Buttercup's gas tank II

[Jerry Forrester]

Yesterday I cleaned and painted Buttercup's gas tank.
The one that came on her from the factory was not usable due to some damage so I had to confiscate the one from the Studelac. This tank had already been vatted 4 or 5 years ago and a fitting and pickup tube for a 3/8" fuel line had been installed.
I wire brushed the surface rust off



and coated the tank with cold galvanising from a rattle can. Then applied a good coat of Rustoleum semi gloss black.

[studefan]

The tank looks good but give Miller his toolbox back.

[Jerry Forrester]

Today I made progress on the gas tank installation.
Correct me if I am wrong about this, but Studebakers didn't have dual exhaust until 1955. The design for the '53 was to run the exhaust on the passenger side of the gas tank.
When they put the duals on, starting in '55, they didn't bother to redesign the gas tank mounting. That makes a very tight fit for the tail pipe on the driver's side.
I measured the width of the gas tank and the clearance between the rear spring shackles and figured if I shifted the tank toward the passenger side 1 3/4" I would have ample room for the tail pipes on both sides.
This entailed modifying all three tank hangers and moving the sending unit access hole over 1 3/4".







Then I coated it with the galvanising spray top and bottom and undercoated underneath.
I ran out of time today but I have the tank ready to install come Monday.

[jclary]

Well...for some "unknown" reason...I am confident you did good work. Looks great from my recliner.

[Jerry Forrester]

I decided it would be a good idea to fab a tail pipe hanger for the driver's side while I had the gas tank off.
I removed the passenger side hanger and fabbed one that was mirror image of it.
When I went to install it I found a problem. It was trying to occupy the same space that the tank filler hose would go. So I made one just like the passenger side one and used it. I had to cut a little notch out for the fill hose but I think it'll work out very well. The part of the hanger bracket where the hanger attaches is about 2 inches closer to the back of the car than the one on the passenger side is but it'll be fine I'm sure. No pictures of this, maybe Monday.

[Jerry Forrester]

<G> That's an out of service MillerMatic35 mig welder. I use it for parts to keep my other 2 working. Not much left of it after 20 years of robbing parts off it.

[Jeff_H]

Looks good. Hope you have better luck with this tank than I had with a brand X a month ago. 'Twas leaking last spring when full not when 1/2 or less. I found a cluster of pinholes on the top around the sender port and was going to put some JB weld on it and X my fingers. Took the wire brush in angle grinder to it like you did and before gooping up the pinholes decided to slosh the 1 gal of gas still in there around to see if anything else turned up. Seam was now leaking too after my brush job. Fortunately, a new tank was available for not too scary of $$.

For my 53K I was lucky to get one of the last NOS lark wagon tanks that sasco had. My original tank and another one I bought that looked OK on the outside but hid a massive mouse nest inside were toast.