1Gb Talon Rust Revival

[Dericsh]

Is that stud salvageable? It looks beyond that point to me but I don’t have much rust to deal with in my area. If anyone can save it, I’d bet you can.

 

[Silverspyder]

Is that stud salvageable? It looks beyond that point to me but I don’t have much rust to deal with in my area. If anyone can save it, I’d bet you can.

Hard to say, but I'm going to try. what's the alternative? I'm guessing the stud is pressed into the frame like the bumper ones are. I don't see any way to access the other side of it. I suppose drill it out and tap the hole might work if the metal is thick enough, but I doubt it. Grind smooth and weld on a new stud? I'm no welder so that's out.

 

[TK's9d2TSi]

Think it should be fine as long as threads above it are ok. @Silverspyder is that the stud that’s on the rear passengers side? I noticed that was the only corroded nut holding my tank when I was back there last week.

 

[Silverspyder]

Think it should be fine as long as threads above it are ok. @Silverspyder is that the stud that’s on the rear passengers side? I noticed that was the only corroded nut holding my tank when I was back there last week.

It's the middle one back there, but the passenger side doesn't look much better, Here's a better pic of them both.

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[Silverspyder]

I woke up yesterday and chose violence. I was going to get the damn fuel tank removed one way or another. Kept working on that stuck and rusted nut. This time I used an air chisel on it to try and shake it/cut it free. Just did more to mangle the whole thing.

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As you can see, the entire thing is completely mangled. Was time to pull out the cut off wheel. Because it's such a tight area, my Milwaukee mini grinder (with 3" wheel) worked great.

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But first, I needed to seal up the tank really well. Creating sparks and working around fuel vapor makes me nervous...especially since I can't smell it very well ever since I had covid a year and a half ago. My sense of smell is still jacked a bit. I used aluminum tape and sealed up the fuel sender opening and all the hoses before I went at it. turned my garage fans on high and began cutting.

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this is what's left of this goddamn nut and stud.

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she's finally free!! The hose clamps for the return line and vent were so corroded, I just cut the damn hoses. The top of the tank is in much better shape than I would have thought considering the rest of the rear before I began this whole journey.

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Now, the messy part...grinding and wire wheeling this damn thing. Not sure how I'm going to coat it yet, but priority is getting rid of as much surface rust as possible.

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Lots of little pea-sized and dime-sized areas of rust on this thing in seemingly random spots. Nothing too terrible, but it did cause some pitting.

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Next up is treating the rust, cleaning her up and I'll propbably POR15 the whole thing for some extra protection and then probably do what they did from the factory and paint the top black and redo the bottom with rubber undercoating. I also need to get back underneath the car and por15 the area where the tank sits, since I couldn't get to it when I did it the first time. I will also use RTM's stud repair kit. I had already done it my way in the past (drilled out the studs and threaded the holes and installed stainless hardware) but the repair kit is more solid and should last forever.

 

[Silverspyder]

Today's goal was to install the stud repair kit and get the tank ready for coating. I did a bunch more wire brushing and grinding. Tons of tiny little areas under the paint with just a bubble of surface rust. I think I got them all. I made a point to get around the sending unit hole really well.

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Next up before I drilled out the new holes and shored everything up for the repair kit, I needed to flatten the top where the original studs were. When I repaired this years ago, I drilled out the studs and threaded the holes, then used stainless steel hardware from below to act as new studs. With doing so in the car, some of the old stud material was left intact. Time to get rid of it. I used a carbide burr bit on my cordless dremel. Made short work of it and smoothed it nicely. I used some aluminum tape, sticky side up to try and catch some of the crud I was creating. As you can see it did a decent job.

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I used the supplied drill guide to make sure everything was lined up perfectly for the new repair kit. If you haven't seen RTM's repair kit, the premise is to drill the holes out, with adding a couple more to then install 1 or 2 c-shaped metal pieces, which you then bolt the sending unit to. Depending on how many studs you have missing determines if you use one or both of the pieces. I had no factory studs left, so I used them both. In all honesty, this thing is such a meaty piece of metal, that I'd remove all the crappy factory studs anyway and use these. These add a substantial amount of new metal to this flawed area of the tank making it much stronger overall.

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Here you can see one of the pieces. I did a test fit to make sure all the bolt holes lined up and threaded in perfectly first. The second pic is of them both installed using the supplied button head screws. These screw into the pieces to secure them to the underside of the tank (these are completely new holes you must drill), then the remaining holes are for the sending unit to bolt into.

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I did a test fit of the sending unit to make sure everything lined up and bolted down perfectly.

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I then removed everything so I can prep for coating. I have some rust converter spray sitting around, so I decided to use it here because this is such a big area to coat. First, I washed the tank with soapy water, then wiped down with rubbing alcohol to remove any dirt and grease. I then sprayed 3 light coats of rust converter.

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It takes about 24 hours to fully cure and convert, but after 20minutes you can already see it turning the rust black. I wanted to make sure I got all the little pitted areas, so this method worked well.

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I'll let this cure all week, then next weekend I'll POR15 the top of the tank and topcoat it black. I'll also begin working on the remainder of the underside of the car.

 

[Widgmaster]

Wow..I haven't seen that product name in decades .. Mar-hyde is a great product... They also make a vinyl dye and it was the best you could get... No longer available in Canada?

 

[iugrad92turbo]

Im loving this build im doing a similar restoration to my 92.

 

[Silverspyder]

This week was all about getting the old lines removed and coating the fuel tank and underside of the car where the tank sits.

First, I removed the hard lines for the fuel return (rail to tank) and the vent line (tank to engine bay). These lines were pretty corroded and pretty much collapsed as soon as I moved them. I'll be replacing the return line with -6an teflon coated braided line and I'll probably vent the tank underneath the car in the rear using the stock valves like before.

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I decided to blast and POR15 this little shield piece that was adhered to the corner of the tank. It's also in pretty rough shape. I had to chisel off the large rust chunks before I could blast it.

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Here are some before pics of what I coated. As you can see, the underside of the car is still pretty rusty. This was after I wire wheeled and scraped off the chunks.

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After degreasing and metal prepping/etching, I went to work on two coats of POR15. Waiting about 2hrs between coats. I didn't do the entirety of the underside as there was no need to do the good spots. Next weekend I'll paint the top of the tank, undercoat the underside of the car and the bottom of the tank and shield, then install the sending unit and get it all back in the car.

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