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Kit 10 - Water Tanks

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Wednesday 19th July: Yesterday I visited ModelWorks and collected the next kit.   Kit 10 has been brought forward because of problems with the subcontractor manufacturing the bevel gears for the differential.  Steve showed me the sample received and the tooth profile was not up to the high standard I have come accustomed to receiving from ModelWorks.  Since it will be several weeks before the correct gears are available we will be getting kit 9 Steering next.

With the POP and Burrell I like to carry additional water as the capacity of the on board water tank is not enough for a decent journey.  I was pleased to read that the combined capacity of the Foden water tanks is 72 liters (20 Gallons) which should give a decent range between water stops.

All my spare time over the last few weeks has been spent building a lift to hoist the Burrell's transport trailer up to the ceiling of my garage. This is just about finished and I now have space build the Foden. 

Rather than press on with the tanks I plan to go back and paint and assemble kits 1 - 3.

The account will continue with painting and assembling kits 1-3 

Friday 20th April 2007: It has been a long time since I touched this kit but I now plan to get it ready so that I will be able to fit the tanks shortly after I get the Foden on its wheels.

Before I went too far I wanted to check that the tanks actually fitted to my chassis.  This they did but there was some confusion in the labelling of the Main Tank Supports F41007 & 8.  The ISOs clearly show that F41007 is the smaller and what's more it has an extra hole.

Now that I have proven their fit my next task will be to seal/rustproof the inside of tanks with POR15.

Weekending 24th October:  I plan shortly to assemble the Foden Chassis an have decided to get the tanks painted before the Foden occupies my painting booth (garage).  I first sealed the inside of the tanks to avoid the tank sealant spoiling the paint.

In the instructions Steve recommends using POR15 which is intended to be used to seal petrol tanks.   As well as blocking any small leaks the object is to prevent the steel tanks rusting when partially filled with water.  I decided to permanently fit many of the fitting so that the steel bushes leading to them would also be protected from rust.  To prevent the sealant leaking through the fittings I made tight fitting bungs which I wedged in place with PTFE tape.

To seal the tanks POR15 is poured in, sloshed around and poured out.  Before attempting this, I realised that pouring out was going to be difficult as there was no suitable hole to serve as a spout.  To overcome this difficulty I drilled and tapped a M6 hole at one of the top corners.  Once I had poured in the can of POR15 I taped a cardboard seal over the inspection hole, gave the tanks a through slosh around and drained the POR15 back into the can ready for the next tank.  After allowing 1/2 hour to drain I stopped up the M6 hole with a bolt wet with POR15.

Generally I was encouraged by the way the POR15  applied itself to the inside of the tank.  Little of the POR15 was used (i could easily got away with a 1 pint tin).  My M6 drain hole worked well though I think I could of got away with less than perfect draining as I have observed that puddles of POR15 go solid relatively quickly.  My biggest problem was getting the lid off my can of POR15!  I had had the can for 2 years and its lid was so solidly stuck that prizing the lid off destroyed the lip of the can.

Weekending 31st October: I completed painting the tanks this week.  I found it too difficult to flip the tanks over whilst spraying so it took me two days to apply each coat.  I was surprised how much paint I used though this is perhaps understandable as the tanks are probably the biggest thing I have sprayed todate.

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