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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Basic question on metal protection

A small fuel leak after dropping and replacing the tank has dissolved some of the black protection that had been painted on the tank. It needs re-doing over part of the area. What should I use (bearing in mind that I don't want to buy 5 gallons min quantity!)?
Graeme Williams

Hi Graeme.
Maybe a bit off the wall, but here's my tuppenceworth. I work as an ROV supervisor offshore and often have to protect metal surfaces (steel, stainless, aluminium etc) from corrosion in a salt water and salty air environment, often with stray electrical currents running through them. I use stuff called Scotchkote. It's intended as an insulating compound for cable splicing, but the stuff sticks like s++t to a blanket and is totally impervious to water, salt and most solvents.
It comes in a handy tin containing roughly a pint. The screwtop has a brush built in to apply it. I use this stuff all over the place. All you need to do is make sure that whatever you're putting it on it completely dry and clean then just paint it on. Wait a few minutes and it dries out then slap on another coat, then another if you want.
Honest mate this stuff is next to magical. I routinely put it on new hydraulic couplings, especially high pressure ones which are usually cadmium plated steel and not stainless, and never thereafter have corrosion issues.
I always slap it on electrical connectors that look vulnerable, especially on boats (I am a sailor and volunteer lifeboat mechanic). It just works, brilliantly.
Last time I bought it with my own money (ahem) I got it from City Electrical Factors (google CEF) - they have branches all over the country.
Hope this helps mate.
Rod.
RS Hughes

Buy a small tin of hammerite, or any external metal primer paint. Then slap some more underseal back over the top.
Lawrence Slater

I had a petrol leak on my Cortina, my other pet car. The petrol removed the underseal and the paint. I asked my local bodyshop abouit what to use on what was now a bare steel tank. They said petrol will remove nearly anything and just use waxoyl underseal
W Clough

Petrol removes waxoyl even more easily. If the paint is sound, petrol shouldn't remove it at all. If it did, all the painf below the filler cap would strip rapidly.
Lawrence Slater

You got poor advice, Mr Clough. There are lots of paints that won't dissolve in petrol. And one thing that will wash straight off with even a small amount of petrol weepage would be the Waxoyl! So if that was the advice given it was wrong on both accounts! Sorry!
Guy W

This thread was discussed between 22/12/2014 and 26/12/2014

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