When I tried to resurrect the Ducati a few months back, I found the tank was badly rusted in the rear corner - a common issue as water sits there and rusts it from the inside out. Two choices: get it cut, welded, filled and painted, or seal it chemically. No question that the former is the best, but it’s expensive, invasive and time-consuming. Chemical warfare it is then.
I’ve used sealants in the past, but this time I wanted to try a relatively new product from Tank Care Products in Norfolk. Sureseal is a two-part epoxy that claims to be immune to ethanol attack, even at high concentrations. We chose the 500ml kit (£63.96, including p+p) for tanks up to about 18 litres. The Ducati’s is 17.5 litres, but with hindsight it has an awkward internal shape which means it has a lot of surface area for its volume, so we may have been better off with the 750ml kit at £72.08.
Ian Potter from TCP makes it clear that the instructions have to be followed to the letter, especially the bit about warming the sealant and the tank to above 45°C before combining the two. I’m not good at following instructions, but I know someone who is – Andy’s wife Carole has a degree in physics and a doctorate in materials technology. She’s got her own lab coat and safety glasses and everything...
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| WHAT YOU GET IN THE BOX : The Sureseal kit in its entirety. We don’t actually need the small metal tin – that’s a special chemical designed to dissolve any previous sealant and turn it into easily removed chunks that can be hoovered out. |
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| ADDRESS THE PROBLEM : Before. And that’s after all the loose stuff was cleaned out... The worst bit is where water’s collected when the bike’s on its sidestand. This rust-clogged stub is supposed to be the drain for the filler neck. |
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| MIND THE GAPS : Blocking off the main fuel tap hole. You have to get creative in blocking up holes and pipes - this is the bottom half of a 35mm film canister. For the internal pipes I used short bits of rubber tube with old screws forced into them. |
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| ARREST THE RUST : First go with the de-rusting treatment is pretty impressive. You need to swill it around at intervals. Once done, you need to get on with the process pronto or it will flash-rust alarmingly quickly and you’ll have to start again. |
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| MATCH TEMPERATURES : Our eBay-bought ultrasonic cleaner has a built-in heater, so it can be used as a bain-marie to thoroughly heat the two sealant components. Ian sells an infra-red temperature gauge, but we used a lab-standard thermocouple device. |
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| WARM THE TANK : We used a combination of a hairdryer and a heat gun to dry out and then warm the tank. In retrospect it would have been better to sit the tank on an electric radiator as well, to completely soak the whole structure with heat. |
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| MIX THE GLOOP : It takes some perseverance to come up with an even creamy colour, but it’s important to get it right. Once mixed, you have a limited time before it starts to go off (exact times depend on the ambient temperature) so best get cracking. |
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| GIVE IT A GOOD SWILL : Pour the mixture in and swill it about – this is not as easy as it sounds. It really didn’t want to flow and seemed to be going off quite quickly. Warming it again from the outside helped it flow again, but it was still reluctant. |
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| THE RESULT: Not pretty, but should be effective. Ian says the curtaining effect is probably due to trying too hard to keep it moving about as it was starting to gel. The main thing is that there’s good coverage over the badly damaged corner. Now it needs to sit in a cool place for 48 hours – then remove the protective plugs on fuel taps and lines and allow to cure for a week before refitting. |