HOW TO: get the KREME liner OUT of a gas tank (without losing your sanity)

[reckon]

this one is a tad expensive, but it WORKS, and you don't have to work too hard.

get five gallons of ACETONE,...nothing else works as well, and believe me I've tried everything.

FILL the tank with acetone, all the way to the brim, and then cap it up and stick it in a corner of the garage for a couple of days.  now pour out the milky looking acetone and notice you have an almost bare metal tank inside!  now I add anoher gallon of acetone, and a stamped steel chain, with drywall screws run through the links, and shake, shake, shake, now pour out the acetone, and now rinse it again with another couple of quarts of acetone.

now I usually give it a GOOD 24 hour soak with METAL PREP, or any good phosphoric acid solution, and rinse, but when you rinse, just add about a half gallon of water, shake it up, and pour it out,...now start drying

I like a hair dryer taped to the filler neck,....

once it's all dry, look inside you should see some white powdery residue inside the tank, thats zinc phosphate, and thats good, but not if it's caked on really thick, if it is, just rinse with another half gallon of water, and dry again.

once it's all dry it's ready to seal, use the sealer of your choice (obviously NOT kreme again!) , I like :

http://www.caswellplating.com/aids/epoxygas.htm

I am making the replacement YICS boxes out of the caswell sealer, once cured, when it's molded an 1/8th inch thick it's harder than polycarb, and obviously COMPLETELY fuel resistant.

the trick for getting the KREME out of the tank is the large amount of acetone which dissolves the kreme (which is basically liquid PVC) and lets it dissolve into solution and you just pour it out, then a quick abrasive rinse with more acetone, and you'll have about 90% or more of the kreme out of the tank.

this should help out a few folks out there

ride safe,.......................or WIN!

[h2olawyer]

Another alternative is to use the POR-15 kit made for relining tanks that used "inferior" products.  That kit includes a chemical stripper that will remove Kreem.  They may sell the chemical stripper separately.  I haven't used it but have a Kreemed 82 tank that will be getting restored inside & out this spring.

H₂O

[reckon]

the reason I came up with the acetone method, is because POR sold me their stripper, I tried it, and it SUCKED! you will be there for DAYS 1st trying to get all the kreme off, then another day or so, trying to get all the chemical stripper residue out.

I have tried about every method under the sun (and a couple under the moon!) and believe me, the acetone ROOLZ!  when you buy kreme, the instructions even TELL you, "warning, acetone will soften and remove the kreme coating, do NOT add any additives that contain acetone"

one good 48 hour soak, filled to the brim with acetone, and you get about 75%-85% of the kreme off, no scraping, no chemical stripper burns, NO STRIPPER RESIDUE accidentally left in the tank, which will start "stripping" the coating you add next

this is the way to do it, and I have about 40-45 kreme stripped tanks out there with either caswell, or POR-15 in them now, and they are still gas tight (one is well over 10 years now)

I wont even think about getting the KREME out, without going down to OSH or home depot, and getting a five'r of acetone.

[Lucky]

what do you do with the hazerdous waste left over? & the fumes must be a killer
(no pun intended)

[reckon]

what do you do with the hazerdous waste left over? & the fumes must be a killer
(no pun intended)

our city recycling center has a HAZMAT waste disposal drop off site, I sometimes would take it there.  my body shop neighbor has a solvent washer: pour in five gallons of dirty solvent and push a button and out comes 4.75 gallons of sparkling clean solvent, ready to re-use.

I live in the SF bay area, and we have some STRICT air pollution restrictions for VOC's (volatile organic solvents or fumes), however ACETONE is excepted and carries no restriction.
so evaporating 5 gallons of acetone onto used masking paper so it dries and then just becomes garbage, is an accepted practice here.

and if they let ya do it here they'll let you do it anywhere.

also the fumes with acetone are not very noxious, however this should be done outside, and obviously no smoking, and I wouldn't do it near any open flames (like the water heater)
you can wear a vapor mask if you like,  but outside, with a fan blowing or a light breeze, you probably wont smell a thing.

[Lucky]

it's funny, i can usually deal with some pretty noxious chemicals & not experience any effects (yeah i know, i know) but when my wife takes her nail polish off i about keel over...

[67GTO]

Watch out for drain Bamage ;)

[Night Vision]

it's funny, i can usually deal with some pretty noxious chemicals & not experience any effects (yeah i know, i know) but when my wife takes her nail polish off i about keel over...

I'm the same way with perfume  >:(

I don't go into some of those mall stores because I can't breath (and I'm a smoker that can't smell real good, ummm, I don't think I stink too much)

If I get in an elevator with a person that has overwhelming "perfumes"....
.....I'll try to squeak a fart  ;D

[Cdnlouie]

I like time savers, thanks for that idea Reckon!  I have my original tank that needs a Kreem removal job sometime down the road and that sounds like the way to go.  I've sloshed that old girl around enough in the early days of trying to get clean fuel flowing again.

Acetone rules!

Louie

[Tiffanator]

Thanks for the tip on the acetone reckon! I have to do my tank soon, so I'll be swinging by Lowe's or Home Depot to get some.  If it takes it out easily then its worth it.
Tiff

[reckon]

Thanks for the tip on the acetone reckon! I have to do my tank soon, so I'll be swinging by Lowe's or Home Depot to get some.  If it takes it out easily then its worth it.
Tiff

it does take almost ALL the KREME out on the first soak, the only drawback is the cost of the 5 gal of acetone (in the SF bay area it's about $48 plus tax), but me personally I would GLADLY pay way more than that because it is such an easy method, requiring the least amount of grunge work.

the tank on my V has what looks like about 4 layers of that crap, so it might take me TWO soaks, to get it all out.

[Lucky]

couldn't you strain or filter the acitone & reuse it?

[reckon]

there must be a procedure to precipitate the PVC in solution, so it would solidify, and then you could strain it, but I would have to ask a chemist to find out what that is

as I mentioned in a previous post, I have a body shop neighbor, and we trade back and forth all the time, so when I show up with ten gallons of milky PVC saturated acetone, to put through his five thousand dollar solvent washer, he lets me, no charge, and it'll spit out about 4 3/4 gallons of pure crystal clear acetone per 5 gallons poured in about 6 or 7 minutes, pretty cool if you know a larger body shop.

I bet most would run it through for a few bucks, or a case of beer or something, it's all in the delivery   ;)

[jasonm.]

DID everyone forget? Acetone EASILY removes paint. The paint job on the tank will look like crud without some careful planning.

[kwells]

to precipitate pvc out of acetone would be like trying to do the same to salt water.  Im sure filtration would be your best best in getting what you can out.  Either way you probably could get a few uses out of it...
When I was a painter we used to reuse our paint thinner.  would just dump it all into a 55 gallon drum and let the paint that was suspended in solution just settle to the bottom...then scoop off the top...pretty high tech eh.

[Kevin]

I have used acetone, Recon is right about Por stripper, It works but there is not enough to do it properly.I have had better results with M.E.K.. I have never bought it in 5 gallons. Just 1 gallon has cleaned the tanks out. Don't let a drop touch the paint. I have had Kreem in one tank for over 20 years and it has held up fine.

[h2olawyer]

The V i bought last Summer has a Kreemed tank.  That stuff is flaking & bubbling.  Will be doing the acetone job to it later this Spring.  Then comes PORing that tank and the 83 tank I picked up from Leather last Fall.  The 83 tank is pristene - other than a minor dent in the side.  Interior is beautiful with very minor surface rusting.  Corners are nice & solid.   ;D  Not going to worry about the exterior paint on either tank as both will be repainted after the POR jobs.

The POR site claims that any remaining lining material left after their chemical stripper will not affect how the POR sticks.  I'll feel better knowing ALL that stuff is removed prior to resealing the tank.

H₂O

[reckon]

The V i bought last Summer has a Kreemed tank.  That stuff is flaking & bubbling.  Will be doing the acetone job to it later this Spring.  Then comes PORing that tank and the 83 tank I picked up from Leather last Fall.  The 83 tank is pristene - other than a minor dent in the side.  Interior is beautiful with very minor surface rusting.  Corners are nice & solid.   ;D  Not going to worry about the exterior paint on either tank as both will be repainted after the POR jobs.

The POR site claims that any remaining lining material left after their chemical stripper will not affect how the POR sticks.  I'll feel better knowing ALL that stuff is removed prior to resealing the tank.

H₂O

well the POR site also claimed that their "POR-STRIP" would remove the kreem coating, which it did not, so I would take that with a grain of salt.

I just feel better knowing I don't have to worry about IF the residue will cause a failure later on
and like I said the only drawback to the 5gal acetone method, is the cost of the acetone itself.

I also like to use caswell on tanks that I have removed a coating from: adhesion is always an issue, and more so when you have a stripped surface to deal with, and I like the way epoxy sticks to just about anything on the planet, and once cured, NO solvent or stripper will affect it

and no I don't work for caswell, but I am thinking about sending them an invoice for word of internet advertising   :D

[Night Vision]

plus H²O (sorry, the subscript 2 seems to get cut off sometimes)

if you have 2 tanks... you can do both for the price of one por-15 job

that's what I'm planning on doing

[Cdnlouie]

Kevin,

What is the M.E.K. product that you mention? For some reason, my translation program is not working ???.