LT1 and a T56 in a 55 Chevy

[2Loose]

Finally figured out how it was supposed to fit....

The front mount will fit in nicely with my sway bar frame mounts....

Some slight modification required here....

Another view....

This will be easy....

Gotta cut a 3-1/4" hole for the Aeromotive fuel pump and fuel well....

And will cut and fab a removable piece of the trunk floor over the fuel pump....


More Later....
Willy

[2Loose]

Got some more work done on the fuel tank....
I trimmed the front support angle to get a better fit on the sway bar frame supports....

If I mount the fuel pump in the front of the tank, left side of the trunk floor is the easiest to cut an access hole for future removal and maintenance....

So I went ahead and cut the required 3-1/4" hole in the front left part of the tank....

Cleaned up and smoothed the rough edges of the new hole....

I propped the tank up so that corner was lowest to keep the mess mostly located right under the hole, and it vacuumed out nicely....

Aeromotive supplied a jig to drill the holes for the new fuel pump....

The idea was to drill two holes opposite each other, then keep it located with these two screws while drilling the rest of the holes...

However, my drill bit went 'south' on the second hole, so I'm going to have to resharpen this bit after each hole, or go buy a couple more bits....
Probably will end up doing both....

More Later...
Aloha,
Willy

[2Loose]

Cleaned up the drilled holes for the fuel pump, inside and out....

Used the shop vac to suck out all the debris....

Put the inside ring with the screws in place,,,,
had to file some of the holes to get a good fit....

The nuts are removed after the inside ring is pulled into position...
It is a tight enough fit that it stayed in place....

The front of the tank is 9-1/2" deep (28 gallon tank)...
so the foam is cut to 10-1/2"....
The tank tapers to 9" deep in the rear....

And stuffed down in the tank and massaged back into shape and into position

Then the foam gasket is put on top....

The pump assembly is also assembled to match the 9-1/2" depth...

Had to readjust the foam fuel well a couple of times to get it right....

I think it's good to go....

Now to work up some front mounting brackets....


Aloha,
Willy

[2Loose]

Rolled the chassis out from under the body,
easier to work on the fuel system....

Loosened up the bolts in back, jacked up the front to cut some more
metal off the front brackets on the tank for a better fit....

While it was up, got in there and ground off paint, cleaned up weld areas....

AND fitted a piece of 3/16 to weld on as a bracket on each side..

Both sides welded on, tacked on while
clamped to the fuel tank to keep then located...

Man, this SS was the toughest stuff to drill I've ever run across....
Using Ace's best bits, I went through 8- 1/4" bits, and 4- 3/8" bits
and that was with a drilling lube and running slow speed, and resharpening
bits with a "Drill Doctor"....

Using cad plated 3/8" bolts, 3/4" long, with flat washers, cad plated, both sides,
a lock washer and a regular nut.

Will pull it out to paint the recent welds,
and I want to coat the welds on this SS tank....

[2Loose]

Since I painted the frame with Rustoleum
Black Hammer Tone, decided to do the tank
with the same....

It took two coats plus a little bit here and there, but it looks good to go....

Just for grins, my shop space,
It's the OD Racing Team....
(Old Dudes....)

More Later
Willy

[2Loose]

Spent most of the last month under the body, seam sealing and undercoating, a messy job, so didn't really take any pix, just got 'er done....
This is where most of the seam sealer went, the mini tub job, also the floor patches, lots and lots of 'em...


In the meantime I bought some hi temp exhaust wrap to wrap on the fuel lines to protect them from the exhaust heat....

These fuel lines are inside the frame to protect them from any side collisions
in the event of a severe accident. With the fuel pump in the tank, these lines
would probably be pressurized in an accident, so I want them protected...


I've used this stuff before with good results....


Pulled the fuel lines off the frame and started wrapping....


Got a good tight 50/50 overlap wrap so I would have a double layer,
and used ss tie wire at the start and end, the frame clamps will work
just fine in between....
And I wrapped from the rear to the front so the overlap faces the rear,
less chance of anything catching a wrap edge and trying to pull it loose...


I had to 'adjust' the size of the hangers openings to fit the larger size,
still used some rubber hose under each clamp....


I did this also on my '55 gasser project, "Patches", it worked out just fine....


I also fitted new polyurethane body mounts, getting ready to put the body
back on the frame....

More later....
Aloha,
Willy