So I picked up another suspension air tank a couple of weeks back. OK condition but the red stuff was on the march so the sensible thing to do was to re-decorate given Mr MoT Mans views on advisories. Still had the yellow label. Careful application of a heat gun got it off in one piece. Took the air tank back to bare metal and treated all the once rusty areas with rust killer. Unfortunately the tank was just too big to handle easily in my blast cabinet so it wasn't possible to do a perfect back to metal job. Close but not perfect. That said I always hit even apparently completely de-rusted steel the the rust killer. Its surprising how much purples up indicating that there was still some rust in the surface.

Two coats of Blackfriars anti rust metal primer and two coats of grey topcoat later the tank was looking pretty good. Can't be bothered to set-up to spray things like this and the Blackfriars brushes on well with decent coverage. Been using it since it was QD90. Vapormatic tractor paint might be a little better but my tins of that are reserved for the P&W. Why grey. Its what I always do. If nowt else it makes it quite clear what I've painted myself. Brightens up the underside bit too.

Was going to put the label back on but it looked far too secondhand against the smart tank. So I scanned it into the computer. Copied it and fired up the CAD program. Put the JEPG picture on the bottom layer of the drawing file and copy on the upper layer. Couldn't quite match the print fonts and doing the diagram bits was um "interesting". But I did find out a few handy wrinkles buried in the Vectorworks menus that I wish I'd discovered 15 years back. Faithful Laserwriter 4M+ printed it out on thin card stock, nearly the right yellow too. Finally ran it though the laminator to protect it. All I have to do now is to decide which glue to use.

PDF file of the label available if anyone else here is mad enough to want one.

Clive.

It is a pity all your good work is hidden underneath the car Clive.
I have used Hammerite Kurust quite a bit in the past but I also use electrolysis to get rid of rust using washing soda and an old battery charger.
Did the MOT man specifically request the label must be readable?

Nah. Just me being anal! Got reputation for overdoing overdoing to keep up y'know.

Seriously I do wonder where these things fit from the pressure vessel regulations point of view. Normally a cylinder of this size and pressure rating would require permanent serial numbers and pressure ratings applied. Like the welded on label on an ordinary Calor gas cylinder.

Clive

There's your next job Clive, make up a vin plate and weld it to the tank,,
Just kidding 😁