Well I have to admit I'm still embarrassed about missing the POL fitting. I guess I just had it in mind that because the tank was permanently mounted that the plumbing would be also.
Anyway I took the tank into a shop to get a new valve, gauge and a paint job. Pretty straight forward I thought, not so. About an hour after I got home the phone rang. The guy said they couldn't work on the tank because there was a hole in it and somebody had put a screw with a rubber gasket in it.
After several minutes of disbelief I drove back to see what this guy was talking about. This is what I found.
There is no evidence that it was leaking but the guy said he couldn't touch it.
The interesting thing is how long has this screw been there. My father-in-law bought it from the son of the original owner. The original owner died after owning it for five years and it sat idle for another five years when my father-in-law bought it. The in-laws claim no knowledge of it so that screw must have been there for a lot of years.
My first thought was to look for a new tank. Manchester Tank has one the same size but the valve is in the wrong location and they won't build it like I need it. Turns out they are so backed up that they won't even accept an order for any tank.
Our good friend Brad has the one from his parted out 34.5 but normal shipping outfits won't touch a used tank.
After some searching I discovered a welder with a certification for a "R" stamp can weld it. After more searching I found such a welder about ten miles away. After a couple of weeks and more than a few dollars I picked up my tank. Does it look any better?
I think the welder did a pretty good job.
Anyway I'll get it back in the coach in the next day or two and then down to get purged and filled.
I would hope this is not a normal occurrence but you guys might want to take a look at your tanks just in case.
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