Tank sealant cure

I'm working on the tanks and after having pretty good success I'm looking at the fuel fill and drain that I did last Saturday and having doubts.... the color is more on the light grey side then everything else I have done and looks like it's obviously taking longer to cure. If I'm apparently light on hardener will it just take longer to cure or is it a case of never curing the way it should?

keep mix coupons to evaluate the cure...

I always weigh it out in a mixing cup that I keep as a coupon during the cure to evaluate. I have had very good consistency in color batch to batch... cure time is impacted by colder temperatures. If it is below 60 the cure time starts to stretch significantly... very slow under 50.

Mix by weight

[email protected] said:

I always weigh it out in a mixing cup that I keep as a coupon during the cure to evaluate. I have had very good consistency in color batch to batch... cure time is impacted by colder temperatures. If it is below 60 the cure time starts to stretch significantly... very slow under 50.

Click to expand...

+1 on mixing by weight. HF sells cheap electronic scales. Mix it for two minutes. If there's any hardener, it will eventually cure. As mentioned, cold will slow it significantly. Bring it inside if possible.

The more I thought about it the more it bothered me. I figured I would try and remove the drain to see how it went. After the rivets were out it peeled right off. I just had to remove the tank fill after that. That was a bigger cleanup trying to get all the sticky sealant off. The reinforcement ribs were done with a different batch the same day with the usual dark color. They look great and the sealant is like hard rubber. No chance those are coming off. Must have screwed up the small batch. I'll blame the scale and pick up a new one tomorrow! Need to get the tanks done so they can cure over the holidays while I fish for Christmas largemouth in okeechobee.