As you may remember, back before the first of the year, I told the list that
I was going to investigate rotomolded fuel tanks for Roadsters.
Well, here is what I've learned:
Early vs late tank differ in the sender mounting area, as well as the late
have an additional return line ( info thanks to Sidney Raper and Gary Boone)
On the molding side of things, if I provide the mold we're looking at $50-60
per part if ordered at least 10 at a time. Parts would be untrimmed,
meaning the holes for the sender, pickup, and return would have to be
drilled plus cutting the end off the neck. You' have to add in about $30-40
in AN bulkhead fittings for the pickup and return.
Not too bad so far....then we started looking at the tooling. We
investitgated using an original tank as a starting point, splitting it and
adding a support frame at the parting line. Sounded good, but when I took
the tank to the molder to discuss it, he had serious concerns that the guage
of the metal of the tank was too thin to prevent warpage during the cooling
phase ( basically a water bath followed by air followed again by water). He
said he would attempt it if I wanted to do the fabricating, but he seriously
doubted the original tank would be the way to go. So I stopped in at a
company the does prototype tools for my buddy, and after some discussion
they tossed out a price of $1,200-1500 for the tool - not a big investment,
but we'd be looking at approx. $200 each for the tanks with fitting if a
minimum of 15 were run, and I didn't get that many replies.
So I guess I'm gonna buy a fuel cell for our custom, and forget about
molding stock appearing tanks. Besides, the time I'd spend on following the
project will be spent wrenching on the "R".
P.S. Some new photos of motor/trans sitting in modified frame on the 1600
page
Mark Sedlack
OROC
Cuyahoga Falls OH
66 1600 http://home.neo.rr.com/mark2000/images/datsun1600/
77 280Z http://home.neo.rr.com/mark2000/images/datsun1600/Z/Z.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Sedlack" <msedlack@neo.rr.com>
To: "Datsun Roadster Mailing List (E-mail)"
<datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net>
Sent: Monday, December 03, 2001 10:20 PM
Subject: Gas tanks
> For those of you who know me only as a Roadster owner, I should let on
that
> I'm the owner of a product development company. We design and engineer a
> wide range of plastic and steel consumer products.
>
> I've been doing some investigating into the costs of short-run tooling to
> manufacture molded cross-linked polyethylene Roadster gas tanks. All
> commercially available replacement "poly" tanks are either blow-molded or
> rotocast. I have an associate who is well placed in a rotocasting
company,
> and have connections with a blow-molder as well, both of whom have done
fuel
> tanks before - not to mention hazmat receptacles.
>
> Various levels of short-run, "prototype" tooling can be built for either
> process, depending on a estimated number of pieces that can be produced
> before the protoype tool begins to fail. I was planning on constructing
the
> simplest type, which can produce maybe ten parts, but then got to thinking
> that others on the list might be interested in replacements.
>
> My main reason for looking into this is that the tank on my '66 1600 is
> rusted through, although some PO did apply some kind of coating.....afraid
> to fill it to see if it leaks, and I got to looking at fuel cells, poly
jeep
> tanks, etc. but decided I want to keep the limited trunk space.
>
> What I'd like to do is gauge the level of interest, as well as what you
all
> would consider a viable price for a tank to see if its worth persuing a
> better quality tool that could produce more. Not asking for money up
front
> or anything, just a reasonably firm commitment so I don't get stuck with
> more mold than I need.
>
> Price for the tanks would obviously be tied to the number produced, since
> machine set-up would be spread over that number. Price could be kept down
> by making it a trim-it-yourself part, requiring the openings for the
sender
> and filler neck to be cut out by you ( using a router for the hole and
> hacksw for the neck) - .
>
> I also need to know if there is a difference between the low and high
> windshield cars.
>
> Let me know what you think.
> Best Regards,
> Mark Sedlack
> Millenium Development Corp,
>
> OROC
> Cuyahoga Falls OH
> 66 1600 http://home.neo.rr.com/mark2000/images/datsun1600/
> 77 280Z http://home.neo.rr.com/mark2000/Myz.jpg
>
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