Gas tank to floor pan

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Neto

Well-known member
Joined
May 31, 2012
Messages
456
Location
Holmes Co, Ohio
Not sure I really have the nerve to post something here in the Tech Tips, but don't know where else this might go.

I was loading up a bunch of scrap yesterday, and this morning I thought I'd better cut the old gasoline tank open, because I'd heard that they won't take a complete one. (This one has been open & setting for over 6 years, so there's no way it was going to explode, but sure enough, I over heard the guy at the scales calling someone about if they can accept them. When I told him that I'd cut it in half, he was cool.)

Anyway, when I got it open I immediately thought "This looks awful much like a floor pan." It already has the curved corners, so you could drop it down easily. I didn't keep this one, because not only do I not have space (and don't foresee needing one), but while the inside looks like new, the outside is badly rusted. This is off of a 93 Chrysler T & C minivan. Here in the rust-belt you would have to either get one from a fairly new (wrecked) vehicle, or go outside this area. (You can see which is the top by the fuel gauge hole.)
 

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Since you are just cutting it open, filling it with water and using a recip-saw or even cuttoff wheel would be alright wouldn't it? as long as you stayed below the water line? Then trim it up after you crack it open.
 
Since you are just cutting it open, filling it with water and using a recip-saw or even cuttoff wheel would be alright wouldn't it? as long as you stayed below the water line? Then trim it up after you crack it open.

That's what I would have done if I was opening it up soon after removing it. But in this case, it had sat in my shop for 6 years or more with the gas gauge out, so it was open, both there, and also at the filler neck. There was no gasoline smell left. (I used a saws-all.)
 
I cut up the gas tank out of my S10 donor truck to make my transmission cover. It already had rust holes in it from rain water, so I figured it was safe to slice up. Fortunately I was right. :eek:
 
Very cool idea I like that a lot !!!

a good decent squirt from a CO2 extinguisher is what I used to use before welding repaired motorcycle fuel tanks.. or run a car exhaust in them for 20 mins, water and volts don't go quite so well/
 
I do bike tank repairs / customizing pretty often, and usually fill em with water and soap ,shake it a bit and flush it out. I leave it like that when tanks have not been used for a long time or maybe stick in a torch if I don`t trust it. Tanks which have been used shortly before, I wash and hook up the argon bottle before cutting.
I don`t touch modern tanks full of pipes and secret chambers tho. I`ve done a lot of tanks but they still get my adrenalin going.

drilling a hole and useing a nibbler should work fine on a car tank imo
 

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