Gulf 32 fuel tank project updated

[bwindrope]

I thought I had posted here back when I first dug into my Gulf 32's massive 70 gallon fuel tank in 2016, but can't find that post. In any case, I just removed and reinstalled the forward most inspection hatch and have an update on the project. The first project was prompted by the certainty that I had a ton of sludge and who knows what else in my tank. When I dug into it, with great difficulty, I found a thick layer of black sludge and a tank bottom that was Swiss cheese! The tank came with no access hatches whatsoever so I had to cut hatches into each of the three compartments. Not easy.

That major repair was entirely successful and I can't say enough good things about Flamemaster as a compound for repairing tanks. But I had to take off the forward most inspection hatch over the past few days because the sealant I used at the time, a special blue permatex that claimed to be fuel resistant, wasn't. And the thin aluminum of the tank was too thin to hold the bolts securely so they spun as you tried to tighten the nut.

I got back into to find that the tank was still pristine these three years later, and I chose to epoxy the bolts in place with West System GFlex, which I love.
And I now use the old classic Leak Lock for the sealant, as it is truly impervious to all diesel and biodiesel fuels.

For pictures and more, you can see my non-commercial blog: Gulf 32

[sailormed]

I installed an inspection hatch in my Moeller Marine polymer tank and had the same problem you had. How do I tighten the nut on the bolt with the head inside the tank.
My solution:
Take a bolt that is 10-15 mm longer then required.
Grind 2 flat sides on the last 6-8 mm of the bolt.
Screw the nut on by hand.
Use a vice grip to immobilize the bolt.
Tighten the nut.
Voilà as they say in french

[bwindrope]

Hey sailormed, that's another good solution that I considered. I also thought of cutting a notch into the bottom of each bolt and just using a flat head screwdriver, just like if you are doing the valves on your diesel. My hatch has about 10 bolts and I don't have a bench mounted angle grinder or something handy like that, so it was much faster to use GFlex.

[bwindrope]

Originally Posted by sailormed

Voilà as they say in french

And I see you live in France, so you know as I do as a visitor from the States that the French really do sail Voila' all the time! It's the handy expression to express everything from "I'm done", "No problem", "There you go" and such. I love hearing it when I am there. A reminder of Rumi saying that "language is a tailors shop where nothing fits" and how different languages have different ways of trying to express what is ineffable. And how languages limits our understanding of the world. If we can't say it, we struggle to think it!