I'm looking at restoring the fuel tank in my early beetle. It looks to be in good solid shape (famous last words) it appears the previous owner painted inside the neck! So I'm getting lots of flakes in the fuel filter. Wanting to know what others have done, longevity of work, location, costs and photos?

I was thinking of getting the tank zinc plated or similar that uses a dipping process then getting it powdercoated?

I have done a few over the years
Give the outside good wash and wire brush clean to make sure no thick paint or tar on the surface this may be hiding rust holes etc
if its good on the outside then get some nuts and bolts big ones are best and some metal chain is also good

add a little soapy water and put the metal bolts inside the tank give the tank a good shaking around for 30 minutes or so this will looosen and flaky paints or internal rust give it a good flush with water and leave in the sun to dry when its dry hold up to the sun and look in the filler neck to check for pin holes

if yoou have these then you need to replace the bottom with welding in new sheet metal not easy but can be done

If its good re paint the outside dont forget the fit new internal filter on the outlet stand pipe

The chain and bolts idea is a good one but if you really want to check the tank can handle another 50 years then get it sand blasted. This will show everything up that isn't solid steel.

If you get the tank repairs welded then make sure it is TIG welded just because this technic is far less likely to cause pin holes then MiG welding. I'm not saying MiG can't be good and dependant on the guy welding but IMO the TiIG is a better weld.

Plating the tank is a good idea as pretty sure the aftermarket replacement tanks in YSA for yank tanks seem to be zinc coated and then the powder coat will sure protect the outside for a long time.

Yep sand blasting is good to clean up the out side of the tank and will show up any pin holes give it a good scrap with wire brush first so it gets the big bits of gunk off the outer shell

Welding in a patch is tricky job as well as forming to the correct shape TIG is best method as per above get it done professionally you wont regret it

looking for pin holes can be also done in a dark room with a torch on the inside get a felt pen to mark them up if you have a lot get it patched to many to try and weld each one and if you do it will probably open up a new hole beside the old one as the metal will be too thin

There are some paint/restoration kits too, I cleaned the outside and inside (as above), also ran a rust converter through, cleaned again the tipped the interior paint through it. Came out really well. I think it was PPG or POR or something. You may get away with a motorcycle kit - as the Tank is pretty small.

Yea it's permanent coatings that sell the POR15 tank sealer kit.

POR15 available from VVDS or maybe even a better S/H tank

whats the year of your car

This is for a 1955 beetle - Hence why I want to restore this one to last another 60 years.

so that's the square type very hard to find and expensive second hand if you can find one

will be worth doing a good repair job on it let us know what you find when you get the paint of it

I have used the KBS and POR15 kits over the years snd they both work well. You may have to remove paint in the neck though!!

Nice to hear that KBS do their own version of the POR15 tank treatment now

Epoxy mastic may be better than KBS but KBS is better than POR15

I just finished a few old motorcycle tanks 4 days in the molasses tank psi cleaned came up like new.

can you put a pic of the tank up and the underside for us to see

Tank is out - Have spoken with an electroplater in Sydney - he doesn't think the zinc coating will work. The outside no problem, the inside wont get plated properly due to the nature of the plating process.... unless you cut the tank in half! Not an option at this stage. In the mean time here are some photos

Have a new reserve switch as this one was leaking - and full of crud - the wire gauze was rusted through

Cant see any holes at this stage underneath

Not bad for a 60 year old tank

Molasses and water and soak job done.

So a pre Aug 55 Aug tank give it the nut and bolt treatment will get that stuff out easy

been drill and fitted for a after market fuel sender unit

Pretty sure a T2 sender unit can be retro fitted to those early tanks. I'm just not 100% if the T2 sender diameter is thin enough.

By the look of the inside I'd say any rust holes would more likely come from the exterior of the tanks underside. Get it blasted. Should only be $50 for something that small.

Fuel tank back from the sand blaster. Got it done at AA Sandblasting Canberra - not too bad only a couple of pin holes!

Looks like they did a good job fitting the sender.... welded the screw plate in!

Pin hole 1

pin hole 2

From the pic looks like 3 or 4 pin holes

Low temp silver solder will fix those easy

Those plug welds in the sender threaded ring are pretty terrible but spose it's not fallen in the tank yet.

Silver solder will patch those holes and last a good while. I know of tank repairers using tin plate soldered to the tank to repair large sections of pinholes so your fix should be a breeze

Took the tank in to get soldered up... just under the surface was swiss cheese!!! :-( So have decided to go down the KBS sealer path to get a tank that works for the moment and buy me time till I can find a good donor tank.

Before (on the right) and after (on the left)the cleaning process