build diary

March 22, 2006: I used a smoke machine to check for leaks last night.
It runs a couple of psi of pressure and is great for finding air leaks. A couple showed up and I decided to weld all the seams in the tank from the outside as well as the inside just to be sure. That stopped the smoke leaks, but when I filled the tank with methyl ethyl ketone to degrease it I found a couple more. I've decided to grind all the exterior welds down to check them for pinholes and also because, well, it'll look prettier! With the tight fit in the car it's likely any external welds will cause installation problems anyhow. The coating should stop the pinholes but I'd rather use that as a backup instead of relying on it. The current plan is to finish that grinding and cleanup tonight, then coat the tank tomorrow.

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