Removing rust from a steel tank

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moosedaisy

Registered
Messages
9
Reaction score
5
Location
Hawaii
# of dives
5000 - ∞
I picked up a scuba pro/ faber 95lp steel tank. It just passed vip and hydro. It has some light surface rust that I'd like to get rid of. What would you recommend to take care of that? Right now it's painted white from the factory with scubapro graphics.

I planned to strip it entireley and repaint it but a few people told me not to do that as unlike the factory paint it would lead to more rust.

Also whats the best way to take care of a steel tank? I've always used alum and just rinsed the valves after every dive.
 
I picked up a scuba pro/ faber 95lp steel tank. It just passed vip and hydro. It has some light surface rust that I'd like to get rid of. What would you recommend to take care of that? Right now it's painted white from the factory with scubapro graphics.

I planned to strip it entireley and repaint it but a few people told me not to do that as unlike the factory paint it would lead to more rust.

Also whats the best way to take care of a steel tank? I've always used alum and just rinsed the valves after every dive.
Just touch up the chipped spots with white rustoleum and don't worry about it.

You will make it 1000x worse trying to strip and repaint it.
 
Just take the sheen off the existing paint with 400
then paint them, any colour that takes your fancy

Won't affect a thing other than your bank balance


White Fabers are about as unimaginative as silver Fabers

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Unless of course they match your dive transportation modules

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I have taken a similar approach to both of the above posts. Clean up the rust spots and touch up. Sometimes the touch up involves more than a small area so then more of cylinder gets a painted. And as it happens white matches my cylinder transport modules.
 
White Fabers are about as unimaginative as silver Fabers

full-jpg.604877.jpg

This makes me feel better about my tank collection. My wife thinks 8 tanks between the two of us is too many. I was eyeing up some old lp72 that were just posted locally. Thanks for sharing how you touch up/paint your tanks.
 
You might consider a chemical rust converter after a bit of careful mechanical removal.

I've been trying out "Must the Rust" spray and am pleased with the results so far on vehicles and tools.

I have HDG steels. If only I could get my transport modules in the same finish! My town brines everything starting 2-days before the predicted possibility of any "frozen" precip. First-world problem, but I prefer to keep my vehicles for decades ...
 
Sandpaper and naval jelly.

I would only consider a total repaint on a steel at hydro time.

If you do that, make sure you get all the stickers and adhesive off before you sand.
 
Yeah Rusty I was going to wait until we started breathing liquid, but ran out of time

Dubious, horrific, there's more behind the photo, next to the photo
around the corner and down the side of the house and out the back

And that's just for me and my ego

Mix and fill days are hell, I usually do mixing on one and filling another with a top up
but to go to the catalogue the day before a dive and throwing a couple into the car is

Magnificent!

Then you look at a couple of dozen rebreather bottles that only take up
a couple of feet at the bottom of a cupboard, in any part of your house

Today is storage filling to run a booster, six hours

anyhow I just get the guy that paints my cars.

Two Pack
 
This makes me feel better about my tank collection. My wife thinks 8 tanks between the two of us is too many. I was eyeing up some old lp72 that were just posted locally. Thanks for sharing how you touch up/paint your tanks.

it helps when your wife is a diver too, we have 3 sets of doubles, 5 stage bottles, then 12 other tanks of various sizes. Could open a small dive shop out of our garage lol.
 

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