holes when all the fumes inside ignite. Yup, took a torch to the threads over the second hole and woooooooshhhh, fire shot right out of the bottom and lit all the rust flakes plus the towel. Did I think this might happen? Sure. Did I thank my lucky stars the fire had a place to escape without blowing up the tank. You betcha. Am I going to do that again? Hell no.
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