Cleaning Old Fuel Tank

[Sterling Brundick]

I need to clean the old, dried up varnish sediment from the bottom of an old metal fuel tank.  It's hard and dark in color.  It doesn't appear to be rust.  Any suggestions on how to clean it out and make it usable again?

[Art Romanelli]

Por has a cleaner and conditioner I use when I restore a tank, apple cider vinegor works , or that stuff you put tools in to get rust off from the auto parts store.

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I sometimes put old nuts in bolts in there too to shake around with the solutions to break the crud free.

[Nils gustafson]

I need to clean the old, dried up varnish sediment from the bottom of an old metal fuel tank.  It's hard and dark in color.  It doesn't appear to be rust.  Any suggestions on how to clean it out and make it usable again?

some  Kero/then about hand full of 3/8" hex nuts, its a start.. thk/u, gus.

[Sterling Brundick]

Nils, I like your "tumbler"!!  As Bond would say:  Shaken, not stured.

[Art Romanelli]

Priceless Nils.

[Vince Rosanelli]

As Gus suggested, kerosene should do the trick. If you have extra stubborn varnish stains, then try a solvent called Xylene. It's used among other things to cut lacquer and also remove varnish. I used it along with a large tin of BB gun pellets from Walmart, the ones with the arrow type head cones and cylindrical tails, to get the extra tough varnish out of the hard to reach corners and crevices of a tank I cleaned. It came out great. Once you're through with it, you can leave the used Xylene out somewhere safe and it will evaporate rather quickly.

[Art Romanelli]

Por metal prep . works great and doesnt mess with paint on the outside if its painted,costs around 15 beans. Used it to restore 20 odd gas tanks on the inside. I like the pellet idea Vince , I usually use small nuts n bolts, but I like the pellet idea.