Petrol tank - In

Job done
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.

Today was a good day. After weeks of slow and intermittent work, the petrol tank is back in the van.

I poked wire through all the holes to make sure they were clear. Cleaned out the outlet with a drill as it was very full of hard tank paint and then slid the tank back into place.

Obviously there was a bit of pushing and shoving involved but nothing major. The wires to the reversing light need replacing as they got in to way once too often but apart from that everything went fine.

There is extra rubber between tank and tank hole (what else do you call it ?) which I slid in before tightening the retaining straps. The threads on these had to be cleaned up with the die (8 by 125 I think) and as usually every bolt has been greased to build my stock of karma up.

With the firewall in place again the job is nearly done. In theory I could have the engine put back in and drive off into the sunset.

With the lump out of the way though it’s time to tidy up the engine bay. I’ve scraped and re-painted a fair bit already but there is another horror awaiting me. The rear valance is well rotten. With access as good as it will ever be I can’t put off tacking this any longer.