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Kent-Thanks for the great info.Is there any way of plating a new tank with the lead-tin type plating they used before to get an original look,or is it even used today with all the EPA guidelines?



New repro gas tanks are already made with lead-tin coated steel. They are exactly the same as original tanks as far as the lead-tin coating appearance. The shiny terne coating looks exactly the same today on repros as it did on new Mopar originals back in the day. The steel mill process is mostly unchanged from before the 1960's, except for improved production control and quality control through better computerization.

If you want an original factory look for a gas tank, the shiny repros deliver this, and the NOS tanks don't, because they are old. The NOS ones are dull colored due to aging, just like today's repros will be too after some years of atmospheric exposure. (Besides, it might be possible there could be some corrosion inside an NOS tank from condensation caused by temperature and hunidity changes during long storage.)

You might be able to keep a repro tank shiny like tanks were when a new car left the factory by using wax or other preservative on the outside. But undercoating overspray from the rear wheel wells might not stick on a waxed tank like it did on original tanks.

Terne sheet for making gas tanks, sometimes called long terne sheet, is cold rolled steel sheet that has been hot dipped in a molten bath of lead-tin in a high speed continuous process at a coating mill. Lead is still used for this just like it is still used for solder, since lead safety is not an issue with these.

I looked into the use of nickel in the terne process, since Quanta says they use nickel-terne steel. Ni-terne sheet gets a flash coat of electro-deposited nickel on the steel before hot dipping. The nickel is there to improve corrosion resistance.

A range of coating thicknesses, alloys of lead-tin, steel grades, steel thicknesses, etc., are available under ASTM A308 for making terne. Hard to say if repro tanks are the same as originals in all of these quality details, even though the appearance is the same. Since Quanta has chosen to use Ni-terne instead of terne without Ni, that tends to say that Quanta strives for quality. I bought a Quanta tank since my original was toast. But so far it is still in the box. Although there are complaints about Quanta's belts, I have not heard any complaints about their tanks. I figure Quanta is a tank making operation that doesn't make anything else, and they buy the belts and other stuff for resale.

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