82 KZ/GPz gas tank repair

Thanks Scirocco. I was always wondering about that. I do little welding, so I knew Alum. doesn't weld steel (or vise versa). I didn't even check the material. I just bought it s to see if it works. Not on the tank, though. I bought it many many years ago. I need to find that rod first if I even gonna use it. Yeah, sometimes I forget to check the details.

Anyway, never thought about plumbing shop. I hope I can find a good one. Lack of choice (and option) are the problem on this small island. Next good shop are 6 hour plane ride and $600 away (round trip ticket) + the repair fee, hotel, rent-a-car, meal..................You get the idea. 

I'd write that gas tank off, and try to find a replacement.  Try posting a wanted ad in the classifieds.

There's a reason the tank pros refused the job.

The gas tank was around for 3 years. At least in US. Kind a hard to look for another one.

Trust me. I been on it since few years ago. Found several in Japan. That was the only place I found the tank.

wrote:

The gas tank was around for 3 years. At least in US. Kind a hard to look for another one.

Trust me. I been on it since few years ago. Found several in Japan. That was the only place I found the tank.

I have one but i'm in Australia, I expect the shipping would be brutal.

Reconsider Caswell.
When I bought my XT225 about 4 years ago, it had a pin hole leak. I fixed it with a bit of epoxy. A few month later, another leak, and another epoxy fix. Another few month, and another leak. I realized this would never end. The tank was shot, rotting out. A friend suggested, as a last resort, try Caswell. No more leaks for the past 3 years. Caswell is more than a coating, It forms an epoxy inner tank. I thing the entire steel tank could rust away, and I would be left with an epoxy tank.

I patched up a rotten as hell tank myself then lined it with Caswell's.  The first few holes while derusting were patched using silver solder and then I just gave up and taped over them and continued to derust.  

Normally, it only takes about 1/2 batch of Caswell's to seal up the typical tank, but I used the entire batch.  Flow it around over and over again, so it builds layers.  Thin it as much as the instructions allow too because it's crazy thick.  Anyway, that tank I did weighed significantly more than before I started because of the extra epoxy weight.  It was tight as a drum afterwards though.

Thanks guys for the info and tips.

I was able to locate local dealer for POR-15. It should be here, at latest, tomorrow. In the mean time, I'm still working on my tank. Evapo-Rust has been treating the front, rear and top of the tank. It's on left side today, it will be working on right side tomorrow, and last but not least, bottom the following day.

As of now, the JB weld patch are holding in it's place, no leak detected yet. I'm hoping that it will still be there when I treat it with POR-15. For now, I'm still looking for Caswell, but none can be found on this island. I'm trying to get that stuff ship on surface/ground mail, but for some reason, no one wants to do it. I even tried on ebay. Guess for now, POR have to do.

A few years back, I dropped my XS 650 tank on the rear seam and it started leaking a bit . I bought a POR 15 tank sealing kit via Amazon and followed the direction. Seam sealed. some leaked out from the petcock opening. A lot of sanding and got the ares flat again. It is tough stuff!  Epoxy tough!

Exactly what year and model tank are you looking for?

Another vote for Caswell. I used the stuff recently and it will fix you up. Don't wash the tank with water as the evapo rust instructions say. Wash with isopropyl then acetone then do the Caswell.

In the mean time I would just submerge the whole tank in evaporust.   can't leak then 

OK guys. I was finally able to have Evapo-Rust treat the tank without any leak and coat them with POR-15. As far as POR-15, it need 96 hours (according to their instruction) to fully cure, and my tank is outside right now (I will bring them in right before I go to sleep) so I can't say how good, or I did the job right. But what I can say, for now, are these.

Evapo-Rust did amazing job, again. When I drained the tank, it did not look good at all, but after the rinse with garden hose (to prepare for the POR-15), it looked amazingly good. But at the same time, I did have Evapo-Rust for kinda long. For about two weeks, if not longer. I did have enough time to have my tank sit on every side of it. I should've taken some picture of it, but I needed to go to next step as quickly as possible, to avoid getting flash rust.

As for the prep, just make sure you follow the instruction very close. At least for me, finish looks ok for now. What take the longest, is probably their Tank Prep fluid. Just to make sure, I had my tank sitting on every side for at least 30 minutes. And used my wifey's hair-drier to dry the tank for another 15 minutes or so ( I used high-fan with high-heat). After the hair-drier, I had my tank sitting outside in the sun, for another hour or so to take care of any remaining water/moisture inside the tank. And last but not least, another hair-drier for 10 minutes.This is what the tank look like inside.

And tank waiting for the final coat.

By the way, my tank is rather big tank. According to Kawasaki manual, tank holds 21.7 L, or roughly 5.7 US Gal. And this is the POR-15 sealer that comes with the their kit.

And by the time I finish coating the tank, this is what came out. It's hard to see, but it's the middle silvery goo.

Lastly, after you coat the tank, it does give off strong, almost diesel fuel like smell, so make sure you have place to store your tank. Tank is sitting right outside of my front door on the porch (Hawaii standard size, so very small front porch) as we speak, but everybody in the living room is smelling this.

Guess I will report back with the result, after 96 hours of curing (you know that's 4 days, full 4 days, right?) if I did the job right.