The Gas Tank Renu Story

After returning home following four years in the Navy, Eric Johnson, then 23, walked up to his dad and asked,

“Guess what I bought today?”
“What?” his dad asked,  and Johnson told him "Gas Tank Renu”.
Back then, in 1987, Gas Tank Renu was a 2-year-old business specializing in repairing and refurbishing gas tanks. The next question his dad asked him was,

“What do you know about gas tanks?”
“Nothing” Johnson replied.

But after more than 30 years, Johnson has learned a thing or two and now he and his four employees work on everything from half-gallon generator tanks to 100-gallon school bus tanks. Gas Tank Renu will take out old tanks and replace them with ones they’ve restored. If they don’t have a restored tank in stock, they can restore the original, which will often take just a couple days. The shop now restores about 1,000 tanks per year.
After tanks are dried out and steam cleaned, they are sandblasted and recoated and as good as new.

Gas Tank Renu opened in Swartz Creek in 1985 and after two years, it was sold and franchised and has now gone international, with branches in the U.S., Canada, Iceland, Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
All new franchise owners come to Swartz Creek for training and Johnson travels to opening shops to check progress — an assignment that’s taken him overseas several times.
But the original shop still operates on Grove Street in Swartz Creek.
At the shop, a worn clipping of a 1988 Flint Journal article hangs on a wall. “Tanks can be repaired as good as new” the headline reads.
But “good as new” has changed since the late ‘80s. For example, plastic tanks started showing up in the late ‘90s.
“We always thought these plastic tanks would be our downfall because they don’t rust,” Johnson said.
But, without proper maintenance, they still need repairs, he said.
“This guy dragged this one in this morning,” he said, pointing out an old plastic tank.
And rehabilitating tanks isn’t recession-proof. But business has started to pick up again. And when metal prices rose a few years back, replacing tanks became more costly — $500 tanks shot up to $1,500. So more people started opting for restoration.

An old motor home with a rusted out 40-gallon tank sits on a hoist out front. It was brought in because the gas gauge wasn’t working, but Johnson knew right away the tank was rusted out, too.

“It’s 30 years of experience,” he said.
Our Business Is Gas Tanks

• In business since 1985
• Full service fuel system center
• Over 60 yrs combined experience working with gas tanks
• Over 40,000 tanks repaired since 1985 and 75% of those were installed by us!

Rusty the Gas Tank Renu shop cat