Dropping a tank on a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Town Sedan

Hello, I am new to this board and I have a question about my 1957 Ford Fairlane 500.

The car has only 32,000 original miles, verified.

Purchased in 2000, but haven't started it the car since 2006. (I know, should be arrested and charged)

I went to start the car, battery was dead and would not hold a charge, spent $132.00, taxes included and replaced it.

I pulled off the gas cap and noticed a lot of white gunk material all over the back-end of the gas cap and inside of neck of the the tank.

This worried me, so I got a shop vac, vacuumed it all out as far as I could, dosed a old t-shirt with gas, stuffed it in the neck of tank as far as it would go to clean it.

Put in about 3 gallons of new gas, used starter fluid, tried cranking the car, and it would run, but would starve for gas and quit, it wasn't getting any gas and I know these fuel pumps must be primed in order to start the car.

Long story short, pulled carb off, no fuel inside, pulled fuel pump off, very little fuel inside at all, perhaps a teaspoon on bottom side of filter bowl.

My question is, should I drop the tank and flush it out?

What must I do to prime the fuel pump?

Carb was completely bone dry and looked pristine.

d-1

Clean the tank and blow out the lines. You do not have to prime the pump. If it is good, it will pump just fine

Clean the tank and blow out the lines. You do not have to prime the pump. If it is good, it will pump just fine

Thanks for the quick reply, I split the fuel pump in half, 3 ways to be exact and I noticed bottom filter bowl rubber seal was split. Not sure if the would cause a suction problem, nonetheless, the fuel pump was basically bone dry, after trying to to crank it for over 10 mins.

Fuel pump was real clean, the rubber seal on bottom was cracked when I pulled that filter rock up, I could see metal in between.

I will drop tank tomorrow and drain it and will try to blow the line out. May have to rent a compressor to do it.

d-1

Okay, I dropped the tank today with no real problems and drained the fuel, the fuel came out greenish clear, but when I turned the tank upside down to remove the remaining fuel from the neck of the tank, the fuel was almost black in color. Lots of rust scales and chips came out, and I kid you not, I flushed the tank at least 20 times (20 gallon tank) with just plain water from a garden hose, and so many rust scales came out, and just when I thought the water was real clear, I filled the tank to the top, dumped it into a white bucket and still tiny scales of rust came out.

I watched some YouTube tube videos on removing rust with vinegar or molasses and I do not believe it. (but wait)

I took a pair of nuts from the strap and the gas drain plug and a piece of strap and washers, which all had surface rust and I placed in a jar with vinegar, checked about 2 hours later and nothing, but 24 hours later, the vinegar was a near black color, you could not see the nuts or washers or material inside the jar. Up emptying the jar, notice surface rust was all gone and the material were a light blackish color.

Imagine buying 20 gallons of vinegar and letting it sit for 24-48 hours. It would probably work.

My argument is, every time I filled my tank with just plain water, hundreds of rust scales would come out, so I could make the argument, water removes rust, which it doesn't. A new tank runs around $225.00.

I feel so stupid for spending so much time flushing the tank, that in the end, I finally made the decision to replace the tank and straps with "new" reproduction parts.

There is absolutely no way, that vinegar can remove and clean 50 years of rust and nothing else could or would, which makes one wonder, how does a tank even rust from the inside of the tank? ( I get condensation and humidity, but what a joke, the amount of rust scales that came out.

On the outside of the tank, on the bottom, it had surface rust, but the top of the out of tank, it looked pristine, like brand new.

If you add the amount of time I spent filling the tank with water and labor dumping it, its cheaper to replace the tank with a new one.

Don't waste your time trying to clean it.

d-1

I had a double duplicate post, and I'm not sure how I did it, but there is no way fro me to delete one of them, can a moderator delete it for me?

I am sorry.

d-1

Click on "edit post" at the bottom of one of the two posts. A window will come up with your text in it. Click "delete" on the bottom. On the left there will be a button that says "delete message". Push that and click on "delete post" again. then it will be deleted.

Click on "edit post" at the bottom of one of the two posts. A window will come up with your text in it. Click "delete" on the bottom. On the left there will be a button that says "delete message". Push that and click on "delete post" again. then it will be deleted.

Thanks for pointing that out.