A little over a week ago (sorry for the delay!) my buddy Paul was out and we got to work on pulling the gas line. Like any of these "little" projects, there are always seven other things you need to do along the way, so a simple job turns into an afternoon project.
We started by getting the back driver's side of the car up off the ground pretty high to drain the tank, but quickly decided to drop it altogether so we could inspect it as long as we were in there.
To get the tank out, we needed to remove the wheelhouse pan that protects the tank, and to get to that, you really should pull the wheel. Since I haven't checked out the rear brakes yet, now seemed like a good time.
The brakes looked great, but the drum was a completely different matter. It showed heavy wear, so we lifted the other side of the car, pulled the drum, and headed up to the parts store. They measured them up, but couldn't find a spec anywhere in the store or on the web. Ended up getting the number from the counter guy and headed back home to look them up in the shop manual. .100 over max on one, and .120 on the other. Nearly 1/8" beyond max wear means I have a new set of drums in my future. But for today, they go back on.
The tank itself comes out pretty easily. after covering my head in Texas dirt and old mud dauber nests I got the tank free. Less than 1/2 cup of gas left in the tank and it looked very clean with just a little varnish. This tank will get a little cleaning, and a fresh coat of paint, and then it will go back on as is.
Next we stripped out the old fuel line. It was a clear plastic flexible line running from a 24" long rubber hose all the way to the front of the vehicle. We had a roll of new steel fuel line the we unwound and started to fish through. I was tricky getting it to have just the right contours so it would drop into the clips without binding against anything. LOTS of tweaking the line.
At this point, the line is run, but hasn't been cut to length. We have a little extra at the tank, and the engine compartment end will be finished after the intake and carb have been mounted as I may run this up along the firewall so I don't have to have a fuel line on the front of the engine. I think it will look much cleaner that way, but we'll have to see in a while.
More to come!
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