The guy who did my rollcage made some modifications to my tank for drag racing and road racing purposes. It's a 1969 mustang tank I purchased from some mustang site for $120 shipped with the fuel level sender included. Mike at Bullet Fabrication welded on this amazing trap door system to keep the fuel close to the pickup when going in turns or accelerating. The price for the modification was somewhere around $450. He also welded massive size pickup and return fittings on the tank. If you look closely, the metal doors have a bar welded to the top that rotate around in the posts. There is a stop on the outside so when cornering left or right the fuel doesn't get past the pickup.
Not for a solid fabricator, looks like top notch work. Well worth the money in my opinion if I was going that route. Also think about the cost of sloshing fuel in the tank while going WOT, car runs lean could equal blown up motor. Likely to cost more than 450 to fix the motor LOL.
I know what you're saying, the price is steep. But Bryant and I really priced everything out fully before making this decision. None of the regular fuel cells are baffled, and the ones that are starte at $900 and will need plenty of tweaking to fit. If I went with the regular fuel cell I would have no baffles which will be a problem down the road when I want fuel injection and the supercharger. Another big plus is that it's a stock looking tank and I can use a regular fuel level sending unit.
I would love to see some pictures after you install it. I've been considering baffling my stock tank but if the Mustang one fits well and looks stock then that might be a good alternative.
if your happy, thats all that matters. I would love to have fuel injection for my motor, but the cost for all that is way out of my wallet range, and i never even considered the tank issue's.
The way Mike built it the AN fittings are towards the front of the tank so they are facing the axle housing. On the late model mustang tanks that's also where the fuel sending unit is. I think it's actually pretty cool because I won't have to worry about the pickup hitting or coming past my rear panel. But both ways look great as long as they function.
So we drained the tank which took forever since as always I have a full tank of gas when we are about to work on the fuel system and an empty tank when driving on the freeway . . . hmmm. Inside the trunk we removed the rubber lining, simple just screws holding it in place. Those are Bryant's big paws unscrewing the filler neck from the back of the trunk panel. It then just lifts out pretty easily. Here is the view into the tank. With the tank empty we undid the 2 bolts that attach the straps to the rear of the car. The straps come out very easily. Tank comes out after unhooking the vent tube on top of the tanks. The bottom of the trunk looks pretty good but we put a little paint on the bottom since there is some welding that was done for the rollbars. Here are the tanks for comparison. We got 2 caps for the AN fittings since for now we aren't going to use them. This is the underside of the car where the large bolts are that hold the straps in place. The bolts slide into the channels that hold them in place. We are going to be moving one of them so we'll see how that goes. We mocked up the tank to determine the orientation with bryant up on the ladder making sure the filler neck would fit ok. The front lip had to bent down to make the tank fit well. This is the view of the tank facing the front of the car. We are going to have to figure out a way to keep it from sliding forward. We slowly starting bending the lip. Made some marks to know where the filler neck has to get cut. The straps are going to be a trial an error thing. We straightened them, figured out where to make our new bends and had to bend the tabs back a little to shorten them. We got the driver's side done but in order for the passenger side to clear the hump on the gas tank we are going to be moving the straps over towards the passenger side of the car.
As alway, u guys do a GREAT JOB of photo documenting ur work. I have learned quite-a -bit about replacing a tank. THANKS
I will list the tank in the for sale section, it's in great shape. I gotta give credit to whoever did the write up on www.fordmaverick.com which is very thorough.
Today I modified the other strap to fit on the tank. Basically cut off the tab and just bend it back to double it up and drilled a 7/8" hole through it. Now I gotta get the rear part of the frame of the car and so the rear valence has to come off which means the bumper has to come off. If you look you can see the little philips screws that are hiding under the bumper. First I removed the bolts holding up the light for the license plate. Not a great pic but there are 2 large bolts 11/16 size. They came off easy and I had Bry help me get the bumper down. Here is the driver's side. Bumper off, looks so naked doesn't it. Take the screws out and remove the 2 bolts inside the trunk that hold the rear valence to the trunk and it comes right out. Here is the close up of the frame. This is a great tool for cutting through thin metal. Really goes through it fast. I needed to extend the slot past the hole towards the passenger side. I drew the cut I needed to make with a pen, hard to see but I swear I did. The thing cuts like butter. I made 2 mistakes, cut the channel a little too wide and cut a little more than I needed but that's no biggy. Used a horse size washer under the bolt to hold it in place. I think welding reinforcement plate there is the wisest thing to do but that's what I'm going to do for now. I had Bry weld the top of the stock bolt to the washer. Here I drilled out a hole to put a bolt and washer through instead of the tab that the stock strap has. I had to cut down a wash to fit in that space and you can get a wrench on the top of the bolt pretty easily. Here is the washer I cut down. Just to be sure I put a smaller washer on top. And that's pretty much it, went in really well and is very solid. That tank isn't going anywhere and the straps are clear from anything functional on the tank. In this pic it's not fully tightened but it fits great. Here is the other side. In this pic you are looking up at the driver's side corner of the part of the tank facing the front of the car. I need something in here to keep my tank from gong forward if I brake hard. I'm going to weld this little guy in there and that should hold it from going forward and I will do the same for the sides.
I installed and welded the tab into place to keep the tank from flying forward when breaking. We used a torch to bend up the metal tabs you see in the pic. I did that so we can use them as stops to keep the tank from going left or right. Turned out ok, but probably will use some plyurethane or rubber later and make it look more functional. Here you can see metal tabs hold the tank in place pretty well. I wish I had taken more pics but this part is super easy. We used a rubber coupler with a hose clamp to attach it to the gas tank and the other end as you see to the filler neck. We installed the rear valence and bumper.
