coating the tank
The repairs to my gas tank have just been fast-tracked. My '86 Mazda 626, which has become my daily driver while Peanut is in pieces, threw a rod on Thursday, starting a small fire under the engine. Depending on the damage, I may just scrap the car entirely.

Last night, I ran a hair dryer blowing into the tank for about 2 hours to finish drying out the tank. Even though it had been sitting in the garage for nearly a month, I figured I should be better safe than sorry. Once I figured the inside of the tank was drier than dry, I sealed off the gauge/drain hole and the vent hole, rolled a bit of cardboard into a makeshift funnel, and poured the entire can of fuel tank sealant into the fill hole. I sealed the fill hole with duct tape and began rolling the tank around. I just tried to judge how viscous the sealant was based on how it flowed into the tank, and tilted the tank around accordingly. I then placed the tank on a cardboard box, pulled the tape from the fill hole, and drained the sealant into a bucket. After a few hours, only a few drips were present in the bucket, so I pulled the rest of the duct tape and let it dry overnight.

This afternoon, I started sealing the outside of the tank with POR-15. It took me about 15-20 minutes just to open the can, which was probably the most difficult paint can I've ever opened. I had to use a flatblade screwdriver, pliers, and a small pry bar just to open the can. Once that was taken care of, I put on latex gloves, poured three cups of the stuff into a small bucket, and re-sealed the can with a piece of plastic wrap. I then applied the first coat of POR-15 with foam brushes. The POR-15 dissolved the adhesive holding the foam brushes together, so I went through a few of them. The stuff went on really well; I only used about two and a half cups for two coats. I let the first coat dry while I went to a pot luck dinner up Sunshine Canyon, which is a really beautiful place. The second coat took a bit more POR-15 than the first coat did, since I used the same bucket of paint and it had started to set a little.

I took another look at the floor pan underneath where the gas tank was, to see what it will take to clean and prime the metal. After playing around with the wire wheel on my drill, I decided not to bother priming the metal, since there's so much more work to be done inside the cab, and I want to get Peanut back on the road. Cleaning out the floor pan would have been too much work for right now. Better to wait until I do the cab restoration in a year or two.