Fuel Tank Support

[Dave Hirshberg]

Abl,
You did it perfect. With epoxy and Awlgrip your tank is virtually impervious to corrosion on the outside. It is the absolute best way to do it. If you don't have tabs on the tank sides you can foam it in with cross members over the top to keep it from lifting in the foaming process. Make sure to lay down strips of 1/4 inch starboard or hard rubber strips under the tank to allow drainage.

[cc]

I have built a new aluminum tank from 5052-H32 marine grade aluminum for my boat ( we are metal fabricators), and was thinking about taking it to a shop that does the spray on bedliners. It is supposed to be impervious to anything, and not harmful to aluminum. Anyone have any experience with this, have you tried it? Previously I have always painted with zinc chromate several coats to protect the aluminum like is done on aircraft parts.

[strick]

Once again thanks for all the comments.. I really appreciate it because it helps to stimulate my gray matter to come up with new ideas.

John R - thanks for the back up support. I still have all my pics but I'm just a little dis-organized as to were they all are. Glad to see that my pic's made it to your Projects/ Inspiration folder [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Capt Chuck- We must have a different design to our boats. My tank sits right up against the forward hold (the stepdown compartment in the consel) so there is no room to put a fresh water tank in front of the gas tank unless I do away with the stepdown compartment and make the floor inside the consel level with the main deck.

Kglynn- 1975 model

Otto- right now all my buddies are killing ducks and catching stripers and sturgeon and I still would rather be working on this damm boat.... go figure.... my mother must have dropped me on my head when I was a baby.

Scott- yea it's good that we are checking everything... there used to be a head in the stepdown compartment in the consel and I could see were the previous owner had done a sloppy job of removing the plumbing and glassing over the area so I decided to remove the stepdown compartment and take a look at the patch job they made to the hull and sure enough it did not look to good so ground out the area and epoxied over it just to be safe. Here are a couple pics of that.




abl1111- I'm going to do it just like Fellow ship posted from the Pascoe site (had it saved as well). That Pascoe knows what he is talking about. He says dont use any rubber strips on the bottom of the tank (to keep it from sliding) so when I pulled my tank out sure enough it had rubber strips stuck to the bottom of the tank and when I pulled them off there was severe pitting into the aluminum. That was the only place were there was corrosion on the whole tank... right were each rubber strip was. Foaming in the tank will keep it secure however often times water will find it's way into the foam. So make sure there is a way for the water to get out. Good that you coated the tank and I may do the same.

Chris- I'm self employed so I get to take a day off when ever things are slow. I decided to use high quality 3/4 inch plywood for the tank to sit on. I'm glassing both sides with a layer of 1708 and will make a bed of cabosil along the edges were the base meets the hull and also will cabosil it to the keel stringer. Then I will glass it up the sides of the stringers. I decided to go with the wood for the extra weight plus I did not feel like driving the 2 hours for composit [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] Upon thinking it over I think it is a good idea to keep things as light as I can in the rear of the boat (by using composit) and add a little extra weight in the middle (with the wood)

Strick

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Ha Strick
I also went with ¾” marine plywood with lamination on both sides. I almost had a problem that I thought I would worn you about. By increasing the thickness of ¼” with glass lamination and by placing the gas and air filler 90 degree pipe approx at the same location as the old tank I had a very tight fit of the deck on top of the tank. The guy that made the tank for me made those 90 degree gas fill a little too high and my top deck would have rubbed against it. I was going to put a air vent in anyway so I decided to put my air vent right on top of the 90 degree filler hose locations just to be safe.
FellowShip [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[strick]

Thanks Fellow-Ship... it's a tight fit in mine as well. I finished glassing in the new tank support last night so I'll take a measurment today with the top deck on (also has 3/4 inch marine ply) before the welder starts making the tank so I can give him. Have to figure hoses, clamps etc... for a maximum height [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Strick

[Rich]

Looks familiar....

http://seacraft.snetsol.com/inside.htm

[Capt Chuck]

Rich

How far along are you in the refurb? Are your pictures up to date? What kind of damage is shown starboard side forward hold? Your layout is the same as mine.