Plastic Gas Tank Repair?

[givetoget]

What I have is a plastic gas tank from from a snomobile ( 1993) that has a crack at the base of the fill spout. Is there a way to fix this or is there anything made for repairing this kind of plastic. I have tried something called Devcon Plastic Weld II two part epoxy but it just peeled off after it set up.

I thought maybe taking a solder iron and try melting it back together?

Thanks for any and all help.

[leech~~]

I have posted this a few times to this same question last year but that type of poly plastic is not easily patched. Most glues will not bond to it and just pops off. You need a very aggressive patch that more or less eats into the plastic to make it bond which most hardware stuff will not. There are a few places that can do a plastic weld on them. What I have done on a few of them when the cracks are very thin is to take a soldering iron as "you stated" and very carefully and slowy start to melt and move some of the plasitc from all around the area into the crack patching it with the same material. I have also trimmed some plastic from old tanks or like plastic and remelted that into the crack. You just have to take your time or you will melt a even bigger hole into it. I know about what will and will not bond to these type of formed poly plastics because I worked in fiberglass and plastic forming for years. What ever advise you get about glues from others I would tap on it a few times after you try it to make sure it sticks before putting your sled back together and then having the patch pop off out in the middle of no where on a trail some where!

Good luck.

[harvey lee]

I would use the sodering iron or have it plastic welded. I had a very small crack on my tank on the wheeler and use some repair kit and it has held for 6 years now. No, I do not remember the name of it.

The crack I had was in about the same location as yours is.

[Tom7227]

I had to repair a hole in a kayak and the store had some plastic material that you could cut into shape and heat seal it with a heat gun. Maybe you can find something like that and patch over the area.

[givetoget]

Thanks Leech,Harvey,and Tom. I think Im going to try the solder iron and try melting it back together.

[harvey lee]

For added protection, I might think of adding an plastic epoxy after the sodering job.

Can't hurt.

[smalleyepike]

I would rough up the surface real good with sandpaper, and then use JB weld.

[Eelpout08]

We do a lot of plastic welding at work, mostly for chemical resistant HVAC aplications, but i have welded a few fuel tanks.

Here is what i have learned-

If you can find a marking on the tank anywhere you will save a lot of trial and error.

My guess is it is made of polyethylene, which would have a symbol of "PE" or "HDPE"

It could also be polypropylene which would be "PP".

Both of those will easily weld with the corresponding filler rod.

ABS will also weld.

If you find a "PEX" symbol that means it is cross-linked polyethylene and it is not weldable, unfortunately. I tried twice to weld a tractor tank made of pex and nothing will stick to it, I couldn't even get it to melt back together and hold.

It is worth a shot to try melting it back together, but as stated above, be careful not to get carried away and make it worse.

If you can positively ID the type of plastic it would make it pretty easy if you decide to find someone to weld it.

I have never had any luck patching fuel tanks with epoxies or resins but i have not tried everything so maybe there is something better out there that i dont know of.

Hope that helps some.

[givetoget]

Well I did it with a solder iron and it worked far better than i thought it would. I took my time(hard to do for me) found some plastic of the same kind and cut that into little strips (my weld rods) and went to it. It works but as Leech stated , had to go slow.

Thanks for the help everyone.Very good info Eelpout, Thanks.

[leech~~]

Super!