The tractor still needs a fuel tank and I haven’t been able to find something I like that fits. There’s space between the rails in the back but I want to leave that for PTO drive and some other accessories. Since the only other available space is to hang it on the outside of the frame-rail in plain view, I wanted something that didn’t look like a piece of pressed tin.
Here’s the parts I’ve put together:
- 12″ Pipe 20″ long – it’s every bit of 5/16″ thick
O - 2 – 12″ circles cut from 1/4″ plate (tank sides)
- 2″ NPT short nipple (filler neck)
- 2″ pipe cap (filler cap)
- 4″ x 1/4″ x 12″ flat (drilled for filler neck, sending unit & vent)
- 1/4″ pipe x 2″ & 1/4″ elbow (tank vent) more in picture than actually used
and an old Chevy sending unit w/ fuel pick-up tube- Flat stock and “J” shapes cut from 1/4″ plate in top picture are for the mounting brackes
Cut a 12″ x 4″ rectangle hole centered in the side of the pipe for the flat connection plate:
Yes Ken, it would’ve been easier to just drill some holes in the pipe for the filler neck & vent and be done with it. It would’ve been even easier to strap a jerry-can to the side of the tractor; but it wouldn’t have been quite the look I was going for. :-)
What an oily mess, but the plate is a good fit and it’s just like what I had in mind.
Test fit the sending unit and pick-up tube assembly:
It looks like it was made to fit. Oh wait! It was.
View of the same check of the sending unit, from the top:
and making sure I’ll be able to get a flare wrench on the fuel fitting once the vent gets attached to the tank:
All that’s really left now is to weld the end plates on each side:
and you have a tank! (The little pieces of angle iron are not attached. They just stop it from rolling off the saw-horses.)
Next up… The brackets that’ll hold this beast.
