Building a fuel tank to mount up front

This sub-project turned out to be a lot more work than I initially thought it would be. In a search for an off-the-shelf solution, I found what appeared to be the perfect size poly fuel tank that would fit perfectly between my front frame rails. The top of the tank should just miss hitting the body. The radiator would be moved to the rear. I proceeded with designing a support structure out of 1″ square steel tubing. I also modified the top of the poly tank to use the fill plate from the old Fuel Safe fuel cell that had been mounted in the rear.

Initially I thought this polyethylene tank would be perfect

fuel pump conversion to in-tank — I planned to use the top plate from the Fuel Safe tank

PXL_20220108_235558937.PORTRAIT — After adding fuel to the poly tank I saw the bottom was contacting the rack hose fittings and the top was hitting the body

Everything appeared to be working out until many months (years?) later when the chassis was 90% restored, and it came time to put fuel in the tank and start the engine for the first time in ten years. I put about 5 gallons of gasoline in the tank with gasoline, and got the engine running. Later, while checking for leaks, I noticed the bottom of the poly tank was hitting the hose fittings on the power steering rack. Unfortunately, I couldn’t raise the tank at all because the top of the tank was already contacting the body near the vent openings. To make matters worse, it appeared that the poly tank actually expanded just a bit after it was filled with fuel. I had a heck of a time extracting the tank from the confines of the frame where it was surrounded by steel tubes. This was when I decided that this poly tank wasn’t working for me. I needed a unit that would have the proper clearance to avoid interfering with anything nearby, plus be easy to remove if that ever became necessary.

I spent a few days searching for a fabricator who could build a tank to my specifications, but this proved to be quite difficult. As soon as they learned it was a fuel tank for a street car, red flags went up. Too much liability? In the end, I decided to build it myself. I had built one once before using a oxi-acetylene torch, but at this point in time, I only had a MIG welder.

In the images below, you first see the supporting structure being put in place for mounting the poly tank. Later images show the switch to a custom designed tank and it being fabricated.