Your Classic Car Parts Headquarters
Note: Our car here is a 1969 Chevelle. For your convenience, you can easily look up your specific year Chevelle's numbers at Eckler's Chevelle.
This is our "before" shot: ugly, smelly, and drastically in need of improvements! Let's get at it...
Although you could accomplish this task by jacking the car up on a set of service ramps, a lift is going to make life much easier.
Start by disconnecting the two vent hoses that are located near the top of the tank. The flexible hose that connects the hard fuel line to the line that comes off the sending unit is removed. Next, unplug the connection that sends power to the sending unit. This connection is part of the rear main wiring harness.
The fuel tank mounting straps are removed (two bolts for each strap). Here's where you'll need another set of hands - someone to support the tank while you unbolt the straps.
The grimy old tank is removed. It was about 1/4 full of gas, which we eventually drained and transferred into the new tank. The original tank actually still looks good from this never-seen view. The sound deadening and insulation was holding together quite well after 45 years of service.
All that nastiness up there on the right side of this is the result of moisture collecting in the trunk over the years. Rotten weatherstripping was the culprit. Our Chevelle's floors were very solid, though, so we were fortunate. This above section of the trunk was another matter altogether. A fiberglass patch and some POR-15 fixed the area.
It's not very often you have to remove your fuel tank, so while we're with this golden opportunity, might as well use some 3M Rubberized Undercoating to take care of the area. The description: Rapid drying, rubberized undercoating material for rust-proofing and sound deadening. Ideal for coating fenders, quarter panels, door repair sections, welded joints, hoods, and decks. Check out 3M Rubberized Undercoating.
The new fuel tank. Here's the one for 1968-69 Chevrolet: Chevelle Gas Tank 1968-1969.
The new fuel sending unit: Chevelle Gas Tank Sending Unit 3/8" with Vapor Return Line for cars with 4-barrel carburetor except wagons.
The new sending unit gets installed in the fresh tank. The retaining ring twists into place, securing the sending unit in the top of the tank's opening. The connection is affixed to the terminal on top of the sending unit. This is how everything should look, all ready to go back into the car. The wire is affixed with electrical tape and will route back into the rear wiring harness behind the bumper.
Since our original fuel tank straps were just about as nasty as our tank, we used new ones: Chevelle Gas Tank Mounting Straps for Cars Except Wagons 1968-1972.
We neglected to order a new chunk of Dynamat insulation for the top of the tank. We ended up re-using our old one. The original breather hoses are utilized as well. All were in good shape.
Here we're getting the new tank into place. Be sure the new anti-squeak rubber strips are fitting between the mounting straps and tank. This is another step where an extra set of helping hands comes in handy! Chevelle Gas Tank Anti-Squeak Set 1964-1983.
The new tank is secured by tightening up the strap bolts. The hard line coming off the tank (out of the sending unit) is connected back to the main fuel line. We also connected the ground wire leading off the sending unit to its original spot on the Chevelle's undercarriage. Here we are, all done. The shiny new tank matches that new exhaust system nicely! It especially looks great against the freshly undercoated trunk section. We fed the approximately 5 gallons of fuel we had in our old tank to our new one.