Old fuel tank issues

I'm on with my resto of my Campaign and come around to the fuel tank. 

Question is should I replace it or spend quite  a few hours scraping and cleaning the outside of the tank and repainting it. There's a lot of surface rust and old underseal on it presently.

I'm not aware of any holes but there is some bits of rubbish in there as you can hear it "rattling" around. Once it's cleaned up it might be a different story with the rust wire brushed off might show some pin holes.

I've heard the replacement tanks don't have the same spec as the originals and probably need painting too.

Any thoughts ? My gut is to press on and spend a good few hours on it cleaning and see what happens and then repainting.

Assuming the tank is sound with no leaks or pin holes, I'd def swill out and syphon out as much cr P  as you can and then carefully de-rust and repaint the out side and then its ready for another 35 years.

Be very carefully when wire brushing near the small vent outlets on top of the tank, they can become detached……

I had a right 'mare with a pattern tank with car cutting out after about 5 miles and eventually had to sourced a good 2nd hand original.

Also if you doing are a restoration it gives you a nice warm fuzzy feeling keeping and reusing the original factory parts

I used a pen style telescopic magnet to check to loose rust in my tank so that might be worth trying after you have swilled it out.

Over here on this side of the pond there are quite a few Radiator shops that will Boil clean your tank, inspect it and repair leaks….

When going back, de-rusty it and use a rust convertor. Prime it.  Paint it, then under coat the bottom and sides Hardening Rhino Liner is good, then paint it again with the color of the car… At the top side of the tank where the rubber bits are you can use Butyl Self Sticky Roofing Sealer (comes in 6 inch widths to replace what is there, then also use it on the straps and a strip or 2 down the center to stop drumming noise.

my 2 cents.

Cheers guys - I'll make a start on it today and put a pic up of finished article 😄😉