Advice Required

[Guest Ken Brough]

Hello all, any comments re cutting a hole in the top of an existing fitted fuel tank for a sender.

Cheers

Ken

[Longboarder]

I had to weld cracks in my RH tank. Drain. Remove tank from car. Fill with bucket full of hot soapy water and sploosh about. Rinse with hose. Repeat umpteen times until you can no longer smell petrol. Dry with loo paper to get out all remaining liquid. I managed to get my arm through the filler hole to reach some areas. Then pushed in towels and rags and shook it about to dry the corners. Ventilate with fan heater on cold for a couple of hours then on hot checking for petrol smell at intervals. Get friend to come over and sniff the tank in case your nose is on the blink. (He said the house, garage and me smelled of petrol but the tank did not!) Hack or weld away to your hearts content. Wear ear defenders in case of bang!

No seriously that's what I did, apart from the ear defenders.

 

Nigel

[Jez Morton]

I think taking it out will be only option as you will need to clean out any swarf and filings. I guess its a stainless tank, if it is then dont bother with tank cutters they wont last and can wonder around making a mess. Mark the hole you want then mark another circle inside say less 8mm diameter then chain drill (lots of holes close to each other) around the the inner circle with a 6mm drill, knock out the middle and file out to the required size. This does take a bit of time but will get the hole done neatly without deforming the metal which is useful for sealing the sender.

 

Jez

[Guest Ken Brough]

Thanks boys. Tank out it is. No hurry as the one in the 2B was not the best. Good old dip stick for the minute.

[Guest a8dyc]

Hi,

Some one told me once that if you empty the tank and then put it on your exhaust while its running it will remove the fumes and its safe to weld etc.

PLEASE do not take my word for it,but thats what i was told!

 

Andy

[Guest Ian & Carole]

Yep that will work.

 

The other way is to throw a lite match into the tank.

 

Garantee it will remove the last few fume particals:D

 

Then strike up the welder

 

 

Ian J

[Guest erichetherington]

I'm told that it doesn't matter which technique you use to get the fume out of the tank as an exploding fuel tank will only kill you once in a lifetime!

[agent_zed]

i custom made my ss tank for my 2b. I used the shaped sender hole from the sierra tank and cut it out so i could then rivet and glue it to the ss tank. The sender now fits exactly like it did in the sierra tank just by twisting it in. I had to bend the float arm as the tank is lower and it didnt read empty and also had to shorten the pickup pipe a little.

 

i made my tank to fit perfectly flat across from the diff/tubes so i believe i have one of the biggest boots in a 2b as my floor is completely flat.

 

hth

[Guest mark kingston]

i toke a fuel tank out of an old mg ya that was full of rust and crap and after draining it i stuck a hose pipe in it for a few hours and left it running.

after that i drilled a hole in the center cut a H shape with a jig saw peeled back the top cleaned it out and had it shot blasted before folding the top back down and re welding it back up, welding a disc over the drilled hole and it didnt go bang (well i think i am still alive anyway, but then i could be a ghost and not know it). i must admit was a tadd nervous when i started the welding part as the was still a faint smell of petrol.

the old stick it on the exhaust trick was featured on the early 2B build videos and richard stuart recommended it, but i aint tried that menthod my self so cant really comment on it.

Edited February 17, 2008 by mark kingston