O ok. Cool... How/why the hell did it have 2 gallons of water in it?

The gas cap leaked and it was stored outside.

Oh.
Well what type of acid should i use? Wiki lists two and i'm leaning more towards the one that makes iron form or something like that... Just seems like that one is less likely to damage tank, I guess?

I've never tried the acid-etch method, so I'm not much help there Loki. 

Sounds like you'll just have to experiment!   

How did your carbs go? 

Fine just trying to make sure I've hooked up all the hoses right lol.

Quote from: loki7714 on December 18, 2008, 05:21:33 AM
Chain sounds like a good idea... Why not?

It wraps around the cap depression drain tube. That's the easy one as you can a least see it through the filler. Depending on the size of the chain, it may become wedged  in the "crap pockets" or the area at the extreme front of the tank where the bottom and top taper together. It then acts like a chinese finger trap, the harder you pull-the more it binds. Working through the filler, you can't pull at an angle that would release it. It may work fine in some tanks but not the GS500. Like Buddah said, nothing will mechanically clean the crevices as well as a liquid.

Makes sense... What type of acid?

I doubt anythign other than acid (and use muriatic acid - available at hardware store) will get the crap pocket.
GeeP - how you get that pic and can you show the crap pockets and how they look ?
Chain wrapping around the vent tube isn't too bad. It will get wiggled out if you're patient. I just dont think any chain will get to the crap pocket and scrape it. You could acid treat after a chain session with a primary goal to get acid etching in the crap pocket and scraping everywhere else. However ... that defeats the whole purpose of chain ... you might as well use acid for all of it. Crap pockets are the rustiest, thinnest and the most vulnerable place to have any type of leak. The rest of the tank can pretty much be treated with anything.
Cool.
Buddha.

Cool thanks for the help you guys can't wait to finally get bike up and running after not being able to ride for a week or so

In this weather it will take over 3-4 days to do a decent POR job. You may need to sit it in front of a space heater or a dish heater for the first day after putting in POR, and you wanna get it bone dry before putting in POR. All these rainy humid and cold days are just wrong for POR.
Dry and hot ... may be worth it to wait till spring.
Cool.
Buddha.

This whole week in SOUTH CAROLINA HAS BEEN GRAND!

hitting up to 70 degree weather and low is like 50 to 60 which ain't bad at all!

Same here in louisiana

Shut up you 2. I got rain ... everyday ... if not that its in the 30's like last weekend.
Cool.
Buddha.

Lol and i thought louisiana had shitty weather... Lol guess you'll be laughing at us in the summer though, hot as hell down here

yeah its pretty hot in South Caolina in the summer here too =(

So after i clean out the rust with acid and the acid with baking soda and hot water. What do i clean out the baking soda with? Also how do i clean this and do i leave it in when doing acid treatment? If not how do i cover holes while acid treating?

Also does that thing serve as a sort of fuel filtration as well?

Bump

I removed the petcock and made a plate from steel to bolt in it's place. Some kind of gasket is advisable (I used duct tape). I'm not sure how to securely seal the filler, as I was using non corrosive rust remover (Evapo-Rust). Maybe you can put plastic wrap over the opening and close the cap? I used lots of water for a final rinse. After getting most of the water out through the petcock hole, use the method in the post below to remove the rest.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=45667.msg512332#msg512332

The next step was to reinstall the block off plate to the petcock opening, pour in a quart of 91% rubbing alcohol and slosh it around to absorb any remnants of water. Remove the plate, drain, and use the same method in the post above to remove the rest. If your not going to apply a sealer, let the tank sit (upside down so the remainig liquid isn't pooled in the crap pockets) for an hour or two in a warm area so most of the remaining alcohol will evaporate, then fill with gas so it doesn't start to rust again. If you are going to apply a sealer, the tank may need to sit much longer to assure it is completely dry inside. As far as I know, the light rust that may occur during drying has no affect on applying a sealer.

What's filler? And by petcock do you mean tank petcock?