Square peg in round hole syndrome....

R

Raven

Member
I removed the fuel tank on my 1931 roadster for a good cleaning and my grandson and I pretty much had to pry out the tank to remove it. I'm going to be reinstalling it in the next few days and I feel I'm going to have to just about to jump on it to get it to set in place. Am I missing something? How in the heck did they put the tank in at the factory? Was the body built around the tank? Is there like a secret latch that I don''t see?
 
It is possible your tank was "glued in" by some over-achiever restorer in the past. If the tank welting is cut & installed correct, the tank will pretty much drop right in. My guess is now that you are familiar with things, it will be much easier to re-install.
 
I don't recall any particular difficulty in installing the gas tank in my 1930 coupe, other than the tank was awkward to handle and I felt I could have used a couple of extra hands. However, I will admit to suffering from "the older I get, the faster I used to run" syndrome, so maybe it wasn't so easy after all.

Regardless, on page 81 of Volume 2 of "How To Restore Your Model A" there is an article by Chuck Peters entitled "Tips for Installing The [1930-1931] Model A Gas Tank" that might help.
 
Did you first remove the spacer that fits between the bottom of WS & top of gas tank? I did that on my coupe when I replaced a rusted out tank & the other tank went in with no problem at all.
 
Thanks for your answers...I am thinking that the body on a roadster may be unique since it doesn't have a solid top. The bulkhead between the engine and the tank and the dash rail are all riveted to the body so there is no way to remove anything from around the tank that would make it easier to remove. Any roadster guys have any experience with this problem?
 
my 29's i had to "encourage" to come out of its hole. but i guess of 84 years of being there it took root :)
 
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