Fuel Tank Install.

After 18 months worth of grinding out, re tissuing and rubbing down, I have had enough of crack repair for now. I am not finished, but I just can't face another. I will need to go back and re visit the driver's side because, the wheel arch lip needs repair, but right now I just need to do something else. So, on to the petrol tank.

The car's petrol tank is original and looked fine, except that it had a hole in it! TVR Vixens are prone to this because the factory placed a felt pad between the tank strap and the tank, which, naturally, absorbed water and then progressively rotted through the tank. I could have bought a new tank, but I decided to get the old tank repaired, which, as it turned out, cost not much less. Ho Hum.

The tank is held in by a couple of tank straps, that are glassed in to the floor of the rear recess. Unfortunately, the recess gathers any water that leaks into the back of the car through the window seals and poorly sealed wheel arches, and rots out the tank straps.

After removing the remains of the tank straps, I made a mod that I have seen on a slightly later car. I installed a couple of glassed in wooden fillets to take the tank straps. This means that any water that does get in won't be lapping around the metal straps.

I made up some new straps from 20mm steel and added a re-enforced return on one end and a captive nut to the return on the other and glassed these onto the wooden fillets.

Thats the access hole for the petrol tank drain in the middle, which is covered from the underneath with a simple flat piece of fibreglass, that's screwed to the tub. It looks like it might also serve to protect the tub from the heat of the exhaust. It had been accidentally glassed in so I had to cut it out. I am planning on using a stainless protection panel there instead. 

re install the nice shiny tank:

 I also made up a new rear deck from a pattern kindly provided by Tony Giddings (Thanks Tony!). See Tony's Vixen restoblog here

Note that the deck has to be relieved to take the top of the fuel sender. This is, I am told, standard.

Then I made up a new spare wheel retainer, which was missing from the box of bits. I neglected to take any photos as I was building it but it's a very simple construction. The shaft is 1/2"bar with a UNC thread. The rest is 25x6mm flat bar. The bracket has two 3/8" captive nuts to attach it to the deck, and a 1/2" inch captive nut to take the bar. 

Thinking on it some more I could have just tapped the flat, which probably would have been better, but anyway, here it is finished:

All done

Oh, just in case you were wondering (because I definitely was before I got help) the front of the deck rests on the wooden batten on the front lip, and the rear of the deck is unsupported. The deck actually rests on the top of the tank, supported by a pad. Presently mine doesn't have the pad because this version is just the prototype. On reflection I think it needs to be thinner (maybe 9mm?) and where it fits around the wheel arches I need to cut it more accurately to the arch, once the sound deadening and the vinyl covering are on. The deck should be screwed to the wooden batten to hold it in place too.

Note how the spare sits snuggly behind the driver' seat, not in the middle of the rear deck. This surprised me a little, but it does give more space to carry stuff on the shelf. The spare should also have a vinyl cover.