I am getting a new aluminum fuel tank installed on 28 Bertram thanks to the Ethanol gas and insurance and the guys building the tank are coating the outside. I have 2 Stainless Steel saddle tanks that I would like to coat but the shop didn't know of anything to coat them in. Does anybody have any idea what I can put on these stainless tank to protect them? I am also repainting my decks while I have the deck out and I have hatches in the floor that lift out. The hatches had these bolt like handles to pick the hatches up and they weren't sealed so the wood on the underside has some rotting. I removed all the wood and I am going to re-glass the undersided but there are some stress cracks on the topside of the hatches. The hatches have a diamond texture on them. I was going to grind the stress cracks and seal them but how do I fix the cracks and keep the diamond pattern? What would be the best product to fix the cracks? Any help would be appreciate.
Curt
tanks first...
shouldn't use stainless for a tank material-it's a poor choice...i suggest you throw them away and have aluminum replacements made...tank coatings,do a search of stuff i've written,you're gonna find the correct way to coat an aluminum surface-follow the advice i gave...
deck repairs...
you need to make a "mold" of the non skid pattern,press this "mold" into the gel coat to finish off the surface...to repair the cracks,you need to grind them out and rebuild the surface using matting,filler has no strength...the cracks are there due to the core being bad...for the core,do not use pressure teated wood-i've seen alot of di guys use pressure treat,only to have it fail,the coating on it will shed any and all fiberglass products...again,i've posted information about all this,do a search of my stuff,you're gonna find it...
smart play on the refinish is to use awlgrip,and griptex...roll it on and call it a day...be sure to fully prep and prime the surface first...
The stainless itself is not bad material, it is the stainless welds. There is too much porosity(spelling) in the welds. It is very hard to get a good weld that will not leak, now, or in the near future as the welded seams oxidize. I advise against coating a aluminum tank as well. Aluminums best defense is its own natural oxidizing. Let it breath, do not surround it with foam and it will last very long.
I just saw a edition of ship shape tv about making the non skid patterns, there are less that ten commercial non skid patterns out there and there is a company that sells rubber patches of the different patterns to be used as the molds for small repairs. There is probably a website for ship shape tv and if you do a search on non skid repair on that site I bet you can find the company to get those patterns from. You may have to lightly sand down the new pattern a bit to match the 20 years of traffic your deck has endured.
take out the back deck..<~~ not hard! .. take a claw hammer and claw out all the dead wood in the back. get some klegesile and remake and epoxy in the new deck. the tank needs to be aluminum and you only get 119 gallons usable in the middle aft area. do not use it as support as the old tanks held up the aft deck build stringers and supports to hold the deck! I then have two different configurations ..1- a single 122 gallon mid tank in the old engine compartment or .. 2- two 78 gallon tanks where the inboard engines used to be.. this also allows to to have 42-48 gallons of water. I use a product called steel flex now for my decks and the stuff accepts any non-skid that you want. the steel flex is also GREAT to coat the outside of any fuel tank and was first made to coat the underside of airboat hulls... it can also be mixed to color. But then again I am just a creature who converts these Bert's to 2008 standards... and above!
I got my new tank and they told me it is 165 gallons. You can read my post on the issues with my tank. Quest why shouldn't I use supports welded on the tank to support the deck? The company added aluminum strips to the top of the tank to duplicate the way that Bertram had done the fiberglass tank.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
