D101: Gas Tank D1

I finally got around to starting the gas tank. I picked up a nice piece of cold rolled 18ga sheet the other day. The cold rolled looks oh so clean compared to hot rolled sheet.

I designed the tank to be as wide as possible with clearance for the shocks. It ended up being about 31x15x8 in. The height should be perfect to reuse the stock fuel pumps and sending unit. The front side has a slope of 20 deg to butt up against the back of passenger compartment. Both sides on the bottom also slope up at 20 deg to give the upper suspension arm mount extra clearance.

Step 1: Stencil out all the sides + bottom

Step 2: Cut out the stencil

Step 3: Fold. Started with the 2 part sides, then front, then back. Folding was done quite crudely by clamping a bar on the seem, heating and manually folding by hand. I then hammered out the bends to make them a little tighter.

Step 4: Tack everything in place

Here is the tank in the trunk butted up against the rear of the passenger compartment.

Lastly, the clearance between the upper suspension arm and the tank. There are still some pieces that are "overlapping" the edges that need to be trimmed off. As well as final welding the tank both inside and outside. I'm also working on the top and how to mount the factory pumps.