Cleaning Rusty Gas Tank?

[HarleyCreation]

I got over my laziness and pulled the gas tank off my Servi-Car. Took maybe 5 minutes.

Lots of rust and scale in tank. Used trisodium phosphate (TSP) cleaner in hot water to flush it out several times. Lots of crud came out. Then flushed it several more times with clean hot water and hung it over the wood stove to dry.

Is there anything I can do with this tank with typical household stuff? It still has quite a rusty interior surface but most of the scale and loose crap is out of it.

What I have on hand is: oven cleaner, Extend (rust treatment), carb cleaner, Purple Power, bleach, stuff like that.

Should I use any of that stuff on a rusty gas tank to clean it out better?

Thanks!

[Jim M]

Go to the local wally world and buy a couple of boxes of BB's pour them into the dry tanks and then shake, shake and shake some more. Wear hearing protection. I am still deaf from doing this three years ago.

Jim

[AdminGuy]

you could also mount the tank on a plank to a rotating spit. Hook that up to your footpedal sewing machine. Or a lathe.

[Paps]

Since you got the scaling of rust out of it, Limeaway [pronounced correctly but spelling may be wrong] is a household cleaner that will desolve the rust. It removes iron oxide, lime, and mineral deposits. You will need to use several bottles of the stuff as straight as you can keep it without diluting it with water. The key is to coat the whole interier of the tank walls with it Leave chemical set over night for best results. This product is used in toilet bowls to remove the most subborn deposits Detergent dish soap such as Dawn will remove the residue of the Limeaway. Pleanty of cold water rinses will remove both. Dry and you are ready to go. Paps

[20scout]

I like the idea of Limaway and the BB's. I've aways used a handfull of old nuts and bolts to get the big stuff out first, then perhaps the BB's for the hard to get at areas. Good luck!

[Paquette]

I have used the BB's with much success. I put them in the tank, wrapped it in a couple of blankets, and put it in the clothes dryer on low. As I learned the hard way, do this when the wife or girl friend is NOT around!!! I wish a Merry Christmas to all.

[HarleyCreation]

No Lime-a-Way and no trip to the city for a while, but I DO have BBs! Nephew's old Daisy is here and a big carton of BBs. I'll just borrow a few hundred.

Very good tip. Thanks.

Can't understand where this rust came from. Trike was stored inside. Never happened before. So then I peeked into the gas tank of my old Panhead and there's no rust in there but there is old stale gas.

I thought Harley tanks were treated inside not to rust?

This tank came off a 1947 WL. That bike was bought in about 1974 in central Wis. for a couple hundred bucks. It was in great original condition. Even nice original paint. Unfortunately, it was turned into a choppper (with my help too!) Later sold to a guy who hit a parked car while looking at a chick crossing the street and badly bent the (6-over) spring fork. Then it had an early Sportster front end on it. Later my brother bought the bike and in the 80s I took four rather jumbled 45s and reassembled the parts to make two solo models and this trike. Still have most of the parts for another solo 45.

Morrie Gauger had the bent spring fork that some guy was supposed to fix, but that was lost in the tragedy.

Every part on an old bike has a story, doesn't it?

Merry Christmas!

[petri]

I was born in 1944 and grew up in Chicago in the 50's and 60's. I remember that the Chicago Police used a lot of "Three Wheelers" as we called them, all blue and white. All this talk about trikes has led me to wonder why the Chicago Police used these so much? Not that they didn't have ordinary two wheelers also. I'm at my mother's this evening and she remembers them too and claims they used to patrol the parks a lot on motorcycles. Maybe they were convenient for hopping off of and ticketing someone. They were probably as fast as one needed to go on the crowded city streets. But you'd think that they would want these machines because of the extra load carrying capacity in the rear and I can't think of anything they would need to carry back there in such a large box. Can anyone provide some insight for me on this vexing Christmas Eve question?

Joyeux Noel
Frohe Weihnachten
Merry Christmas to all

Howard Petri

[T. Cotten]

Howard!

I grew up downstate (Peoria), where the story was told that the Loop Servis were to benefit the female portion of the Chicago parking enforcement: "Meter Maids".

A lady in uniform was always a weak spot for me.

...Cotten

Doh! Merry Christmas!

[petri]

Originally posted by T. Cotten
Howard!

I grew up downstate (Peoria), where the story was told that the Loop Servis were to benefit the female portion of the Chicago parking enforcement: "Meter Maids".

A lady in uniform was always a weak spot for me.

...Cotten

Doh! Merry Christmas!

Well Cotton that's sure a possibility but I just don't recall seeing female policeman on the streets of Chicago in the 50's. I think they tended to work indoors in administration. But then it's a long time ago and I probably have forgotten. I'm not even sure there were Meter Maids before I grew up and got married in '67. Did other police departments in the country use the servi car? Maybe someone from another city can tell us what they were used for.

Howard Petri

[Paquette]

I have several books that reference the use of Servi-cars by police departments across the country. Many of them had an accessory holder for a long handle that held a piece of chalk at the end for marking tires. The box on the rear was used to carry first aid kits, blankets, and other emergency items. I have also seen Servi-cars that had custom made enclosed backs for delivering dry cleaning and floral arrangements. And of course garages used them to tow automobiles. It was probably the most utilitarian vehicle H-D ever made.

[INLINE4NUT]

You use to see the chalk sticks and chalk at swap meets..that was then,I remember a 53 I had that came from a shriner friend his brother lived in tyler texas,when he closed his gas station I was offered the servicar,it came with all the bumper attachments for cars that had long been out of production! Wish I still had that one even though it wasnt an INDIAN!!!

[kunzog]

In the mid 70's I bought a 1964 HD 3 wheeler from the Police Dept in Buffalo, NY at a sealed bid auction. Paid $250. for it. They had a fleet of them that the meter maids used.

[drhank]

My 53 has a yoke that attaches to the axel of the front wheel and a clamp that attaches to the rear bumper of a car or truck. I have also seen a yoke for later Servis that has a receiver for a ball hitch.

The idea was that a service station could send a mechanic on a Servi to pcik up a car. The Servi could be attached to the rear bumper and brought back to the station and then sent out again for another pickup. Delivery of the serviced cars would be the reverse. This is probably why the Indian model was called a Dispatch Tow.

[exeric]

I grew up in Orlando Florida and the city police used the trike to control parking violators. They used the chalk stick to mark the tire and I got a parking ticket this way. The Servi-Cars were supplied by Puckett's Harley Davidson but they gave up their franchise is '68 or '69 and I know the city of Orlando had '73 Sevi-Cars on the force. The later Servi-Cars must have been supplied by Dick Farmer's H-D as they became the sole H-D dealer for the central Florida area. The last three wheelers used for parking patrol in Orlando were Kawasaki trikes. For what ever reason this method of traffic control ceased and the trike vanished from the scene.

Another memory I have of H-D Servi-Cars is from the city of Tampa. This had to be around '73 or '74. Near Busch Gardens there was a fire station and on this particular Friday as I was driving by I noticed a lot of (40 or 50) Servi-Cars assembled in the parking lot of this fire station. They were being auctioned off as I later found out. I have no idea why I didn't stop and ask about them, but then Bruce Palmer lived in Tampa at that time and I don't think he got one either. I later met the Nisetrom brothers who managed to snag 3 of them from that auction so obviously they were available and they must have been cheap becuase those two guys never paid a lot of money for anything.