Can you believe it's December already? (!!!!)
Need to troll the experience of the forumites.....
I put some sizable effort into improving the look of my 5.3 gal Acerbis tank....
Had feared all along the textured surface of the polyethylene was going to present me with a 'sticking' issue. Turns out, that has not been a problem.
Knew the polymer is very slightly permeable to solvents, and gave the risk of blistering all of 2 minutes thought... then quickly moved on.
I applied my decals in early Nov and very pleased with the result. Looked fantastic for all of 3 weeks... and then Thursday morning, I find this:
Easily flattened again if you lift one edge and re-apply.... but heavily blistered by the next morning and again today. Repeating the re-application each time and somehow expecting a different outcome has confirmed the futility and madness.
As the vinyl is peeled back I can actually smell the gasoline at the tank surface. This is happening overnight! Crazy!
Gave it some thought... and the only thing that had changed from the previous 3 weeks was the weather.
Then it dawned on me! We had been experiencing cold, clear, high pressure cells until the recent weather came through with the warmer, low pressure weather over the past 3 days.
I opened the gas cap and the tank barfed out a large gas volume with an audible 'thunk'. The lousy Acerbis locking cap is exactly that: Lousy. Stupid thing does not vent properly and I'd effectively trapped high pressure inside the tank, making for an excellent osmotic potential across the tank wall.
Scratching my head now. Spent the afternoon with Google and friends to see if there is anything out there that might work as a sealant barrier AND actually bond to the plastic.
The old stuff like Red Kote and others are all designed for metal tanks. Found some frighteningly expensive ($140/quart) polyamide coating by DOW, but it's primary solvent is ethanol! Yip. Pretty much makes that stuff useless right out the can. For the same reason, my best idea of a shellac undercoat is probably also dead in the water.
Anyone out there discovered a successful workaround for this problem?
Would love to know what folk have tried. What worked, for sure - but what did not work is just as educational.
Appreciated.
Need to troll the experience of the forumites.....
I put some sizable effort into improving the look of my 5.3 gal Acerbis tank....
Had feared all along the textured surface of the polyethylene was going to present me with a 'sticking' issue. Turns out, that has not been a problem.
Knew the polymer is very slightly permeable to solvents, and gave the risk of blistering all of 2 minutes thought... then quickly moved on.
I applied my decals in early Nov and very pleased with the result. Looked fantastic for all of 3 weeks... and then Thursday morning, I find this:
Easily flattened again if you lift one edge and re-apply.... but heavily blistered by the next morning and again today. Repeating the re-application each time and somehow expecting a different outcome has confirmed the futility and madness.
As the vinyl is peeled back I can actually smell the gasoline at the tank surface. This is happening overnight! Crazy!
Gave it some thought... and the only thing that had changed from the previous 3 weeks was the weather.
Then it dawned on me! We had been experiencing cold, clear, high pressure cells until the recent weather came through with the warmer, low pressure weather over the past 3 days.
I opened the gas cap and the tank barfed out a large gas volume with an audible 'thunk'. The lousy Acerbis locking cap is exactly that: Lousy. Stupid thing does not vent properly and I'd effectively trapped high pressure inside the tank, making for an excellent osmotic potential across the tank wall.
Scratching my head now. Spent the afternoon with Google and friends to see if there is anything out there that might work as a sealant barrier AND actually bond to the plastic.
The old stuff like Red Kote and others are all designed for metal tanks. Found some frighteningly expensive ($140/quart) polyamide coating by DOW, but it's primary solvent is ethanol! Yip. Pretty much makes that stuff useless right out the can. For the same reason, my best idea of a shellac undercoat is probably also dead in the water.
Anyone out there discovered a successful workaround for this problem?
Would love to know what folk have tried. What worked, for sure - but what did not work is just as educational.
Appreciated.