In a message dated 2/1/2008 9:00:39 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, great-loop-request@lists.samurai.com writes: I had two leaking fuel tanks on my '86 Heritage East Lien Hwa soon after I bought her with the surveyor telling me it had welded aluminum tanks. So much for his knowledge as they turned out to be 6mm iron tanks and I did not want to spend the twenty some thousand to remove engines to get to the tanks and then cut them up to get them out. I researched on the Internet for leaky fuel tank repairs and found a Canadian outfit that does repair leaky fuel tanks(motorcycle and auto) with epoxy but would not share with me the chemicals he added to make the epoxy impervious to diesel fuel, but now I knew it could be done. Next I found a chemical outfit that made a product of thin film micro ceramic suspended in an epoxy solution. It works by binding ceramic particles in a unique resin system thus creating an encapsulating solid ceramic shell within the existing fuel tank. Each ceramic particle is resin coated and becomes tightly packed in a cured film. (Ceram-Kote 99) In the meantime I found that the 12" inspection ports covered a 10" hole, two per tank, that allowed me to get an arm into each baffled compartment, or my head in to look at things, but not both at the same time. Bottom was pitted, especially along the welds and no way I could get to the bottom of the center tank without tearing out all of the galley and V berth, but again had two inspection ports on top of the tank.. So, after being told by many of the gurus that it could not be done decided to do it myself with the Ceram-Kote, but first had to get rid of the diesel. First I pumped or drained out the fuel in both tanks into 55 gallon drums. Then In Mobile I hired an oil recovery outfit, ecology firm that have the large tank trucks that pump in neutralizing chemical with high pressure hoses and extract it with the oil in their suction hoses back into the tank truck. The one I used had a minimum charge of $250 and that's what it ran to do two tanks. Had them back later again to do the bilge also. Next I used a long brush and a carton full of rolls of bounty paper towels to get all of the residue out. Once I could wipe the inside of the tank with a ball of paper towels and get no residue I was ready. Next I used a long handled paint brush acquired at Home Deopt and thickly coated all of the corners and welds, let it dry and gave it another coat again for a total of four times. Then, again allowing the previous to dry overnight, started with the bottom half of the tank from the center crease on down with four coats. I did not bother with the top portion of the tanks as inspection showed no interior problems there. Only where moisture had been allowed to sit on the iron was there a problem and primarily on the welds. This was done last April and took about one week to do one side tank outboard of the engine and one center tank below the galley, but to me was worth it. So far no problems at all. More information on the product can be obtained from Freecom, Inc. PO Box 2119, Big Spring, TX 79721, or _www.ceram-kote.com_ (http://www.ceram-kote.com/) . Dog River Marina charged me $250 for the gallon of material so don't know what the cost would be buying direct. I got white material, two containers that I mixed up in pint sized batches and found I had almost a half hour working time with the mixed solution. I used a wide mouth small mayonnaise jar to mix the small batches in. The white helped me see in the tanks with its reflectivity. Would have been easier if I had been able to get half in two different colors as I kept covering the same area and at times a bit hard keeping track where I had been so had to follow the same pattern of application each time. I figured what I ended up with was a interior shell of solid ceramic, about 6 to 8 mills thick or thicker, holding itself together within the old iron shell so I don't mind if the old iron shell continues to rust out or not as the new ceramic shell is the new tank inside the old iron shell. If you need any more information you can contact me at _bodie6413@aol.com_ (mailto:bodie6413@aol.com) or 619 994 0061 Ron and Molly on Colonel's Lady, 1986 43' Heritage East, MTOA #2950, AGLCA #3460, San Diego, bodie6413@aol.com **************Biggest Grammy Award surprises of all time on AOL Music. (http://music.aol.com/grammys/pictures/never-won-a-grammy?NCID=aolcmp003000000025 48)