Happy Memorial Day to all, I hope you’re all out enjoying riding.
I was an occasional contributor here some years back, but for reasons there’s no need to go into here, have been unable to ride my 2008 C14 for coming up on 6 years. For reasons I cannot defend, the bike sat covered and on a battery tender, unstarted, for that time, except for the last year and a half when the battery tender was disconnected.
I wanted to bring it to life again, so I washed it, bought and installed a new battery, a new FOB battery, and changed the oil and oil filter. The last step was to siphon out the old gas and fill it with fresh gas and maybe a dose of Sea Foam. When I opened the fuel cap, I was appalled to see no gas, only serious rust (not just surface rust), and got a powerful dose of varnish odor. I thought I had filled the tank after my last ride, but looking back at my fuel records spreadsheet, it seems my last fill-up was about 90 miles prior to the mileage the odometer currently shows, so it may have been around 2 gallons down when I parked it. And with evaporation, I’m not sure how much “fluid” is there now, although the gas gauge shows all but the one top segment (but of course I don’t know if the fuel gauge is working at this point).
There’s no need to bash me at this point, I’m doing that to myself more than enough, thank you. A new tank will set me back around $800, so I have quite an incentive to see if I can successfully remove the rust. I know this is commonly done in the restoration of older bikes and cars, but I have no experience at it. I searched for an existing post about this here and didn’t find anything, I hope that’s because I’m the first to be so stupid.
Googling “rusty motorcycle tank” gives a number of novel solutions. No, I’m not going to add nuts and bolts or sand to the tank and try to tumble it wrapped in blankets in the dryer. I don’t think it would fit anyway. There are suggestions and demos of soaking the inside in various chemicals, including muriatic acid, phosphoric acid, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and products like Metal Rescue, WD40 Rust Remover Soak, or Evapo-Rust, which all sound similar from what I can tell. YouTube videos make all of the last 3 look very effective, and they are non-toxic water-based (and don’t stink like vinegar…)
Do any of you have actual experience dealing with internal tank rust on any bike? I’d appreciate your advice and observations. TIA.