Electrolysis brother, high current 12v and some salt: https://www.rideapart.com/features/583821/how-to-remove-rust-electrolysis/
Use something to coat the inside after so you never have to redo it, e.g. POR15
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
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Yeah you can buy fuel tank interior coating.
I bought my 2012 victory with 3000kms on it for next to nothing because the fuel tank was fucked and the bloke who owned it didn't want to deal with it.
Pulled the tank, rinsed it out, put through the cleaning solvent then cleaned again.
After that the interior coating that I sloshed around. Took a rusted tank to brand new in about two days most of that time just waiting on stuff to do its job with time.
Vinegar my friend just use vinegar white distilled vinegar 50/50 it with water. Pour maybe a quarter gallon of white vinegar in there and add another quarter gallon of water and shake it and let it sit and shake then let it sit then shake then let it sit and flip it around and shake it and let it sit until the rust dissolves then pour it all out give it a quick rinse and then pour baking soda and water in there to neutralize the vinegar otherwise it will flash rust shake it a couple of times and let it sit for a few minutes shake it and let it sit and then rinse it completely and you're golden.
Can’t wait to see the tool you fashion to retrieve to tool you fashioned. Keep us updated op! Good luck.
Edit: I’ve had a ton of luck with CLR, hot water, and a decent amount of course kosher salt. Plug the holes and give it a shake.
There's a ~7% acetic acid solution in the tank, enriched with a handful of screws and bolts. It eats through the rust as pacman eats the dots, you just have to help it get to where it's needed. The Contraption helps accelerating process when I'm tired of violently shaking it.
You can use every Facebook mom trick in the book, the tank will just rust again in hours. You can seal it, but then the sealer will flake off sooner or later.
Shocked no one has suggested apple cider vinegar yet. I thought this was the internet.
Or just take it to the radiator shop and have it boiled out. Usually it's not as rusty as you think, its varnish and junk. Then you can CLR the rest.
I do this with hot water, a drop of Dawn and ice-cream salt to clean inside my hummingbird feeder. The big salt crystals scrub the glass safely when you shake, and you can safely dump them in the kitchen sink because they'll eventually dissolve.
hot water, a drop of Dawn and ice-cream salt to clean
Definitely didn't learn this from cleaning a bong
Actually I had been creating wintry décor at work by nesting candles in a bed of ice cream salt in hurricanes, and the next day was using beans or rice to clean the feeder. (I'd got that off the Internet, although you're probably right about someone cleaning a bong.) I got frustrated when I missed the strainer in the sink and had to fish them all out. You can't just grind them down the disposal because they'll swell up deep in the pipes and cause a clog. And there was that box of ice cream salt...
Salt + water + metal = more rust tho right?
No metal + oxygen = rust and sometimes that reaction is encouraged by a catalyst that remains in contact with both. You think they're going to go to all that trouble and not going to rinse and dry the tank when they're done?
I wonder if sand would do thr trick. Abrasive and easy to get out.
You'd have to discuss that with the guy I replied to. I'm just cleaning glass hummingbird feeders over here. I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to be pouring any gunk you washed out of your tank down the kitchen sink, either, no matter what you used to clean it.
are you sure it’s not a contraption to get a brush stuck inside a rusty fuel tank
That thing should have a tether. As a general rule anything you don't want stuck in the hole its entering should have a tether or at least a flared base.
NSFW
👀
The brush has a suction cup at the end which acts as flared base, which I anchored to the handle with some duct tape.
Just get some laxatives bro.
Aint no reason to rasp your insides to clear your bowels.
Fibre foods are the real thing though.
It's all about the process violently wiggles eyebrows
That's probably a good deal smarter than my usual method, which is to pour a cup or two of kerosene in there plus two handfuls of random small nuts and washers, and shake the shit out of it for a while.
Fuel injected bikes have the advantage of having that nice big hole where the pump mounts. For tanks on carbed bikes, just remember to use hardware small enough to fit out the petcock mounting hole so you can get them out again when you're done. Usually there's that damn lip around the filler cap that prevents them from being poured out the easy way afterwards. Or you can chase them with a magnet retriever tool.
... or perfect the chopsticks game better than Jackie Chan in the Drunken Master
Brave man doing that in the shower!
Hobo repair. Breaking bad on dumb settings, instead of cooking meth I sneak into houses to repair a motorcycle.
The traditional method is to put rocks in the tank and shake it.
Just like our ancestors did thousands of years ago living off the land
Clay of the earth, you know....
My wife would fucking kill me if I did that in our bath tub.
Same, but good thing she isn't at home for a few days
So you just post photographic evidence online?
She's more of Instagram type rather than Lemmy. It's a safe place.
I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a post that's titled "I have a sneaking suspicion that my husband has cleaned a motorcycle gas tank in our bathtub while I was out of town. Any advice?".
Just clean the tub out after?
I mean it's half your home too.
Happy wife, happy life.
Thank you for taping it directly to the back scratcher, rather than some other rod, so we don't have to guess at how you came up with the idea
I also shop at IKEA.
IKEAs are cathedrals of consumerist God, one goes there not to buy but to worship and make sacrifices to The Economy
Acid is your friend.
It's filled with 6..7% acetic acid solution, I use the brush to speed up things before my missus kicks the project and me out of the house.
Oh, I just realized that you were in the bathroom. Rest in peace, my brother.
I save the acid from old car batteries before I return them. Sometimes I concentrate it in a glass pan in the sun. :) Worried that animals will get into it so I have to hide it. But hey! Free acid!
Summon a patronus with it