Kreem Gas tank coating stuff

[mike]

Kreem Gas tank coating stuff!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 I had some rust inside the tank of my '99 1200, and the local shop suggested this stuff, and sold me the kit.




It's a commonly available product....around $30 for the kit sufficient for motorcycles.
There are 3 bottles of liquid.
The first is a mild acid compound which will remove some of the rust, and 'etch' the surface of the metal.
The second is MEK.....a volatile compound that will remove any traces of water from the tank.
The final bottle contains the whitish, rubbery coating.

The directions are pretty clear.
Depending on how bad your gas tank is, I'd suggest setting aside a weekend for the process.
The total time you'll need 'hands on' is maybe 3-4 hours, but there is varibale amount of drying, and set up time. I'd also suggest taking MORE time that you think you need for the acid bath. Longer ain't gonn hurt!

Some helpful tools not really mentioned in the directions.

A small, dental, or telescoping inspection mirror.
Some sort of pen light with a thin attachment....I used a small MAgLite, with an inexpensive fiber optic attachment. ($10 at Walmart for the NiteEyze attachement......slides over the lens....has a 6 inch or so fiber optic wand.)
Once you remove ALL the gas tank fittings, (You have to) you'll be able to peear around inside to see where the worst parts are, and to check up on yourprogress in removing it.
I'd also suggest a couple of clean, empty plastic bowls, to catch the coatingliquid that didn't adhere, for use as a second coat.

You can TRY to find rubber stoppers to fit the fuel sending unit and gas cap openings. The petcock opening is an oval shape......you'll need to fashion a gasket, and use a piece of thin plywood...and gasket material to seal it up.

You WILL want to be able to seal the tank up pretty well!
The process entails puring the various liquids into your tank, and inverting it.....shaking it.....and turning it in every direction.
Get a tight seal! A little pressure builds with the shaking.
If you decide to use rubber stoppers, assure they fit snugly, but bve careful they don't fall into the tank!
(real pain to get out!)

If you can find black rubber stoppers at your local hardware store....or sink type plugs, that fit WELL, push them in snugly, and put a strip of duct tape over them. (Pressure...remember?)
I used thin, cardboard gasket material from the autoparts store to make my temporary gasket. THIN rubber sheeting will work. You will use the original bolts to bolt the gasket, and backign plate, to the tank.
For a backing plate, I used pieces of a WOODEN cigar box. Thin metal....stiff plastic....or thin plywood would work.

You can get a little 'sloppier' with the COATING material. It is thicker, and the tightness of the gaskets isn't as critical. Here, rubber stoppers and tape work well.

How does your petcock O ring, and sending unit gasket look?
Nows a good time to order replacements....if they look questionable, or the bike is old. It's worth a few bucks for piece of mind! How do the screws, bolts, and rubber bumpers look?
You're really going to be MANHANDLING the tank! A bunch of old towels on your work surface will protect it.

First steps!
Drain the gas tank, and remove all fittings.
You will then need to rinse out the gas tank with soapy water.
(Use dish washing liquid) This will take out any traces of oil.
(Critical)
If you have the material to peek into your tank, this is a good time to do it! You may scare yourself....or you may find soem pretty minor deterioration!
Seal up the BOTTOM of the tank......on the 12 it's the petcock, and sending unit openings.
You'll want to have a handful of CLEAN nuts, gravel.....or soemthing to dump in your tank with your soapy wash to knock the scale off.
Dump them in....and add a couple of gallons of soapy water.
Seal up the gas cap opening.
Now.....play 'cocktail shaker'!
If you've identified the problem spots, you can concentrate the agitation in that area.......
Shake that turkey until you're tired.....then drain the water out, removing the nuts or whatever you used inside the tank.


Rinse the tank out, look around with your mirror and light. If you can't see anything....and feel confident you got it all........go on to the next step. No Light and mirror? I'd do it all again.....to be safe.

The next step is the 'acid' wash. This stuff is pretty mild, but be careful.
This is a step you may want to do overnight....or over the course of a weekend. You will need to agitate the tank periodically, and leave it propped up in different positions to allow the acid to reach ALL areas of the tank. Along with eating rust.....you're also preparing the metal surface of the tank for the coating.
You can drain, and save the acid stuff for a second use.......if you look inside the tank and think it needs it.
Looking good? Give it a good rinse out.....shake as much water out as you can....and put the contents of the second bottle in......but first
MAKE SURE YOUR TANK WILL SEAL UP WITH THE GASKETS YOU MADE
If it leaked with the acid stuff...it will with this stuff...and this is WORSE!
NO SMOKING, and DO THIS NEXT STEP IN A WELL VENTILATED AREA!!!!!!
This stuff STINKS, is FLAMMABLE, and somewhat TOXIC. Go outside, or open a window.....add a fan....heck, just go outside!
Even after a shower I could smell this stuff on me!

Rinse the tank using the 'cocktail shaker method'.......drain, trying to get as much out as you can.
At this point, you're beyond the inspection stage.......it should be clean! TOO late to back up!

The white coating is last. You will notice the smell of the previous step in the tank. You really don't want to be breathing it!
Pour the contents of the bottle in the tank, and rotate the SEALED tank to coat the whole surface. You'll need to keep doing this every few minutes,
without letting the coating puddle up in any particular area! Keep it moving!

If you get tired.....or think you've got it coated....
Get a plastic bowl ready.
Prop the tank on supports that will approximate the position on the bike, in an upright stance......slide the plastic bowl under the petcock opening, and remove the gasket, or cover you made to seal it up.
If the tank is level.....this is the natural low point of the tank. The excess will drain out pretty easily with the gas tank cap plug removed. Collect it.....pour it back into the bottle.
Let it set up a bit and peek inside. You may see irregular coating......or totally missed spots. Remember them............put the petcock plug back in. Add the saved coating liquid.....do it again.
You may repeat this process a couple of times.
My first application used about 50% of the liquid. I repeated it, until I had applied an estimate of 80% of the coating bottle.
This stuff dries pretty quickly.
Don't let it puddle up! A nice, even coating is cool!
You can position a fan, or use a hair dryer on COOL to speed it up.
Some time spent rotating the tank, and draining out excess stuff is needed. As it dries, it moves slower. You may think you have all the excess out, and prop the tank against the wall to dry, without any plugs.....and come back an hour later to find a trickle hardening out of an opening.

Ideally, when it dries, you'll
have a nice even, white coating on the inside of your tank.
Now, re-install your fittings.
You may need to scrape some of the coating stuff from the openings.
My petcock hole was almost sealed up. Likewise,the various bolt holes may have some in them.
Be careful scraping the stuff out....it would be convenient to have it drop AWAY from the tank opening!
Now's a good time to put an inline fuel filter in the fuel line!

I'm ready to replace my tank, and fill it up with gas. I'm going to do it GRADUALLY, in case something is leaking, maybe a gallon to start.


On a scale of 1-5 in Mechanical difficulty.....I give this process a '2'!
You can pull this off if you can change your own oil, plugs, take the tank off.....etc.

[PitterB4]

Just an added bit of info, especially for the B4 owners.  The B4 tank is DIFFICULT to drain completely.  It's tough to get the gas out, it's tough to get the rinses out and importantly it's tough to get all the Kreem out.  The petcock hole is just not in a good spot to collect the fluid.  I ended up with some puddling.  To minimize it, I would let it pool for 20 minutes or so and then try to pour as much off as I could.  I repeated this process for a couple hours.  There are still some thicker areas.  I'm hoping it won't be a problem.  i don't think it will.  The stuff dries tough.  And, all the things Pete said about it stinking are TRUE!  

Hopefully, this will be the end of clogged pilot jets for me!

[jwalters]

I'm getting into restoring old honda CB's which always have bad tanks.  I have used both Kreem kits and POR-15.  I would recommend POR-15, it does not make a coating over the metal, it actually binds and hold on to the metal.  POR-15 has been around forever, and most car restoration folks use it for rust removal and prevention.

Kind of funny too, POR-15 sells a "Kreem Removal Kit" which basically removes a failed Kreem coating and applies their stuff.  If that speaks for itself.

From my experience, I follow the direcitons to a T, the Kreem works well if the tank isn't real rusty, but if its really bad, the POR-15 holds much better.

-j

[PitterB4]

FWIW, My tank was pretty rusty and the acid wash did a very nice job of cleaning that up.

[terrebandit]

I used that same kit on a rusted GS1000 tank.  Worked like a charm and totally solved the problem!  Thumbs up....

Dave