Fuel tank part 2

Well, that took a long time!! Five months apparently since I started the tank. And now it's finished.

There were a few issues. The swirl pot wasn't too bad to weld up in the end, and I reused the pipe ends from the Mazda fuel tank. That way I can attach hoses with clamps and they'll be secure. Unfortunately when it got welded on it did warp the tank itself, which meant I was then trying to weld straight ends to a wavy tank.

What I did was use cleko temporary rivets to pull the metal together before welding, it just meant that I lost four cleko's (they don't like heat apparently!). The filler end wasn't as bad, probably because I learned my lesson and braced the nearest end before welding. There was still some distortion but that could be tapped out by a hammer.

The ends went on with only a little trouble (mainly from the warping), once it's cooled down I'll start the pressure test. For this I have some pipe connectors, a bike pump and a rubber glove!! The plan is to seal all the (known!) holes, the rubber glove over the filler and the bike pump attached to a fuel pipe. I'll then inflate the glove and use soapy water to pick up leaks. Once they've been spotted and welded as required, it'll be painted and left for fitting.

I've also been fixing some cable/pipe mountings to the chassis, they'll be ready and waiting for whatever I need to send down the transmission tunnel. Oh yeah, and on that subject, the front panels have been welded in and painted. The next job will be to cut the aluminium for the floor, side panels and rear panel. I have a week off after Easter so I can drag the chassis out and cut the panels properly. I do have to fix a couple of brackets for the side panels though, the way I'm doing the panels means that they will be on the inside rather than the outside as normal. There are no flat mounting flanges to fit panels on the inside, so I need to make them.