The Official 356Talk Forum

The gas tank in our 52 had a rust hole in the 80's \. I took it to a radiator shop , had the hole patched, then back to the radiator shop and they coated with green stuff. Its detiorating. New tanks are available for A's but the all have another hole for the gas level sender. I would much rather be authentic.
Option 1 are there any availble either good used or repro.
2. if not do the A ones fit ok?

Todd

An A tank will fit just fine, albiet the obvious difference in the protrusions or holes in the top. I have seen 52 tanks for sale occasionally, so I would try to find one. If you are going to have another tank coated, be sure that it is properly acid etched before coating. I have never seen a green coating, most are reddish or white. Make sure they use one that is impervious to modern gasoline.

Hey Mark,

Depending on how old your 52 is... i have a beautiful non vented 45L tank. The early kind held in by clamps on the side, not by straps.

Mark has a bent-window coupe, so he needs the vented tank for bent-window cars.

That tank was used ~April 1952 through ~April 1954. It has a low vent tower and the threads on the bottom where the petcock screws on are the VW type. Later tanks will have the sender hole on top, and from mid-1955, different threads and will require the use of the later Porsche petcock.

Speedsters also used a tank without the sender hole from late 1954 through mid-1955 that had the same threading for the petcock, but these have different height vent towers and are easily noticed as not original as well.

Best would be to repair your original. The tanks are made from tinned (with lead) steel sheet, so no welding. Soldering only. Grinding is fine, as long as one then tins the area afterwards. If there's a pinhole, retinning can work. Larger holes may require some very fine brass wire mesh and tinning. Getting the green gunk off will not be fun. That was a mistake (shortcut), but typical of fuel tank repairs then and now.

James , Mine seems pretty thin in a number of places. I don’t think I can get my hand in that hole. Any ideas on getting the gunk out.
Has anyone ever put a bladder in an original tank?
Mark

You might try a radiator shop. Some of them clean out gas tanks and might be able to remove the coating.

What about buying an A one (Dansk) and cuting the top off and grafting mine on it. It seems like body work to me.

Radiator shops in St. Louis are scarce. I might have found the guy who did it in the 80's. He said to get the Gunk off he would soak for a long time in Acetone. Sounds too severe and he talked about drilling access holes. I asked Trevor to make one , he's not interested. I am very interested in educated opinions on grafting the old top on a new tank. If its possible.

Which Trevor did you ask?
Grafting on your top seems reasonable, if I was doing it I’d temporarily hold it together with maybe 8 tiny screws, and finish by soldering the holes closed. The main trick to soldering is to have everything extremely clean, and don’t overheat the solder. If you really cannot find an expert I’d be happy to send you my giant soldering iron that I bought last year thinking I might need it someday (it was under $10).And I offer free tutoring.

Trevor’s Hammerworks

Here in Cleveland. A non 356 customer of mine is a good friend of Trevor’s.

You might call Gravois Radiator in affton

Thanks Brock it is at Al’s So County Radiaters. Getting cleaned out. It has 4 patches on the outside already. I am not sure what’s going to happen next.

I tried a second shop. S&S radiator & welding. He thought he could get it done. He put on a 3=inch patch around the exit plug , soaked the inside with Acetone and removed maybe 98 % of the old green gunk. He suggested not relining it. We plan to run a couple filters in line. I am thrilled to keep it original.
Thanks for the input.

Mark Todorovich wrote: ↑Thu Feb 02, 2023 5:53 pm Has anyone ever put a bladder in an original tank?

Sorry for the late reply. I shipped my '55 can to Fuel Safe for evaluation. They declined putting a bladder in it due to liability issues.