I got my boiled and relined tank back from the radiator shop
last week an actually found time to install it this past weekend.
The replacement tank from Rick at Sunbeam specialties looked
good when I got it but after a few days in the hot tank quite
a few rust out spots had shown through. The guy at the shop
solderd up the largest of the holes but he left many of the
smaller holes for the liner goop to fill. There are a few
places on the bottom of the tank where you can see little
stalactites of goo poking out of pin holes. This made me a little
nervous but I chose to try and not think of it and get the
tank installed.
The tank installation went fairly well with two exceptions.
My gas gauge had never worked and I found that the cause of this
was a sunk float. The original float being some sort of thinwall
steel had rusted out and was full of gas. I found a brass carburetor
float of almost the same weight and volume as the original at a local
parts store. After removing the rusty old float from the sender rod,
I soldered the carb float in its place and then reinstalled the sender unit.
This turned out to work very well. I added about four and 1/4 gallons
of fuel to the empty tank and the gas gauge read acceptably accurate at
about 3 3/4 gallons. It's funny how much joy something as simple as a
functioning fuel gauge can give you!
The other tricky part was reinstalling the filler neck grommet
which holds the chrome trim ring. My grommet, being old and
brittle, was a real bitch to install but with the help of a friend
and lots of soapy water it finally went together. I will need to see
if these are available since I think that this operation would be
much easier with a new , more pliable grommet.
The first place I drove the car was to the gas station where I filled
the tank for the first time since I have owned the car, NO LEAKS!!
Well I can't explain it but the car seems to drive better than ever
now that the tank doesn't leak and the fuel gauge works. I was even
able to figure out that my charging problem (ignition light on), turned
out to be corsion at the regulator terminals. Next on the list will
probably be to track down an underhood exhaust leak so I can get my
hardtop functional and have the option of driving in nasty weather
without the risk of affixiation.
Happy motoring!
-- Frank Marrone at marrone(at)optilink.dsccc.com 1965 Sunbeam Tiger B9471116 1960 Sunbeam Alpine Series I B9009330 1966 Ford LTD 4-door family barge.
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