truck water tank rehab

[Soundguy]

Hi guys. Need some ideas here. The GC I work for has an old water truck with a 3500g tank on it. Lots of pinholes in the bottom of the tank. Too many to weld up feasably. We need to set this sucker out on a job on the cheap. The truck will probably be junked after the job anyway, so we are not looking to reskin the bottom of the tank.. and it's not a tank we can flip either.

I was almost thinking about some kind of pain in liner.. like auto undercoating that is ruberized, or spray in bed liner.. or even just fiberglass resin, or resin and sheeting in the bottom of the tank.

Any ideas?

Soundguy

 

[bczoom]

Soundguy,

I've heard products such as Devcon and POR-15 will do what you want but not sure about the cost or prep time.

How about some kind of plastic liner or bladder tank?

Brian

 

[RobS]

Can you get inside the tank to work? If you really want to stay cheap, find a swimming pool liner about the same size. Maybe some cardboard to span the holes, or metal if they are bigger? Some sort of adhesive to hold it up on the sides during fill?

More expensive, but better fixes could include fiberglass and/or spray in bedliner /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[EddieWalker]

I'd try using silicone tubes. Get a caulking gun and climb in there with a few tubes and start filling in the holes. A good silicone will last 30 to 40 years on a house because it stays flexible, but is totally water tight. Not sure about a moving truck, but it's cheap and easy to do.

Eddie

 

[chim]

If you can get it good and dry, mebbe brush on some tar? Whatever you do, make sure that if someone goes into the tank there is good fresh air. It would be easy to end up dead.............chim

 

[Glenn9643]

A lot of pinholes sounds to me like a lot of rust on the inside, and that's not good to try to deal with on sealing any leaks!
It might be easier to clean the outside area where your leaks are and rough it up a bit before applying epoxy or polyester resin to seal it. Plain old "bondo" might be cheaper and easier to find.

 

[hobbyfarm]

Soundguy,
There are coatings designed for this purpose. They are almost like a paint, but thick. Railroad tank cars have this stuff sprayed inside them. When I worked in the oilfield, all our tanks had this stuff sprayed in them. It was expensive! ~$100.00 a gal in 1970 $s.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the brand. It withstood acids and caustics like they were water!
I'd Google - "Industrial Coatings" and see what I caught!

 

[elarson]

This stuff might just work, intended for masonry, but a pitted iron surface is pretty close. Seems to me it was about $20 a gallon at the local hardware store. Drylok

 

[skent]

Try looking into epoxy based swimming pool paint. Two part mix and sets up solid.

 

[Bully]

Maybe try Amerilock. epoxy floor paint -2 part 1gal to 1gal. main thing, would be good ventilation. On some of the old Fire Engines, the top of the tank would un-bolt. We could get inside between the baffles and paint on some stuff called *****-a-mastic. I wouldn't want to do it, if it was an oval tank with two manholes on the top.