Anybody done it? I’m assuming most who have used some sort of aviation / race car style bladder inside the tank? Anybody super chemistry savvy and know a resin compatible with standard pump gas?
for a motorcycle…not a cover, a sealed tank.
You’ll want a Novolac based epoxy, that’s specifically what they are made for.
I have done a few…
I do use a phenol novolac but I only use it as a sealer and to make my adhesive with. The rest of the tank is pre-preg which does also have a percentage of phenol novolac in there too.
Not sure what the tank would be like made fully of phenol novolac resin as it will protect from ethanol but not sure if it will discolour from the petroleum content and turn brown over time. You would need to try it… The pre-preg is fine with petroleum and a small amount of ethanol but the sealer is a 100% phenol Novolac so is as good as it gets to protect from ethanol and as it is a coating I do not care if it discolours.
Im very interested in doing tanks in the future, for Fuel, water and oil so I am very interested in knowing more.
Am I correct that you make a pre-preg part and then spray/brush a coating on the inside?
beautiful work my friend…thanks for the knowledge. I would love to see the mold of the tail, seat, gas tank combo…Your cut lines are legit.
googled phenol with my previous novolac search… formaldehyde came up a few times…oufff reminds me of how bad that (non US version)spa bond 345 smells. when the time comes to buy resin…looks like i might need one of these…
Those tanks are absolutely beautiful Morepower. What did you clear coat them with?
Snoop around, I posted a list of some promising materials quite a while ago. Hope its not too late by now. Alternatively if you’ve already chosen how did you go about it?
Just cheap 2 pack lacquer. I am not great at painting so the lacquer takes me longer than making the tank…lol…
I brush the sealer inside the shell and on the base. I find that as is cures and heats up the resin can slump so I add the thickener to the resin to keep it where i want it…
A few paragraphs down it talks about ethanol and fuel tank sealer compatibility.
http://exrocketman.blogspot.ca/2013/11/aviation-alternative-fuel-compatibility.html
Additional info regarding compatibilities
http://www.warco.com/pdf/Rubber-Elastomer-Chemical-Resistance-Guide-by-TLARGI-and-WARCO-BILTRITE.pdf
what type of filler/ thickener do you use? I have used flock and aerosil a lot but was wondering if fuel would destroy those fillers
I use a colloidal silica which works well. It lets me mix it to the consistency I want and the fuel will not do anything to it…