Gas Can refurbishment - Eagle Safety Can

[Rob]

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.

[Rob]

I just found this seconds after I posted this...  https://eagle.justrite.com/gasket-for-safety-cans-s8

[Rob]

Of course it is 2 (Inches?) deep and 1 inch wide, and weighs a full pound!

Who writes these specs???

[Stein]

I have one of the screw cap versions I inherited and still use it.  It has a cool funnel built in.

I refurbished a steel motorcycle tank which is pretty much 95% similar to a gas can.  I did the rinse, vinegar, bb stuff and I think some more caustic stuff that I don't remember exactly what it was.  Once it was clean you have to work fast or flash rust happens.  I remember the options being put fuel and oil of some sort in there to coat it or go with one of the tank liner liquids.  I figured the former was easier so I just added some fuel, 2 stroke oil and shook it around for a couple days and then dumped it out.  It looked great and has been working for several years now.

[wadu1]

Deric on Vice Grip Garage (YouTube) uses marbles in car/truck fuel tanks to clean out the crud.

[Rob]

Interesting.   Thanks for the info!

[Rob]

update.

As noted above, I have 4 of these small cans.  One is a 2 gallon can, and the other three are 1 gallon cans.  They are pretty cool, old metal tanks so I am interested in restoring them even if I really don't have much of a use for them.

Three had bad seals.  I replaced the 3 bad seals - one worked great, the other 2 continued to leak badly.  I looked and the caps did not align well with the spouts so I used some pliers to bend the cap closure mechanisms and align the caps better to the spouts.  This worked perfectly and now none of them leak.

I now have to correct the corrosion issues in two of them.  More to follow with that in the next post.

Here is a photo of them.

[Rob]

So as mentioned above, two tanks have corrosion issues. 

The two gallon tank has visible deposits all over the inside-this is the one I commented on a few weeks earlier.  My plan for this tank is to:
-soak it in 75% vinegar solution for a week or two.  Rotating it every day or so to ensure the little air bubble moves around the tank
-drain the vinegar solution and add some steel shot.  Swish that around for a bit to knock off any of the deposits.
-add more of the vinegar solution and let it sit for a few more days
-treat the tank either with a fuel/oil mix, or a treatment like this: https://www.amazon.com/KBS-Coatings-5200-Standard-Sealer/dp/B00DMIDUUY/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=fvu45&content-id=amzn1.sym.048a6e3c-8d40-4302-8312-26c626af6738%3Aamzn1.symc.050ea944-f1cf-4610-b462-3b604f2f4082&pf_rd_p=048a6e3c-8d40-4302-8312-26c626af6738&pf_rd_r=R0VGA9B437F9RWRBNMPX&pd_rd_wg=SdyYW&pd_rd_r=563aa023-1e77-4b41-a6ad-f622720adaf2&ref_=pd_hp_d_btf_ci_mcx_mr_ca_id_hp_d

For the one gallon tank, it is not as severe.  However, I put some clean gas in it and let it sit for a day or two.  I swirled it around and it came out looking like milk.  I let the gas settle and there is a fine white powder settling in the container.  I used a light to see the inside of the tank and it has a greyish white color.  I am thinking this has also oxidized.  So my plan with this tank is similar to the 2 gallon tank, but I may not need to use the steel shot – I will see what it looks like after that.

Anyway, if anyone has ideas or suggestions, let me know!

[Ridgeratt]

Just throw a handful of change in the tank and shake.

[Rob]

That is a great idea actually...  I have thousands of penny's around here somewhere.

[Sandberm]

I always used gravel. Toss some in a metal tank, add some gas and SHAKE. Pour gas out through a filtered screen in a funnel. Keep dumping that same gas in and shaking till there are no more bits in the screen when you dump the gas out. Get the gravel or coins out, poor some fresh gas in to rinse out tank.

I did this on the metal tank on and old wood chipper that I inherited from an uncle who stored it under the eve of his house. It took a lot of shaking and sifting out rust...it was like gold panning to get all the itsy bitsy rust out.

Cool cans btw.