Tanks A Lot

 

I have managed to pressure up the brakes now and I’m pleased to say all seems well. I’m getting a good feel from the pedal, but I’m hoping for a slight improvement once the pads and shoes are bedded in a little, that will come in time obviously but I have bled the system fully and all brakes are engaging properly. The secondary line was a tad tricky to fit simply because of my cut out box that I had made in the bulkhead for the master cylinder. It only gave me enough space to fit a banjo union  (see picture) as I didn’t have the clearance to get a 90 degree bend on the pipe. The banjo seems to have worked well and I have ran the pipe down to a bulkhead fitting by the outer sill. This will run the feed back along the sill to the rear brakes. I have purposely left this brake pipe loose until I have my front dash and steering hoop bar fitted. This is/will be fitted down next to the outer sill so I need to rout the brake pipe around all this once it’s done. 

Next job was to tackle the petrol tank install. I have already fitted to two main sections of the boot floor and concluded that the boot floor alone will not support a fuel tank when it’s full and under road vibrations and knocks. My plan was to make a small but sturdy bracket that will fix to the rear bulkhead internal to the boot and then the recess in the tank will allow the full weight to be distributed on that, rather than the boot floor. I made some measurements then set about with some cuts of 6mm angle bar and fairly quickly had welded up a lovely solid bracket. 

I spent time cutting the angles correctly and making sure my welds were solid then I added some carpet to the top face as so it wasn’t metal on metal fitting, which would be silly. I also used an old bit of rubber hose split and fitted to the bottom of the tank seam to again help reduce the risk of metal on metal fitting. The back section of boot will also be carpeted to help reduce this risk and help dull any road noise. The bracket seemed to work really well and would certainly take the weight it will be subjected to. I will have to also make some brackets for either end to stop the tank from sliding left to right and hold it securely also. Can’t risk a tank full of fuel breaking free when hitting a road bump or hard corner. 

The bracket was easy enough to fit as once I had drilled two bolt holes through it I could just offer it up to the rear bulkhead a scribe through for the drill positions again. This was quickly done and the bracket is going to do a grand job of helping to spread the load of the tank. It really has worked well and should function perfectly. I now need to start making some brackets for either end of the tank to further support and stop any lateral movement when going round corners. I made these from some bits of angled steel that I measured and cut accordingly. I started off making the back brace by crudely measuring the centre points from two of the mounting holes on the fuel tank. I then just increases this by about 5cm overall to give me the length for each back piece. 

Then I measured from the tank flange seam to the rear edge of the tank which was roughly 12cm, then added a further 1cm onto this length as I don’t want the tank to physically rub against the rear bulkhead. I made four lengths and welded them to each back plate and finally finished the front face of the bracket with a small plate section in order to bolt the tank through. 

After a few trial fits I managed to scribe each bracket where they needed drilling for the fixings. The rear of the brackets will be simply bolt clamped onto the rear bulkhead and I have welded a nut on the backside of each front plate, so the tank can simply be bolted onto the brackets. 

I had some carpet already that I have lined the rear bulkhead with and the lower front boot floor, and with the tank back in it was rock solid. I’m extremely happy with how this has all gone and next I will be fitting the rear seat belt supports next which will be a couple of tube sections that run from the bulkhead down to the chassis points in the boot floor. When done will add even further strength to the whole setup and hopefully some safety also. I have to leave space for an electric fuel pump that I’m thinking of mounting on the holes at the top of the tank on the near side. I’m conscious that anything the fuel pump mounts to needs to be isolated for sound transmission…. Nothing worse than driving along listening to the fuel pump.