Leaking fuel tank pickup plate

[Jeremy]

I've had a longstanding problem of petrol making its presence felt in the cabin (just a faint whiff) and when lifting the spare wheel boot board (a somewhat more pungent whiff). And dissolved paint on the tank round the pickup plate.

IIRC I used Hylomar blue "fuel resistant" when I did the original build. After googling "petrol resistant sealant" and ending up unconvinced that such a thing actually exists, I mentioned it to Angus. His prescription was pithy and to the point.
1. There is no such thing
2. Clean all the old sealant crap off
3. Abrade the mating surfaces of the tank and the plate
4. Fit a new cork gasket, dry
5. Use 2, not 1, copper washers

So I held off till the tank was down to about half full, and have just done all of the above. I stuck duct tape upside down inside the hole to catch the debris (a bit of a race against the petrol fumes slowly dissolving the tape adhesive, it all got a bit sticky) and used a powerful vac to hoover up the fragments as I went. To finally clean up the last traces of sealant before the dry assembly I found the most effective solvent was.... petrol
Then I touched up the tank with some black chassis paint.

We'll see if this works.

[265bhp]

I disagree

Blue hylomar at has worked for me….I used to have the same problem ….but now I don’t….

All the best
Jonathan

[Jeremy]

Hmm. Maybe what I originally used wasn't blue Hylomar....

[Gfhug]

Jeremy, there is aerograde hylomar which is supposed to be as the original product for Rolls Royce many years ago.

https://hylomar.com/en/hylomar-aerograde-pl32/

Geoff

[Jeremy]

Thanks Geoff, interesting. Looks like v high quality stuff, and presumably not cheap. But as Angus was very clear that he does not use any sealant in this particular location, I'm going with his advice. He's currently on a "zero leaks" quest with his own car, methodically identifying and addressing the cause of every single leak, however small. It's fascinating....