Budget builds take time, draw blood, and beat you down . . . but I'm coming out ahead.

I decided to restore my tank instead of paying out nearly $800 for a new one.  There was around an inch of sludge and varnish built up in the bottom that had hardened to concrete.  I removed all of the fittings and access and tested the ability to chip away at it with no luck.  This got me thinking as to how motivated I was really going to be trying to clean the tank based on the abilities of chemicals I could get my hands on.  I don't like working with volatile chemicals without the right facility.  I had chemical gloves on hand which made manipulating anything smaller than a steering wheel a daunting task so I opted for some surgical gloves which would snag and tear every other minute or so.  The first chemical I introduced was Phosphoric Acid.  This proved to be a pretty motivated liquid.  It sizzled and bubbled and produced gasses that could incapacitate a gorilla.  However, it didn't seem to be a magic dissolver of rust and varnish.  The next step was Muriatic Acid.  I had another set of hands on the job this time and my buddy suggested dumping a couple hand-fulls of penny in the tank to act as an abrasive.  Not sure what the acid would do to the pennies, we dumped them in anyways.  The pennies proved to do a nice job. They moved in and out of the baffles willingly and were easy to remove.  This round showed better results.  I treated it two more times with the Muriatic while rinsing very well between treatments with a pressure washer.  The pressure washer nozzle got into the tank just far enough to blast some hung varnish out of its home.  At this point, it was time for the POR 15 tank coating kit.  It came with Marine Clean to eat away any varnish and rust left, Metal Ready to de-acidify the surface and the interior coating.  The kit worked very well.  Note - take care to keep it out of your threads while rolling the product in the tank.  Q-tips can help clean out the threads while its still wet.  Also, take care with these chemicals.  I saw the job they did to my drive way where I spilled a spot, pretty impressive!  But i don't think I would want it cleaning my hands.  I used an old 5 gal plastic bucket as a designated holding container for all of the chemicals I used.  Remember to take this to a disposal facility when your done . . . don't just pour it in the drain.  Gloves and masks are a must!  I can't stress that enough.  Also, stay in a well ventilated area.  I finished the interior and the exterior and am pretty happy with the results.

  These show the interior after the 

application of POR15.  It was still wet at this point.

 Photos above show the outside of the tank after prime and paint.

 

I'm very happy with the results.  In the end I spent right around $90 for chemicals and the POR15 kit.  This made for a $700 savings over buying a new tank.  If you have the time to spend and the patients required, it makes for a very rewarding project.