I was actually completely wrong! A while back I added some luminous dye to check for leaks, and of course now I can see the tank full I can see the dye! And yes, it glows quite nicely under UV light.
That took me back to my original plan to look for leaks. I still have a petrol smell coming from somewhere and cannot find it anywhere. However now I know the dye has mixed properly I had another scan for anything glowing. Of course, there isn't anything that I can see so far.
I did dismantle the pipe connection behind the seats as there appeared to be 'something' there. But given the pipes took a lot of effort to break loose, and there was no glowing going on, I just cleaned the pipe up and reassembled it. 
So I'm 99.9% sure the leak isn't from the joints or the pipes, which brings me back to the tank. A small job for today (once I've typed this up) is to unstrap the tank and lift it off the cradle. Fingers crossed I find something but I really am not sure.
Oh, something else I noticed. The black paint I've used for the chassis and on the tank is not petrol-resistant. I spilt some on the cross bar and it went very soft. This is actually a positive for me, because now I'm not just looking for the dye leaking somewhere. I can look for soft paint.
I really don't want to be presenting a car for IVA that smells of petrol, then again it's going to have been exposed to the open air for quite a while before the test starts. If I found a leak I'd actually be happy because I could sort it, not knowing where the smell is coming from is driving me up the wall. It's definitely from the back though, when you open the boot you can smell it. It's not the same when you open the bonnet.
Oh, and one other job I'm considering for today is a pattern for the boot lining. It should be relatively simple, and I still have a decent sheet of aluminium left (I think). A couple of folds and a whole load of rivnuts will get something in there. It won't go in for IVA but I might be able to set it up for the car show.
2 weeks and several days to go...
(later that day...) so a bike pump, a fuel cap seal and the aforementioned dye shows that there was a leak. It was at the earth point, it hadn't sealed sufficiently. Since the whole point of the earth point is to connect metal to metal, it won't be possible to use rubber washers. A copper washer might have been enough but I couldn't tighten the bolt that much without stripping the thread. So I've put sikaflex all over the rest of it, and then sealed the top. Once it's cured I'll retest it. Thankfully because it's a flat panel tank it goes 'boink' when it's up to pressure, so I can see/hear what's going on.
But I've gained another job for my to do list. I switched the power back on and didn't get any lights on the dash. Turns out I have a loose connection or plug behind the dash. Or it could be a dodgy earth. So I need to get back in there and see what's going on. That's all started since I added the protective sleeve, it was fine before then!
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