February 13th, 2003 and March 09, 2003
Still no chance to work on the Jumbo, but I did find a fantastic deal on a 30 gallon fuel tank on eBay. It's aluminum, was never used and fits perfectly between the stringers. I'll beef up the bottom of the hull, add additional stringers on either side of the tank and add a horizontal stringer or bulkhead at both ends of the tank. Don't want this tank moving around under the deck.
Having read a couple of articles on how to and how not to install an aluminum fuel tank I decided that it would behoove me
to prime and paint the 30 gal tank since it is going to spend it's life in a salt water environment. A call to the manfacturer
of the tank for their recommendation on how to prep the tank for painting gave me the knowledge to tackle the job with a minimum
of fretting. First task involved scrubbing the year and half's worth of crud off the tank and then giving it a once over light sanding.
Looks like the manufacturer had put a very light clear coat on the tank, and it was already peeling up in places. So I just helped peel
the rest off.
Then, as per the instructions, I took a dilute solution of Muriatic acid and washed the whole tank down. I did this a couple of times since I came
across areas that seemed greasy and few other areas that still had clear coat. After rinsing the tank down with liberal amounts of water,
it was left to dry. Up next was a coating of the specified Zinc Chromate Primer. At first I started brushing it on, but the stuff is so
thick and drys so fast, I changed techniques in mid stream and started using a 2 1/2" roller. This worked much better by giving me a more
even coating. Looks great, now it's ready for a coat of good paint.