I used gravel in mine. Loads of fun shaking a bus gas tank with two pounds of gravel in it.. From: tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of sammie smith Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 7:24 PM To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [tcb] Re: To restore or not to restore DO NOT follow Denis's suggestion on the fuel tank. If you are going to shake anything around in there use marbles, not metal. Metal can cause a spark and ignite any old fumes hanging around in there which there always seems to be. _____ From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx> To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Mon, July 19, 2010 4:55:43 PM Subject: [tcb] Re: To restore or not to restore Put a bunch of shiny nails, screws, chain, whatever you might use a little water or paint thinner and pour it all out on something so that you can see what it loosened. If you don't have flakes of rust or varnish, I'd say just put it back in the bus. I did this to Murray about three times before it came out clean and in 10 years I have not had any problem. Carry lots of fuel filters. As for the brakes, you have to do both anyway, bleed and adjust. Bleed them first. -----Original Message----- From: tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Julie Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 3:50 PM To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [tcb] To restore or not to restore So after all of the struggle (Thanks Tracy for the suggestion to use the little screwdriver.), the fuel tank is out and when I shine a flashlight into it I don't see any rust or sludge or anything but happy, dry, clean metal. When I shake it I don't hear any flakes. So going through the whole POR 15 process of restoring the tank seems silly to me and I might mess things up rather than make it better. Should I just rinse the tank with something before putting it back in just to make sure it is as good a condition as I think it is? Should I stop being a wimp and go ahead and restore? This Bus has been sitting for years, when I got it last year a friend and I drained the gas out of it. It sure was stinky. I am surprised that the tank seems so clean. And a completely different question and please forgive it is a Beetle question but let's just pretend that we are talking about a 70 or earlier Bus because drum brakes are drum brakes, right? So finally my Mom's VW is running but the brakes aren't so wonderful. This car is new to us, and a friend suggested that I bleed the brakes first and then adjust them. I thought that I should just go straight to adjusting them. So is he correct? I have never bleed or adjusted brakes but I have seen it done, so I think I can handle it. Thanks for putting up with me, Julie