Dropping the Gas Tank

Last weekend I spent a lot of time grinding on the floorboards again, I removed all the rust, then sealed it with a rust encapsulation spray from Permatex.

I found one more rust hole that I'll need to patch where the floor panel reaches the back seat. Fortunately the floors themselves didn't have any additional deep rust areas.

Next major step is to cleanup the undercarriage, 'derust' that and then seal it. The first step was to remove the gas tank. If you've not tried to remove the gas tank on a fox body mustang or Capri, it is surprisingly easy.

The rear is already up in the air, with jack stands under the axle, so it was pretty obvious what I needed to do.

First step was to spray the heck out of the two bolts holding the straps to the frame with PB Blaster. These are above the back of the tank. I then used a breaker bar to loosen both enough that I was comfortable I could reach them from the side of the tank with a regular ratchet instead of being underneath so I can put the jack under there.

I then put the jack with a 2x6 under the tank and also put a pair of jack stands on the outside edge just in case. After remove the bolts I lowered the tank slowly about 6" and disconnected the fuel lines and level sensor. Unfortunately I couldn't get the quick release fitting on the pressure side off, so I had to cut it. Luckily this is a short piece of hose to the other fuel pump so it won't be too expensive to replace.

(Even after I got the tank on the ground I couldn't get the fitting off. Yes I have the right tool, it was just so encased in crap it wouldn't move.)

I then 'wiggled' the tank to the left to remove the filler neck from the tank. Looking at the filler neck I'm going to have to clean up or replace that since it is full of rust too.

I then stuck a tennis ball in the opening and put it outside. Tomorrow I'll drain the rest of the 5+ year old gas and figure out what to do with it.

Last step was to use a small magnetic pick up tool to remove the pins in the straps and take them out.

I crawled underneath and looked around. So far no really bad looking rust.

Next step: drop the rear suspension. That is going to take some work!