Excellent, can wait to see the build up. My van is taking entirely too long to get looking the way I want, I'm at the rust stage now. Glad you've decided to have another go at it. Keep on with the pics. COZ

ok, more progress from the weekend. Fuel tank is scrubbing up ok. Only the top half done so far tho lol. Amazing where the hours go sometimes.


I left that with a second helping of rust convertor on the few rusty patches that remain.
Tomorrow I hope to get most of the underside done to the same point.


The tank has a different filler position, but otherwise its exactly the same shape as a 2L droptank. And the fuel senders are identical too, which is handy. I also found a world of dirt and rusty mud in and around the sender wiring tabs. Fingers crossed a good clean gets my fuel gauge back and working.

I also sat down with a spare 2L sedan wiring loom to copy, and started working on a brand new van loom.

Hmm, perhaps its a 2L van thing, or even a sundowner feature. This all reminds me, last time I filled the tank completely, I think it was leaking. I had better slosh the last cups worth of fuel around in it, and see if it has a physical hole around the seam.

Thanks Timmeh. Yep motivation is worth more than money, there is always something I could be getting done. I had a thought about the chassis that cheered me right up. If it turns out to be irrepairably bent, I will cut it up and make a trayback ute out of it[:x)] Skip rego and take it drifting lol.

Those jacks are as dangerous as they look. One day for a laugh, we used 4 of them to pick up my first escort. It swayed in the breeze lol, we didn't even want to stand next to it to get it back down.[:u]

Yesterday I got some "race lightening" done. I scraped nearly 1/2 a kilo of oily dirt, mud and rocks off the diff center[:p] I hooked it up to an old bent housing, so I could clean and paint it without getting rubbish into the internals. Still struggling to get a good image out of this camera, I think the auto focus is gone in it.




I am finding one of the benefits to clean fresh parts is I can arrange them in the middle of my office floor. Having to step over them all the time keeps it all fresh in my mind lol. If I go quiet, feel free to aim a kick in my direction

Edit: Just a bit more info on the diff center. Its a 3.9:1 unit that was pulled from the RS. Its smooth and quiet and leak free. Thats why it just got a clean and paint.

I picked 3.9 for the van because in the RS (which feels heavier) The combination of the long step from 1st to 2nd, and the way that engine stops pulling hard around 4500rpm just wasn't getting the best out of 3.9:1. The van revs harder, and feels lighter, and eventually will get a better set of ratio's. (celica box or similar.) So it should be at home in there.

Thanks Mk2. Yeah I think I have an advantage in that all the current coverings are very old, so they are coming off easily. Theres nothing worse than trying to fix a 1/2 assed job from last year, so I am determined to get some years out of this finish.

Well the project just got the best news a project could get. I scored a full time job!! (back in PC parts again) Not only the budget to back my time and energy, but its a 9-5 mon to fri thing, so weekends free to keep working on the car.

In the progress dept, we have the bottom of the tank cleaned.

And almost all the sludge removed from within.... I will do a couple more flushes with fresh fuel yet, just to be sure. I can still here a couple of tinkles of solid objects in there. The sediment includes portions of a roach.. which raises interesting questions about the rest lol.


If your not sure what's in your old fuel tank, I highly recommend taking it out and checking. This one had rocks and sand and all sorts of crud. The fuel pickup had quite a lot of fiberous material stuck in its primary filter.[:u]

The tank is now painted, but I am not wrapped with the finish. Down to the end of that can, and it came out of the nozzle pretty poorly. But once again, I can be satisfied that its rust free and coated for protection.
Before I can refit, I have to.
*Clean and paint straps
*Locate rubber strips for straps
*replace all fuel and breather lines in the tank and filler area
*Find and fit a nice modern motorbike style filler cap system.
*investigate fitment of electric pump and swirlpot above tank.

I am open to opinions on trying to put some foam blocks into the tank itself. But I am concerned that the hole available isn't big enough to place the blocks properly within.
Is it worth trying to put a line of them up the center of the tank to lessen sideways slop?