Ex-Mercedes fuel tank refurbished into a water tank

I found a 2nd hand fuel tank in the yard of my bodybuilder, which seemed to fit the bill for a side mounted water tank on our truck.

It is 425 litres in capacity, and fits nicely on the other side of the chassis to the 300L fuel tank. When I got it, it was looking pretty shabby, being left out in the weather for a few years and being unpainted aluminium. I pulled it apart and cleaned up the rust on the "J" brackets and sanded down the aluminium for painting.

It needed a good clean internally to get rid of the diesel smell. It actually came with about 100L of diesel in it, so I siphoned that out into my tractor!! So far it has had a power wash with "Clean Green" detergent, a rinse with some POR-15 "Marine Clean" followed up by a soak with some Borax and hot water. There is still a whiff of diesel, so I may have to hit it with some bleach later if we can taste it in the water.

Here it is just after being painted:

It all got a coat of universal Etch Primer, and then a coat of 2 pack "Graphite Black", the same factory colour as the MAN chassis.

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