A buddy of mine gave me 4 old Eagle safety Can's (see photo for the type of can I am referring to) varying in size from 1 to 2 gallons. one cleaned up nice. Two have gaskets on the lid that no longer seal but are otherwise fine. The last one has some terrible oxidation occurring inside. I swirled around a bit of "known good" gas in it and it came out like a grey slurry.
I have been looking around but so far I have not found a site that sells replacement caps or gaskets. I think if I replace those I can restore two of the tanks. NOTE: these caps with gaskets are NOT screw on. They are held in place by a strong spring.
The one that is oxidizing on the inside I am thinking I will pitch. I am also considering a soak in vinegar followed by scouring with some kind of an abrasive like steel shot, sand, etc to knock off the crap that is all over the inside. I hesitate as I fear I would fix it only to have it re-oxidize down the road and introduce crap into the small engine tank I pour it into. The potential damage is not worth the benefit of a "free" 50 dollar gas tank. I also do not know how deep some of the oxidation pits may be, meaning the tank could breach at some point. And they never breach when it is convenient!
Anyone have sources or thoughts? I am going to poke around more and see if I can find lids/gaskets somewhere.
