Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I am restoring a gas tank for my 1983 Nighthawk CB550SC but i cant seem
to drain the last ~10 ounces of fuel inside the tank.

How can i completely drain the remaining fuel?

I want to be able to safely clean the tank so that i can start removing
the paint, sanding, applying bondo etc.

Should I be concerned about the fumes in the gas tank? If so, how do i
get rid of these?
What is the right way to get rid of the old fuel?

Thanks guys.

Gasoline evaporates rather quickly, set it outside in a place that is VERY well ventilated, I'm thinking like the middle of your yard on a windy day.

Otherwise pop the fuel line off, set the petcock to prime and work it around.

thanks.... i will leave the fuel outside and open for it to evaporate.

once my project is done, how do i clean the inside of my tank before its ready for new gas? can i hose it with water and wait for the water to dry?

thanks again.

you don't by any chance have a compressor do you? I stuck an air hose in mine to dry it out. Por 15 sells all kinds of cleaners that they tell you to use before treating a tank.

I need to stress the well ventilated. Evaporated gasoline is extremely explosive. Make sure there's heavy wind in the area. I don't want to find out it's my fault you got blown up.

So this one time my friend Trip was trying to set gasoline on fire ontop of a covered and filled well (concrete slab over well) and he couldn't seem to light it. What he didn't notice was that the gasoline for the most part was dripping through a crack, falling the few feet to the rubble used to fill in the well. While trying to figure out what happened before trying again he waited... oh 2 minutes. When he tried again to light more gasoline his lighter hit the vapor from the first attempt. KA-BLEWEY!

Long story short, Trip is an idiot. He survived, got lots of concrete shrapnel, was thrown back a bit and had a huge piece of concrete land a foot away from his head.

I think he was using a pint of gasoline