Installing the new gas tank in my snake following Cobra Restorers'
suggested procedure ended up taking most of Saturday. If you will
recall, when I complained to CR that the filler neck on the tank I had
ordered from them didn't line up with the hole in the bodywork, I was
instructed to stick a piece of 2" pipe in the filler neck and bend it to
wherever it needed to go. Chuck at CR assured me that this was their
standard procedure for installing these tanks.
Before going into the installation details, let me supply a little
background. The original tank is constructed of terneplate, which is
sheet steel plated with a tin/lead alloy. Joining edges are crimped and
soldered. The shape is that of a longish box with two sloping surfaces
on each side of the top to clear the bodywork above. A round filler
neck is soldered to the upper back surface of the tank and sticks up
above its top about half an inch. There is a hole in the bodywork above
the neck a little over 2" in diameter. The gas cap assembly screws into
a 5/8" high ring with the same O.D. as the filler neck. The ring and
filler neck are connected together with a short piece of rubber hose.
The tank slides into a niche just behind the cockpit and there's a 90
degree angle piece at the back that acts as a stop. Two pull-down
clamps hold the tank in place.
About ten years ago this tank developed some leaks. I tried various
in-place repairs, but none worked. I finally removed the tank and took
it to a radiator shop that "specialized in tank repair", which pretty
much sealed its doom. I've already ranted on this list and others about
what this shop did to the tank, so I won't bore anyone with further
ranting. Anyway, this lead to a couple of more tank removals/repairs,
including lining the inside of the tank with a sealer. None of these
repairs worked so when I embarked on my current refurbishing project I
decided a more permanent fix was in order. One option I briefly
considered was having the tank encased in Fiberglas, but decided the
best thing to do was to just replace the tank.
The new tank is the same basic shape, of course, but it is constructed
of welded sheet aluminum. Besides being new it has two other advantages
over the old tank: 1) lightness, and 2) better seam integrity.
Unfortunately the welded-on filler neck was located off center about
1/4" and too far forward by about the same amount. I sent a longish
e-mail to CR detailing this and a few other observations, resulting in
the response mentioned above. The message was clear- CR wasn't enthused
about the prospect of me sending the tank back to them for alterations.
To be honest, I wasn't too enthused about it either. CR is located on
the East Coast and I'm located on the West Coast. What with shipping
time back and forth, the time it would take for the alternations, and
perhaps more than one shipment/alteration iteration, I envisioned weeks
going by before I had the tank installed. What I was hoping for was an
in-between solution like having me take the tank to someone local or a
suggested simple modification that would improve the alignment. In a
sense, I suppose I got the latter solution, though I didn't find it very
appealing. Aluminum is very malleable, so it bends quite easily. What
didn't appeal to me was putting wrinkles in the rear of the tank around
the filler neck since the that part of the tank is visible from inside
the trunk. Well, there is supposed to be an aluminum liner at the back
of the trunk that covers the tank, but mine got lost in one of my many
address changes since 1969 when I removed it. To tell the truth, I
don't even recall why I removed it. One of these days I will make
another liner, though.
Rather than start right off with the pipe mod, I decided to do some
whacking at a few locations where the sun doesn't shine- i.e., not
visible from the rear. The filler neck was offset to the left, so I did
some minor bashing-in on the right side where the tank butts up against
the frame so I could get a little more movement in that direction. The
filler neck faced forward slightly due to distortions in the back panel
caused by the heat of welding the filler neck on. This distortion
allowed some flexing so I was able to push the neck back a tad. Also
the bottom back edge of the tank was slightly rounded so I "squared" it
up with a few light hammer taps. All of these taken together got the
opening and neck to within about an 1/8" of being aligned close enough
to mate the filler cap to the neck. Finally it was time for the pipe
mod! With the tank still in place I marked the location of the maximum
gap between the filler neck and the bodywork opening. I then removed
the tank and stuck the pipe into the filler neck. I had a sleeve fitted
around the pipe to insure a snug fit. A few good tugs on the end of the
pipe in the desired direction did pretty much what I suspected it would
do- elongate the hole rather than move the neck. Oh well. Next I used
my trusty hammer to "re-round" the neck opening at the farthest reach of
oval.
Back in with the tank and sooo close! A little more nudging with a pry
bar. A few more taps on the front of the tank and finally just enough
clearance for the filler cap assembly to go cleanly through the opening
and align with the threaded ring. Out with the tank one last time (I
hope) to repaint all the scuff marks on the frame I made during the
multiple tank insertions and removals.
Perhaps not the most satisfying solution, but no worse than the roll-bar
clearance mod on the original tank. Because there wasn't quite enough
room for the roll-bar to clear the top-front of the tank, someone had
bashed that area in with a hammer. For years I thought this was just a
clumsy DIY installation, but recently learned that this was the
"standard Cobra roll-bar clearance tank modification". The new tank has
a wedge shape cut-out for roll-bar clearance.
One more digression: I probably spend more time looking for stuff than
getting things done. Saturday I was looking for some lost item and
during the search found a short piece of filler neck hose left over from
one of my previous tank fix attempts. It was only about 1 1/2" long,
but that's just about the length required. I really didn't need that
piece of hose I spent so much time shopping for the previous week
Roland "The Hammer" Dudley
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