#sailorpark

Part 3 of ???

FINALLY WE HAVE PROGRESS

Step 6

Now the ospho residue is gone the surface is ready for paint. I went with a zinc metal primer just on the off chance that the pinholes *were* due to some sort of electrical activity.

Zinc is more vulnerable to that stuff than steel so it'll get eaten up first and give me a bit of a buffer to notice weirdness and remedy the situation before it gets after the tanks structure again.

Tape off the nozzles where the hoses connect so it doesn't get into my drinking water, and spray the heck out of all the weld seams and any part that had corrosion or pitting that I cleaned up.

Step 7

Now we hunt for the actual leak. I blew into a hose connected to one inlet and covered the other with my thumb and listened for hissing. This proved difficult so I started dousing suspect areas with soapy water while blowing air into the tank.

Bubbles revealed a small pinhole leak adjacent to the area that the previous owner had gooped with epoxy.

Step 8

I removed the zinc coating from the area around the leak and mixed some drinking water safe epoxy putty.

If you leave the paint the epoxy will stick to the paint better than the paint sticks to the metal and it'll just peel it off.

The epoxy putty is like a stick of play dough, the core is one part the outer layer is another. Break off the appropriate amount, work it around in your hand (GLOVES!!!) until the 2 parts are mixed and then slap it onto whatever quickly before the chemical reaction kicks off and makes it too hard to stick to anything.

Step 9

Wait for the epoxy to cure, go to the hardware store for the right size hose because I bought the wrong stuff before

Drop the tank back into its crevice

Step 10

Begin replumbing

Double hose clamps are always a good idea where feasible.

I preemptively wrapped the hose barb adaptor threads with PTFE tape. I call it Teflon tape, grandpa calls it Teflon tape, it might actually not be Teflon.

Plumbers (PTFE/Teflon?) tape isn't sticky. It's like a thin soft ribbon. It squishes between mating threads to make them water tight.

Make sure you wrap it the right way so that when you're screwing in the threads it pulls the tape tighter instead of unwrapping it. Otherwise it will be a pain in the ass and won't work properly.

Step 10.5

We wait.

Last night I put 5 gallons of water in the port tank for drinking/cooking/dishes so I have to wait until that runs out before I can finish plumbing the tanks together. Maybe 2-3 days.

You can see the mess I'm replacing. Garden hose, rust balled hose clamps. Terrible. Probably not safe for drinking water anyway.

Part 2 of ???

After removing and situating the tank so I could work on it The Process resumes

Step 4

Cleaning the corrosion and old epoxy off the tank with a drill and wire wheel, as well as a wire brush for the fiddly bits. I discovered these pinhole rust spots I think are from crevice corrosion.

Stainless steel is prone to crevice corrosion when the surface is denied access to oxygen. Something about the presence of oxygen is very important to the surfaces ability to ward off corrosion. Something something protective oxide layer mumble mumble....

You end up with little rust patches that encapsulate an area. Corrosion gets going and you end up with these little pits that can make little pinholes in your tanks. Also this can happen with galvanic action but that's this whole other thing. Electrical, don't worry about it.

These tanks aren't part of an electrical system and there isn't any opportunity for dissimilar metals to come together and decide to eat each (yet another Whole Other Thing) other so I'm pretty comfortable calling this crevice corrosion.

Step 5

Once the tank was clean bare metal I painted it with ospho(ric acid), a funky metal primer, great stuff, wear gloves and keep your eyes and breathing holes well clear during application.

Let it dry and rinse the residue off. Now the tank is prepped for paint.

Part 1 of ???

I've been living off my port water tank since I got the boat and I finally got motivated to begin The Process.

Step 1

Figure out which tank has been leaking. For me this is the starboard tank.

Step 2

Disconnect plumbing from the tank and remove so it can be worked on. This hose was old, rigid and stuck as heck so I had to cut it off.

Step 3

Examine the tank and find the leak. I thought it was this giant rust patch that turned out to be an old attempt at patching the leak with epoxy by the previous owner.

Step 3.5

I set the tank on some line so it didn't scrape my cockpit planking as I wrestled it around

First make sure the leak is coming from the weather stripping, not where the glass meets the frame, that's a whole other job that's actually pretty simple but I don't have pictures.

Take out the old stuff

Clean the groove with a wire brush until there are no remnants of the previous weather strip (if the frame is plastic I can't help you much. Solvent and a plastic scraper maybe? Be careful about the solvent choice)

Clean the area with a rag and rubbing alcohol to prep the surface

The new stuff will refuse to stick if you don't properly clean the area with alcohol

Stick the new seal material in making sure the adhesive backing is making good contact

Trim to length

Viola! No more drippy overhead hatches!

You know those handy wire brushes that eventually become unusable after turning into a mashed ball of fibers? Not anymore, pliers to the rescue!

We have a long road ahead but Step One has been completed.

Next is sailing and boat yard. Then we go for real.