What's up world, got a little update for the weekend
The truck came with the original gas tank and it was in really good shape on the outside, so I had planned on using it. But of course inside is where it counts, and that was a whole other story
Found a local radiator guy who could have cleaned it up but it wasn't saving me much money over just ordering a new one out of BowTie Bits. For about half the cost I could go the Mustang gas tank route, and with the idea that I would gain the whole storage compartment underneath the seat I decided this was the way to go.
I still had the rear crossmember on the truck, so that was going to have to be removed. I used 2x3 tube stock to have a decently beefy crossmember for the rear part of the leaf springs. I wanted to mount the tank about an inch about the frame rails so I cut the crossmember to length and added slits on all sides that allowed it to be on either side of the frame. I ground out the old crossmember rivets and got it out after beginning to weld in the new crossmember.
Finished welding out each seam. I used 1" stock for the rest of it. It's true that the Mustang tank fill neck is not centered, so one has to take this into account. Beyond that, I decided to offset it further to aim for the center of one of the planks in the bed, as dead center in the bed sends you up through the center bed strip. Came out something like this
Even capped the open end on the 2x3 so it's fully sealed up
Fender washers and self tappers
