Fuel TankCoating

[blockislandguy]

I think I read on another forum recently (ClassicMako.com?) that in replacing fuel tanks you should coat the alum tank with "cold tar epoxy". While I don't know what that is (and wouldn't know where to buy it), we just installed new fuel tanks (yes, tanks) in one of our F150 Supercabs. It was a major pain in the butt (we had a bad fuel pump and to get at the pump which Bill Ford--way to go, Bill, real American engineering at work-- located within the tank, both tanks had to come out and so while we had them out we put new ones ine, etc. etc.) that took our not so skilled guys about a week to do ( I figure that the whole job that began with the need to replace a fuel pump cost about $1500). I didn't want to do it again so we coated the hell out of each new fuel tanks' exterior with cans of spray on undercoating.

This seemed to work well, although it would rub off on our mechanics hands as they wrestled the tanks back up into the frame rails. We used up all the cans a local NAPA had and then bought 3M undercoating spray cans from another vendor. Much, much better quality. So, if I were going to replace a marine fuel tank and couldn't find the "coal tar" stuff, I'd use 3M spray on undercoating.

YMMV