Home made fuel tank.

Made myself (well, mostly myself) a fuel tank of stainless steel. Spot welded it together, but hired a professional to TIG weld it.







During the inital work I kept the protective film on as long as possible to avoid scratches.
The spot weld marks you see on the surface is from fastening the baffle.



Baffle:



Made an aluminum frame below it:



Back from the welder:



Garage pressure testing. Be careful if you try this! 1-2 lbs is enough! The tank will explode before the bike tube!



In the back of the '34.

 

any internal baffles?

 

I might be tempted to turn that battery around so the cable disconnects are facing the bulkhead rather than the fueld lines. Nice job, good baffling and a pretty end product.

 

Your gas tank looks good,,no doubt saved yourself a few $$$,,,I had 14 ga metal bent into a box then had my boy( journeyman boilermaker) weld the seams. I like your pressure test valve!

 

That looks like about 10 gallons. I want my tank to go from quarter panel to the other quarter panel

 

Thanks for the inputs. The battery will be turned, but as you can see, it's already a steel plate between the battery and the fuel line.
There are two baffles inside. One big in the middle of the tank showed on one of the photos, and one smaller around the output fitting. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of that. It's shaped like a half circkle inside the output hole.

The carboard piece in the two first pictures is what I used for bending the steel plate to the desired shape. The length of the tank was limited by the battery location. The depth was limited by the minimum depth for the fuel sender. Then it was only 1 variabel left, and I wanted at least 40 liters / 10,56 gal.

 

Check out pic 5

 

An easy way to check for tank leaks is to place a blow gun along the seam at a low angle with the tank full of water.

This will produce a va***n and draw water out of the smallest leak.

 

I found it easier to fill the tank with air than with water. To check for leaks I sunk it in water.

Besides that, isn't air thinner than fuel, and water thicker?
In that case you could have a fuel leak that the water didn't p*** thru.

 

I like it. Nice.

 

That looks real good to me!

 

is that red rtv silicone on the fittings? gas will disolve that.

 

looks good but that rtv around those fitting /sending unit is a big mistake. gas will eat that up.

 

where does it vent?

 

I think you did good, the only difference I would have done is have a sealed bulkhead between the p***. compartment and the tank. Just me, I don't like sitting by gas.

 

The silicone is fuel resistant, according to the info spec.
The tank will vent thru the blue anodized fitting, which is a roll over valve.

I will make a wall between the tank and the seats before I start using the car.

 

I was going to ask you that. I have owned lots of trucks with the tank in the cab and stock only had cardboard between the back of the seat and the tank. But I like to see a firewall, it is just a good fabrication practice.

 

Hate to say it, but i've done this when I made my tank. I used the red rtv around my sending unit and on the threads of the screws for the unit. It does get into your system. Luckily, the screen on my gl*** bowl fuel pump filtered them out.

Tank looks good, fits like a glove

 

Ok. Thanks for the warning. I have a filter before the electric fuel pump and one more before the carb.

What do you suggest instead? I'm pretty sure the gauge sender will leak p*** the screws if I don't use anything in addition to the rubber gasket?

There are teflon washers on the roll over valve. Will they seal enough on their own?

 

Decided to follow your advices. Took off the sender and roll over valve and cleaned away all the silicon.
Did it with the tank upside down so hopefully none of the silicon pieces felt into the tank.

Doing the job over again once isn't that bad. Most things during this build I have done at least three times before it's good enough....