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11/14/25: Well, I've pushed through another phase of the project! The last four sheets of sound deadening are now firmly applied to the cowl. Let me tell you, for a 73-year-old fella, lying on my back trying to contort into those spaces was no easy feat – my back can attest to that! – but it's done. That just leaves the roof to tackle, but I'm on hold for more sheets to arrive.

Since I had a pause there, I jumped straight into the gas tank installation. Last night started with a bit of head-scratching over the new seals I bought for the tank-to-floor interface around the petcock. They just didn't seem right. Rather than lose momentum, I decided to improvise with what I had on hand to keep things moving forward.

Before I could permanently set the tank, I absolutely needed to get that 1/8” pipe plug out of the bottom. After all the horror stories I've heard about breaking the solder joint, I thought I'd be smart. My brilliant plan was to use a second wrench – a big 12” adjustable – as a hold-back on the two flats of the soldered fitting, hoping to relieve the stress. The moment I applied a bit of muscle to the 7/16” plug with a socket and ratchet, the adjustable wrench decided to stage a rebellion. It slipped right off the fitting and gave me a direct hit just above my right eye. No blood, thankfully, but plenty of pain! I did a tactical retreat into the house for some ice. Lucky for me, I seem to have a rather hard head, so no permanent damage was done, just a momentary (and painful) pause in my progress.

Back to that plug – it was really, really tight. My initial 'smart' methods had clearly failed miserably, so it was time for a new plan: out came the impact driver. Wouldn't you know it, that plug spun out with hardly any effort at all!
With the plug out, I removed the nipple from the petcock and installed it in the tank. This allowed me to accurately locate the tank outlet relative to the hole in the floor. I’d measured the space between the tank and floor, and it needed about 1-1/4” of fill, so those foam washers I mentioned earlier came in handy. I applied some weatherstripping adhesive and glued a few of them together to form the perfect seal, then carefully adhered it to the tank. After reseating the tank again, I snuck underneath the cab to check, and the seal was making perfect contact with the floor. Success!
From there, it was smooth sailing to finish the installation: installing the clamping straps, the sending unit, the petcock itself, and finally, the gas tank filler neck. So, the tank installation is officially complete!