Oddly enough, when you do a parts search on Pelican, no fuel tank for the 300D comes up, but when you do a Google search, the following comes up:

https://www.pelicanparts.com/More_Info/1074704501.htm?pn=107-470-45-01-M350&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-6WF0c755QIVMR-tBh3O1wm6EAQYASABEgI05_D_BwE

I was told on the phone that they don’t have it in stock, that maybe it could be procured, 2 to 3 weeks out.

Weird, I was about ready to buy one and go the deluxe, labor saving route.

I’m going to rent one of those mechanical bulls, and strap it on the saddle.

:)

I desperately want to see a video of this.

Fuel Tank
 

....That's a W107 tank.....

I once posted on a Blue Collar Motocycle group about wrapping a motocycle tank in a blanket (or whatever) then tumbling it in the dryer of 'fluff' (cold air) with the dilute mix, you'd thought I'd dropped a bomb from all the nasty insults that began flying 'round....

A couple years later some guys who'd tried my methods before posted that they'd done just this dryer deal when SWMBO was gone for the day and it worked perfectly and didn't scratch the paint .

The electric bull sounds like a fun idea....

It’s a fun idea, and I would love to actually have a video to post but short of having a friend who owns one and would loan it to me, I’m afraid it probably won’t happen.

But you know what? I’m going to do a web search just for the heck of it.

Ah, right you are. It comes up when you enter '300D, W123 fuel tank' in the search box, I could have sworn I saw all of that on the link but looking closer I see in faint letters the actual models it fits.

You can rent electric bulls but they don't give the price. 'Call for quote.'

"Hello, I want to strap a possibly sealed fuel tank filled with various chemicals and hard core solvents to the back of your multi thousand dollar investment and slosh it around a bit, what do you say?"

Oh man, I would love to have access to one of those dry ice powder sand blasting machines. Even a regular old sand blaster would be acceptable. Could get the sand out with pressure washer and wet vac like I did with the rust and gravel residue. I taped a 3/4 piece of PVC about 18 inches into the end of the vacuum hose, worked great.

There are some spots at the top of the tank that are weird. Several small looking vent lines, more busy than anything on the outside. Would love to be able to take a wire brush to them. Might do that - attach one of those small ones to some sort of wand.

I have swapped mine 300D tank to a bigger one from a 280E. Works good. Fungus gone

Whoa. It must fit, or did you have to do significant surgery? I’ll search it later when I have more time, but are they available new? It’s looking like the stock W123 300D tank is hard to get new at this time.

Tank Cleaning
 

? Why the sudden need to buy a brandy new non wear part ? .

You've been told how to easily clean it or where to get a cheap good used one .

FWIW, blasting isn't good for cleaning fuel tanks, it never quite reaches all the crevices .

Is it known that the gasser tank is larger than the diesel tank ? .

Shouldn't need any mods to make fit, just thicker fore and aft dimensions will do the trick .

I doubt there is much difference between the 280e and the 300d tank. I don't know what they are made of but I doubt they are bare steel inside. I imagine they are cad plated. I have never had trouble with rust in any of the 40 or so old benzos tanks I have owned.

Just buy a used one they don't have fungus. Just in case open the leveller to see if there is no rust.

1:1 fit no adjustment welding or cutting.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...921/ByWgzN.jpg

Good point, I've sobered up on that point.

I wasn't thinking that blasting would get all of the tank. There are some thin metal rods running lengthwise at the top of the tank that have small cankors of rust all over them. I didn't try to take a pic - the tank is back in now.

I'm baffled as to what those are. They seem to tiny to have any venting function, about an eighth inch diameter, much less that the external vent line.

I tried to fab a wire brush extender to get in and do a job on them with only a small amount of luck. Coming up with an effective tool for that would just take too much time.

I got quite a bit of rusty detritus out with the gravel. Not sure how much was already loose in the tank. At this point I'm going to watch the primary filter. I'm pretty sure I made good progress. I have bigger fish to fry at the moment.

I'll keep an eye out for a tank, but like I said - W123s are not common at boneyards these days. There is that good looking CDT, I'll give it a look. Almost looks too good to be at a boneyard. I want to be a magician and drop an OM603 into it:

https://www.picknpull.com/vehicle_details.aspx?VIN=WDBAB53A7DB003003

https://i.postimg.cc/D0L7d3ZW/123-coupe-Pn-P.jpg

In the air cooled VW world, cleaning tanks out involve cleaners and some kind of abrasive objects. I have used diesel and a length of steel chain to clean tractor tanks. It is flat out work, shaking a bulky tank around. Having teen age boys, I put them to work...

I can see it now, my big business break. I'll buy some beat up bull riding machine and repurpose it as a shaker for old gas tanks. We'll experiment with different types of abrasive fill - different sized aggregate. Maybe turn the tank 30 degrees every 15 minutes.