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I am looking at getting dual gas tanks for my 1978 Montauk and was planning on the Moeller 12 gallon. Tonight, I found a CL ad for 2 of the original Tempo steel 12 gal tanks from 1985.
What should I look for in these tanks before deciding to purchase? How much work is involved? Are they safe? And, is it worth it? Ad only has "best offer" as price.
I know Finnegan did something like this with original tanks, but I don't know what condition those tanks were in to begin with...
Jay, it depends on how factory original you want to be. Dealing with old steel tanks is a lot of work. Do a visual inspection of the interior of the tank with a good flash light. If clean, a fighting chance. Chances are rust throughout. If a big build up of shellac we used to take gravel or chains an play castanets with the tank (make a martini), pressure wash, air dry in sun, boil them out, have the protective resurfacing "goop" put in by the boiler (here it is a radiator shop), install, and have the "goop" give up in a couple of years. Crap in fuel. If lightly rusted same method minus the goop. Once cleaned up we would take diesel to coat the tank. Add up your time and effort and new plastic is pretty inviting.
gchuba
I would think the most important thing to check is rust, both inside and out. Have no idea what they would be worth but then maybe the seller doesn't know either.
I winter in Ft. Myers and summer in St. Joseph, Michigan. It’s now about 12 years since I’ve joined this group. I gave my 1972 whaler to my daughter and sold the 17’. Bought an O’Day 28 sailboat and sailed on Lake Michigan. Yesterday I bought a 2005 130 Sport.
Jay - If price is your primary objective, it will generally be less expensive to buy new Moeller 12 gallon tanks, or a single 26. I use some of these as auxilliary extra range tanks, Montauk style, in my Ribside 21 and they work well and do not leak. They are light weight, and easy to handle, but do need to be secured when empty. But they have little classic appeal.
On the other hand, the Tempo or Mirax red aluminized steel tanks really are a Whaler specialty, and if in good shape, look nice in the boat, fitting the tank mats (which were specifically designed for this tank) perfectly which hold them in place under all conditions.
Look for a relatively rust free interior, and no external dents. Most will have to be re-painted and decaled. Some have better handle designs than others. In my case, I have tanks from 1979 which came with the boat and have the good recessed handle design, but were not being used by the seller. He indicated he was having withdrawl problems with them, but overall condition was good.
I first cleaned out dirt particles floating around in the bottom, put a couple of gallons of fresh fuel in them and gave them a try. After a while, the engine began starving for fuel, with cap vents fully open.
It took me a while to figure out the problem - withdrawl tubes were about 1/16" too long, and when the aluminum block fitting was tightened down, the pickup screen was tight against the tank bottom. I removed the plastic pick-up tube, cut off 1/16th, and now they work perfectly.
As for re-painting, I thought I could do it myself, but found otherwise. All of the spray can paints I tried failed under contact with ethanol fuels. So I took them to a classic outboard restoration guy, who professionally primed, painted and clear coated them in his auto body shop. He also arranged to have the original Tempo decals duplicated for me. You can now buy them from that graphic shop, nymarine.ca. in Toronto.
It was expensive, however, which is why I made the initial comments on cost. For me, it was $400 for both tanks, complete. But they really look beautiful in the boat, and I keep them cleaned up at all times. I think the cost was worth it, since a pair of the plastic tanks is now around $250 alone. I found they do not quite hold 12 gallons, more like 11-3/4 gallons on a warm day.
If you can find a good set of tanks, I would go for it.
Thanks all for the info...as much as I'd love to keep the boat as original as possible, the work involved in getting the steel tanks up to snuff just may be too costly compared to grabbing new plastic tanks.
