[TheWhiteElephant]

I tackled the fuel tank next. I removed it, drained it, flushed it, and cleaned it. It was very clean with the exception of minor debris/tiny pebbles inside. I then wire brushed the outside, had to remove some tar-based undercoating--pretty easy with lacquer thinner, and then painted the outside with Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator in silver. I also painted the brackets and bought new tank straps from Oreilly's ($29.99 a set). I was impressed with the quality--they are very close to OEM. I had to grind out the rivets and I replaced them with new stainless steel flat head screws and hardware.

I found some rubber strips in the flooring section of Lowe's ($2.48 each) that worked perfect for some custom anti-squeak material. I also had some left over to make a new neck filler to bedside gasket.