Buddy Commando ABLJ small tank how to protect from paint damage?

[ChangeAgent]

The small emergency tank on my Buddy Commando always seems to get damaged (the paint that is) around the valve and at the bottom. I suspect it bangs against things while de-kitting and moving the kit around.

Besides from looking ugly it tends to fail the test as all the paint has come of and the aluminium is blooming. At the top end the corrosion tends to creep under the valve and in the end it bleeds air there as it gets under the O-ring.

Has anybody by any change found a solution for that? Any away to protect the small tank?

Thanks.

 

[plaamook]

I don’t use them on my commandos but right off the top of my head…
Could wrap it in neoprene but it’ll add buoyancy.
Paint it w some kind of rubbery paint like plastidip.
Wrap it w gorilla tape.

 

[ChangeAgent]

Thanks for the tips.

I thought about gorilla tape but am afraid it will peal the paint if you remove it or will get water underneath it and one does not see the corrosion. And with those solutions’ possible problems by the test.

Neoprene will come of if you do not glue it on. Same challenges as the tape.

Plastidip could work but how to remove for the test.

 

[ChangeAgent]

by the way, does gorilla tape hold in salt water?

 

[plaamook]

Gorilla glue will absolutely last in the sea. I’ve got some stuff taped up here n there that have seen like 150 dives.

It can take the paint off but I wasn’t sure if it needed to come off for testing. I’ve got some on a 3L…just to have something protecting the tank from jubilee clips…and no one tried taking it off for testing. So who knows.

But for neoprene I was thinking more like a kind of pouch rather than glue or anything like that. You know, like those keep your beer cold pockets.

But really…do you actually need the crack bottle? AP will send you a blanking plate for a couple of quid. Maybe just get rid of the thing?

 

[PR_SMITH]

tank mesh:

 

[ChangeAgent]

Gorilla glue will absolutely last in the sea. I’ve got some stuff taped up here n there that have seen like 150 dives.

But really…do you actually need the crack bottle? AP will send you a blanking plate for a couple of quid. Maybe just get rid of the thing?

Thanks for the tape update, good to know.

Yes I have the plugs always at hand when we go out. You never know. But my wife insist on having it as it makes her feel safer.