I needed to relocate the gas tank so I bought a new repop Mustang gas tank to relocate between the frame rails behind the rear wheels. To do this, I had to remove the frame cross-member in this area to clear the area. I just roughly cut it out for now with a sawzall to get the tank repositioned.
To hold the tank, I fabbed a simple frame to mount the gas tank to out of square tubing. I welded threaded studs thru the tubular frame to match the tank hole pattern. I then used some flat stock to fab a matching perimeter ring to mount under the tank so that the tank flange had plenty of support.
For the threaded studs, I bought some zinc plated 5/16-18 x approx 2-1/2 or 3” long hex bolts (long enough so the unthreaded shank went thru the entire tube) and soaked them in cup of water with a few heaping spoons of citric acid to strip off the plating. It took about an hour to strip them but I left them in overnight. After I cut off the hex heads of the bare bolts and put them thru holes drilled in the top and bottom surface of the square tube on the frame and plug welded the top hole to the stud and fillet welded around the protrusion in the bottom hole.
I notched the new frame assembly and temporarily laid the the new tank frame on the truck frame until I had the rear suspension installed and could better nail down the exact positioning of the tank.
1949 Chevy Panel Truck A Project Journal I'm old but I make up for it by being immature.
