You're knowledge and attention to detail is so awesome. one thing I noticed tough is you have no vortex trap inline on your vacuum. How often do you have to clean the filters? I installed one on a bucket and haven't touched my vac filters for aaaaaages. Is annoying as a second part to lug around but with longer vac hoses and a make shift trolley its saved me hours. Can send you a pic if you like. costs like 35 bucks with, the bucket cyclone and internal support so the bucket doesn't collapse
Good job and costs saving. You should have holes on top of the baffle to not hold air, between the center ones otherwise you will not be able to fill completly the tank.
Great videos mate and what an awesome boat she turned into, I'm fixing a signature 600rf and your videos have been bloody inspiring and helpful. One question, how has the fuel tank held out? I'm about to go down the same path as you did and wanted to see if your still happy or anything you would change. Thanks again mate
Hey mate, tank is holding up well with over 200 hours use. Knowing what I know I now I wouldn’t put as many baffles in, I’d do a full layer of 450 chop on the inside with waxed resin to ensure a full cure (I only did a waxed coat of resin over it, no chop) that’s just something extra for peace of mind. You may be able to find stainless fittings that will seal through the bulkhead for you breathers and pickups but the welded plat and pipes has held up well with no leaks. Good luck!
@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT thanks mate, much appreciated. Going to try and reuse the original fittings if I can if not then a trip to the shops. Have a good new year's mate and thanks again
That’s the happy face of a man who is finally starting to see the fruits of his labour. Great job on the tank, can’t see any way it can leak apart from the fittings which you just need to maintain each year. Will be great when the other sections are foam filled and then floor in. Are you going to leave the rear bilge area open or floor level and sealed?
Loving all your videos so far, question with the lid, did you do a waxed coat on the underside before glassing it down so it seals the glass from the fuel?
How are you going to tig weld without setting the glass on fire in place?? Especially those filaments that are inside glassing the SS in place? I sure wouldn't want to attempt it. I am sure you have a plan. Even with inert gas inside the tank the outside could light off. The project is coming along nicely. Good work.
I was hoping to learn from you what type of surface agent/wax you used in your last coat of resin? I assume the wax is fuel resistant as well.. Tip: To save you a lot of time you can use a shop vac grinder attachment to catch most of your grinder dust so the clean up afterwards is much easier.
Very informative mate, love the videos! I hope you don’t have dramas with vapour lock between the middle baffles, the first cavity and last will be able to breath but the middle ones may have a cavity of air above the highest holes cut in the baffles.
That’s a very good point Chris, I might have to drill some holes up nice and heigh to stilt that from happening. Looks like I’ll be doing some patch work on the tank lid 🤣
@@Fluid36 I don’t believe that would of worked for two reasons. The first being that it’s very difficult to drill stainless steel, particularly on a round pipe in that space and secondly it would create air locks like Chris mentioned, the fuel would block off each hole as the level rises.
I considered a non metal tank approach, but with ethanol, too risky for me not knowing what will definitely work. I recall horror stories of small planes and boats having their tanks melt. One was in the news in CA where the tank melted overnight and all the fuel ran down the road.
Hey mate I have a question I have an old aluminium fuel tank in my boat and I keep getting dirty Carbies because I think it’s dirty on the inside is there any way you clean the inside or do I need to pull the tank out and replace it cheers mate love your videos great job
In all honesty James, if it’s dirty and old it probably won’t be worth trying to clean / flush it. A new tank would be the ideal thing for it. Alloy tanks don’t last forever, especially with if there’s corrosion present. If a new tank isn’t in your budget a flush right through and an inline fuel filter / water separator might do the trick, with lots of monitoring.
Love it mate, I'd hate to be the bloke Tig welding that up 😂 doable but not at all fun! Only critique is longer videos please, I need 30 mins atleast !
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT me personally I love the walk throughs explaining what you are doing, Ive never glassed before but my old man rebuild boats my whole life growing up, so I try absorb as much information as possible, If you do moulds etc for live bait tanks etc please take the time to walk through it all step by step 👌 even explaining the different matting and what they do, different weights of matting etc 🤣 and resins! Poly vs vinyl vs waxed and unwaxed, it's so hard to find decent explanations. But you do what you feel is right !
Es correcto , la gasolina actual contiene alcohol y deshace la resina epoxy causando terribles problemas en la linea de combustible . Es necesario hacer el deposito con resina GRE.
Good question Billy. Firstly cost, it was cheaper for me to make a tank from fibreglass than get one build. I also think this tank adds strength to hull and is a better of of the space as far as fuel volume and if it does fail, all I have to do is cut along the floor ether side of the stringers, cut the baffles out and drop a aluminium or stainless tank in with a thermolite hatch lid over the top. Relatively easy fix. I don’t see the tank failing and boat builders are still making tanks like this so I’m confident it will work fine.
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT thanks for the explanation and also awesome job so far just watched the entire build series so far can’t wait to see the finished product
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT it's welded in place on the bottom of the tank? I usually glass a bracket to the bottom. With a long unsupported pick up tube. Over time it will stress
Hey mate u forgot a vital point when building a glass tank. It must have a nexus or tissue coating for a chemical barrier. Bugger u have glassed the lid down.
That isn’t fully correct Yanans, Vinyl ester resin cured is fuel resistant and can be used for fuel tanks. The coating would be good and over the top but not required.
Contsruction design and quality is outstanding overall. Too many holes in the baffles, also you have twice as many baffles actually needed. It doesnt hurt anything just letting you know. Also, instead of tacking with hot glue use thickened resin with a sandable filler like Q-Cell with 20 to 50% more hardener than normal if you want it to harden up fast... also, you use small pieces of glass mat for tacking also with extra hardener. It holds way better than hot glue and no strength or bonding surface lost.
I would not have put the metal fittings at the aft end of the tank. I'd have them at the front end. When you accelerate the fuel will all be forced to the back of the tank and you will have these forces applied to where the tubing passes through the tank.. I also fear that you will have leaking issues where you glassed around the tubing. This area should be gasketed.
Looking great least you will eliminated any corrosion problems for ever, say life of a ally tank, maybe 25yrs, the stainless steel screws in the fuel sender units are the undoing on ally tanks. Two non compatible materials will react over time specially if there's moisturiser about.and stainless tanks can be heavy. Hey I think potentially you may run into a couple problems with welding the tubes in institute. 1. You will need a (skinny) welder who can tig with both left and right handed and potentially can weld using a mirror, few and far between (good ones) 2. You should have left the lid off as the heat of the tig welding might cook the glass up on the inside of the tank, on the back of the tubes, now you have no way of checking this, and no way of extinguishing it if starts to burn.. 3. You could of welded the tubes to the plate first then connecting that front breather pipe to a stub on the inside via a stainless steel straight joiner compression fitting. Hopefully, I'm all totally wrong in those comments, you have put so much time and effort into it. Make sure you film the guy when he's doing the welding. Good luck 👍
@bmxrydaa Hopefully, you're correct. On camera, it just looked a bit tight for room, it's probably a bit deceiving without physically seeing it in person, cheers
Learning a lot from this series mate, can’t wait to see the finished product!
You're knowledge and attention to detail is so awesome. one thing I noticed tough is you have no vortex trap inline on your vacuum. How often do you have to clean the filters? I installed one on a bucket and haven't touched my vac filters for aaaaaages. Is annoying as a second part to lug around but with longer vac hoses and a make shift trolley its saved me hours. Can send you a pic if you like. costs like 35 bucks with, the bucket cyclone and internal support so the bucket doesn't collapse
Great stuff! Does polyester work for fuel tank as well?
Good job and costs saving. You should have holes on top of the baffle to not hold air, between the center ones otherwise you will not be able to fill completly the tank.
Mateeeeee you're doing a great job... Getting closer now mate, cannot wait for the next video 👍
Keep them coming!
Great job I learned plenty from you guys thanks for the advice bro ❤
Great videos mate and what an awesome boat she turned into, I'm fixing a signature 600rf and your videos have been bloody inspiring and helpful. One question, how has the fuel tank held out? I'm about to go down the same path as you did and wanted to see if your still happy or anything you would change. Thanks again mate
Hey mate, tank is holding up well with over 200 hours use. Knowing what I know I now I wouldn’t put as many baffles in, I’d do a full layer of 450 chop on the inside with waxed resin to ensure a full cure (I only did a waxed coat of resin over it, no chop) that’s just something extra for peace of mind. You may be able to find stainless fittings that will seal through the bulkhead for you breathers and pickups but the welded plat and pipes has held up well with no leaks. Good luck!
@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT thanks mate, much appreciated. Going to try and reuse the original fittings if I can if not then a trip to the shops. Have a good new year's mate and thanks again
That’s the happy face of a man who is finally starting to see the fruits of his labour. Great job on the tank, can’t see any way it can leak apart from the fittings which you just need to maintain each year. Will be great when the other sections are foam filled and then floor in. Are you going to leave the rear bilge area open or floor level and sealed?
Yeah it’s good to see some results, that’s for sure! Bilge area will be open for easy access. That will be covered later down the track.
My dad did the same on his Lochin 38 when he was fitting that out, he used the whole keel as the main fuel tank
Loving all your videos so far, question with the lid, did you do a waxed coat on the underside before glassing it down so it seals the glass from the fuel?
How are you going to tig weld without setting the glass on fire in place?? Especially those filaments that are inside glassing the SS in place? I sure wouldn't want to attempt it. I am sure you have a plan. Even with inert gas inside the tank the outside could light off. The project is coming along nicely. Good work.
Great job mate, thinking I might do this on my cruise craft rebuild.
Amazing stuff, great to see
I love the video great work that should be a great boat
hanging for the end result and costs great vid mate
I was hoping to learn from you what type of surface agent/wax you used in your last coat of resin? I assume the wax is fuel resistant as well..
Tip: To save you a lot of time you can use a shop vac grinder attachment to catch most of your grinder dust so the clean up afterwards is much easier.
To make a fiberglass gas tank, do you need a special resin to keep it from breaking down with gas in it?
Vinyl ester resin - fully cured
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT thanks, been wanting to make a custom bike tank. Now I can
I’ve seen some videos on here of guys making bike tanks. Good luck 👍
Very informative mate, love the videos! I hope you don’t have dramas with vapour lock between the middle baffles, the first cavity and last will be able to breath but the middle ones may have a cavity of air above the highest holes cut in the baffles.
That’s a very good point Chris, I might have to drill some holes up nice and heigh to stilt that from happening. Looks like I’ll be doing some patch work on the tank lid 🤣
You could have drilled some holes in the stainless pipe within each section
@@Fluid36 I don’t believe that would of worked for two reasons. The first being that it’s very difficult to drill stainless steel, particularly on a round pipe in that space and secondly it would create air locks like Chris mentioned, the fuel would block off each hole as the level rises.
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT good point
Nice job mate. Is it standard resin? Or epoxy novolac ?
Hi Paul, I used Vinyl Ester Resin for the entire build 👍
I considered a non metal tank approach, but with ethanol, too risky for me not knowing what will definitely work. I recall horror stories of small planes and boats having their tanks melt. One was in the news in CA where the tank melted overnight and all the fuel ran down the road.
What vinyl ester resin did you use? I was looking at a Novalac VE resin (Ineos Derakane 470)
legend!
Hey mate I have a question I have an old aluminium fuel tank in my boat and I keep getting dirty Carbies because I think it’s dirty on the inside is there any way you clean the inside or do I need to pull the tank out and replace it cheers mate love your videos great job
In all honesty James, if it’s dirty and old it probably won’t be worth trying to clean / flush it. A new tank would be the ideal thing for it. Alloy tanks don’t last forever, especially with if there’s corrosion present. If a new tank isn’t in your budget a flush right through and an inline fuel filter / water separator might do the trick, with lots of monitoring.
Mate you wanna come over to WA and help with my transom lol😂
Haha I’m done with glassing now mate 🤣
what did you use to glue the top down? thickened vinylester?
Yep, thickened with talc 👍
Any plans for a fuel gauge?
I don’t like gauges on boats, I prefer a fuel flow metre. Then just knowing what the tank holds and managing usage that a way.
Pressure test?
Love it mate, I'd hate to be the bloke Tig welding that up 😂 doable but not at all fun!
Only critique is longer videos please, I need 30 mins atleast !
I shortened this one up because I thought people were sick of listening to my blabber on haha 🤣
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT me personally I love the walk throughs explaining what you are doing, Ive never glassed before but my old man rebuild boats my whole life growing up, so I try absorb as much information as possible,
If you do moulds etc for live bait tanks etc please take the time to walk through it all step by step 👌 even explaining the different matting and what they do, different weights of matting etc 🤣 and resins! Poly vs vinyl vs waxed and unwaxed, it's so hard to find decent explanations. But you do what you feel is right !
How many gallon /litters of gas thoes the tank hold?
Do you get itchy from the fibreglass?😊
I can’t even remember watch it’s like not to be itch these days 🤣
How many litres she hold?
260
I have read that epoxy will not hold the gasoline. I think I read that because gasoline is a solvent eventually it will dissolve the fiberglass.
Es correcto , la gasolina actual contiene alcohol y deshace la resina epoxy causando terribles problemas en la linea de combustible . Es necesario hacer el deposito con resina GRE.
Incorrect so many boats these days are built like this and have been for years and they last longer then a steel tank or aloy tank
Why did you choose to build the tank into the boat out of glass vs using a plastic tank or even a stainless one
Good question Billy. Firstly cost, it was cheaper for me to make a tank from fibreglass than get one build. I also think this tank adds strength to hull and is a better of of the space as far as fuel volume and if it does fail, all I have to do is cut along the floor ether side of the stringers, cut the baffles out and drop a aluminium or stainless tank in with a thermolite hatch lid over the top. Relatively easy fix. I don’t see the tank failing and boat builders are still making tanks like this so I’m confident it will work fine.
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT thanks for the explanation and also awesome job so far just watched the entire build series so far can’t wait to see the finished product
Shld have something holding that pick up in place on the bottom. The vibration will break that over time
It’s welded in place 🤔
@@ADVENTURES_ADRIFT it's welded in place on the bottom of the tank? I usually glass a bracket to the bottom. With a long unsupported pick up tube. Over time it will stress
Hey mate u forgot a vital point when building a glass tank. It must have a nexus or tissue coating for a chemical barrier. Bugger u have glassed the lid down.
That isn’t fully correct Yanans, Vinyl ester resin cured is fuel resistant and can be used for fuel tanks. The coating would be good and over the top but not required.
Contsruction design and quality is outstanding overall. Too many holes in the baffles, also you have twice as many baffles actually needed. It doesnt hurt anything just letting you know. Also, instead of tacking with hot glue use thickened resin with a sandable filler like Q-Cell with 20 to 50% more hardener than normal if you want it to harden up fast... also, you use small pieces of glass mat for tacking also with extra hardener. It holds way better than hot glue and no strength or bonding surface lost.
I would not have put the metal fittings at the aft end of the tank. I'd have them at the front end. When you accelerate the fuel will all be forced to the back of the tank and you will have these forces applied to where the tubing passes through the tank.. I also fear that you will have leaking issues where you glassed around the tubing. This area should be gasketed.
Looking great least you will eliminated any corrosion problems for ever, say life of a ally tank, maybe 25yrs, the stainless steel screws in the fuel sender units are the undoing on ally tanks.
Two non compatible materials will react over time specially if there's moisturiser about.and stainless tanks can be heavy.
Hey I think potentially you may run into a couple problems with welding the tubes in institute.
1. You will need a (skinny) welder who can tig with both left and right handed and potentially can weld using a mirror, few and far between (good ones)
2. You should have left the lid off as the heat of the tig welding might cook the glass up on the inside of the tank, on the back of the tubes, now you have no way of checking this, and no way of extinguishing it if starts to burn..
3. You could of welded the tubes to the plate first then connecting that front breather pipe to a stub on the inside via a stainless steel straight joiner compression fitting.
Hopefully, I'm all totally wrong in those comments, you have put so much time and effort into it.
Make sure you film the guy when he's doing the welding.
Good luck 👍
Wouldn't need a mirror and there shouldn't be that much heat put into it to make the glass heat up enough
@bmxrydaa Hopefully, you're correct. On camera, it just looked a bit tight for room, it's probably a bit deceiving without physically seeing it in person, cheers
@@jb243wp it's definitely tight and would be a nightmare to weld but it would be doable with the right equipment
Would take a very patient welder
You have lost a lot of room in tank