Fuel Tank

There would, and for that matter NEVER, be any way that I would pay $200 plus dollars for an empty rectangle tank to hold fuel. So after looking around and not finding something suitable for less money, the next logical step was for me to build myself a fuel tank.

There is not too much room for the fuel tank in a T bucket, so I decided the dimensions of my fuel tank would be 9 1/4" High x 31" Wide x 9 1/4" Deep.

I made a trip down to the local steel store and purchased the following pieces of steel.
One piece 32"x40" x 14 guage
Two pieces 10"x10" x 14 guage
And I got all the steel for around $35.

I ran down to one of my local wrecking yards and pulled a chrome gas cap and the filler tube out of an early 70's Ford truck. The guy at the counter ended up giving the stuff to me.

I added three inches on the front and rear side of the top piece of the tank and bent both sides down to look like a big upside down U with short legs.

I did the same with the bottom piece of the tank, but made the front and back legs the height of the tank. I slid the top, short legged, U into the bottem long legged U till the top was flush with the front and back and welded them together on the inside of the tank thru the ends.

I drilled out a hole in the center of the top of the tank and welded the filler tube in and made another hole centerd to the right of the first hole for the fuel tank quanity sending unit.

I wish I would have taken some more pictures of this thing during construction.

Here are some of the parts before welding.



I made a fuel outlet valve and a drain valve on the bottem of the tank before I welded the sides of the tank together.

I welded three "L" brackets to the bottem of the tank to mount the tank to the frame.

After I got the whole thing welded together I put a little air pressure inside the tank and sprayed it with soapy water to find any leaks, no mater how much I tried to weld these tiny holes up the leaks didn't get any better.

I went down to one of my faverite auto shops and purchased some fuel tank sealer (made by Por 15) for $35.

I put this sealer into the tank and let it cure, then reapplied, I ended up using 1/2 the quart.

The fuel tank now holds fuel without leaking.

I then primed and painted the tank black.



Thanks for reading along.