Punched a hole in gas tank

[Finster]

Man! You guys could complicate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

[hermco]

Poly Processing Company
Team Innovation
Repair of Rotomolded Polyethylene Parts

Polyethylene has a number of desirable properties that include, but are not limited to,
excellent chemical resistance and inertness. This chemical resistance is due to the lack
of free electrons within the polymer network and the low or negligible polar component of
the carbon-carbon and carbon-hydrogen bonds that comprise the polyethylene structure.
This environment of low electron reactivity causes the polyethylene material to have low
surface energy. This low surface energy will not facilitate proper wetting and spreading of
the adhesive onto the polyethylene surface, thus making polyethylene difficult to patch or
repair. Also, polyethylene is not porous and therefore does not lend itself to mechanical
surface attachment, that is, joining an adhesive to a surface because the adhesive flows
into the cavities on the surface and therefore creates a mechanical attachment. While
properties such as chemical resistance and inertness are highly desirable in applications
like chemical storage and electrical insulation, they present a challenge in applications
where joining, assembly, printing, and repair are required because all of these require a
high surface energy.
web page

Simple enough, now I'm going to make a sandwich ......

[hermco]

Recreational Vehicle Polyethylene Patch
88-1254 Recreational Vehicle Polyethylene Patch. Polyethylene patch repairs fresh water and waste water tanks.

web page

[Fr. Frank]

Finney, the holes for the sending unit screws are molded in, not drilled, and the bottoming barrel nuts are molded in as well. Not the same as a drilled hole. To accomplish the same effect, you'd have to weld the plastic, which means pulling and evacuating the tank, then filling with an inert gas.

Hermco's link is good stuff. I that stuff used it to patch a hole in the gray-water tank on my camper after a piece of road debris punched a 3/4" hole in it. That was over a year ago. No sign of it letting go or loosening.

For smaller holes, there is a patching material made for polyethelene Kayaks that is amazing stuff. You clean the surface with alcohol or xylene, and then brush this stuff on, then heat it with a hair dryer. It is chemical resistant, and I bought this to have so that I could repair my wife's Kayak if I needed to, then used it to repair a crack in a 5 gal. diesel fuel can just a week ago. Polyethelene Patching material

After all that, I'd be looking for a replacement tank and consider all repairs temporary.

[DickOdonovan]

I have some good news, I think. I talked to my insurance agent, an adjuster is coming tomorrow. They say they will pay for the work and go after the guy who screwed up the tank. I got the gas out of the tank and bought a Gal. tank that will fit in my console,( will lose a little storage)but will get back on the water and after the spring striped bass run. I want to thank all that took time to help.
Dick O'D