Fuel Tank: Re-furbishing? (Any success?)
 

Hey guys,

I originally bought my FD as a roller that had been sitting for quite a long time.
The fuel in the tank had gone bad, and long story short it made a mess of the tank. (Lots of surface rust and debris.)

The tank cleaned up really well after hot-tanking it at my local radiator repair shop.. However they wouldn't re-seal it due to the baffles and plastic parts inside. (The enclosure the fuel pump resides.)

Anyway.
Without re-sealing/coating the tank, I'm getting surface flash rust and crap again as to be expected.

My question is:
Has anyone had success re-coating/sealing one of our fuel tanks?
I'd love to re-use this tank, but if there's no real practical way of re-coating it... I might just need to look for an excellent condition used tank.

Thoughts/Comments?

Thanks!

A while back I saw that Atkins got some new OEM tanks in stock. Pricey but that's an option.

There are a number of fuel tank restoration products out there, I would start with Eastwood Co, they have a few products and they generally make high quality stuff. At the end of the day a gas tank is a gas tank. If you can get something in there to convert the rust and seal it with a gas and ethanol proof surface you're in good shape.

Dale

I suspect to do it right, you'll need to split it, and re-weld it back together after treatment.

P

thanks for the tip of Atkins.
For anyone else searching this later, here is a link to the new tank.

https://www.atkinsrotary.com/store/95-Rx7-Gas-Tank-F124-42-110A.html

$700 - may be an option. Nice brand new tank goodness. :)
I'll noodle on this more and figure out what I wanna do.

Thanks for the help again.

This would also be worth a call to Ray. I've found he beats OEM part prices, and he has even beaten Atkins prices (significantly). Otherwise, you could bring yours to a good body shop that might be able to sort you out. Good luck.

Later model FD (S8) have a better baffle ,
Maybe that's something you want to also consider ,since your there.

I recently got one of the brand new ones from Japan, through Ray.

The baffling is nicer (and doesn't come loose). There's no drain plug though, FYI.

FYI there are no new gas tanks left in Mazda's US inventory from what I was told. I bought one of the last 2 that were in stock in Japan. If anyone wants one I suggest you contact Ray Crowe ASAP.

Thanks for the help guys.
I ended up getting a new one from Atkins.
I'll take some pictures and what not when I get it.

Going to be nice to have a nice fresh and new tank.

As promised!
Attached are some pictures of this beauty.
I do wish it had a drain plug like on my original tank, but what are you gonna do. I knew that before getting it.
Hopefully it wont need to come back out again for a long time.

You made the right decision. Beautiful!

Atkins seems to have an inventory of parts that don't show up in anyone else's list of stuff that's in country.

Yeah.
I wonder how many of these tanks they have on-hand, and what the availability is anywhere else. Might even be worth buying another one to put on a shelf somewhere. (Considering what it costs now to get.)