3-D Thinking Isn't Just for Star Trek Chess Matches

Hello Gray Ghost Fans!

I'm back with another "hot and humid" update on the restoration adventure.  Much has happened since I took that bite out of the bear!  In reality, I've had two garage sessions since we last spoke.  The first was so frustrating, that I decided to not even write about it.  But before we begin, let me set the stage....

Original gas tank w/corrosion

That came from here, behind the bench seat

There are a couple of things to note about this last pic.  There is a foam doughnut/gasket that seals the cab where the fuel line exits, there are two straps that hold down the tank, there is a ground wire on the rear cab brace and the gas gauge sending unit wire (or what's left of the original) is clipped to the seat riser.

As you may recall from the last post, that I had to wrangle (read that as modify) the gas gauge sending unit to fit on the new gas tank.  With that work done, I moved on to installing the tank in the cab and running the fuel line from the tank to underneath the cab.  The goal here is to get the fuel line to the same place as Chevy originally had it, but to come from the top of the tank (as they did from 1954 onward) instead of from the bottom of the tank (as they did from 1953 backward).

The first step in the process was to set the tank in place and mark where the "anti-squeak" pads needed to go.  After that, I installed the pads and then set the tank in place.  That looked like this:

Next, it was time to install the new straps.  The old ones were a disaster!  Years of mouse pee had corroded then horribly and they were beyond saving.  With the straps in place, I decided to install the gas filler neck and connecting hoses.  I decided to have a little fun while I was doing that and also put on the shiny new locking gas cap.  It looked like this:

Sorry that the pic is kinda washed out, but you get the idea.  From the inside, it looked like this:

Now, I'm showing you this for a reason...a reason that it would take me several hours of fighting with my truck and a week of pondering to realize what was wrong.  I know what you're thinking.  Gray Ghost, it looks pretty good!  What's wrong?  Well, you are right.  It does look pretty good.  It was simply done out of order.  How does this matter?  When I went to secure the new strap to the tank support, it wouldn't fit.  Here's the Chevy drawing on how it should look:

Inside the circles that I added is the trouble area.  You can see that the straps have a bolt (with one end flattened and riveted to the strap) which is supposed to go through the lower strap assembly and a nut is then threaded on, thereby securing the tank to the cab of the truck.  No matter how I tried, I could not get the bolt to reach far enough to go through the lower strap assembly.  I reached out to the truck forum that I belong to and several members gave me suggestions on how to make it work.

So today, after thinking it over for a week and discussing it on the forum, I headed back out to the garage for another try.  One thing that I realized over the course of the week, was that I needed to run the fuel line before I could strap down the tank.  Since the line would exit under the tank, that had to be in place first.  That epiphany meant disconnecting the gas tank filler neck hoses, so that I could move the tank up and down.

Let me just say, that even though the drawing makes it look really easy, it was not!  First off, in 1954, they moved the opening in the cab floor forward of the tank.  You can see that in the drawing.  If you look back at the before pic, you see that the opening for my 1953 is directly underneath the tank.  That meant that I had to form the fuel line to come down the side of the tank, sneak past the seat riser, go under the tank and then exit the cab through the original hole.  That's where the 3-D thinking came into play.

Now you know that I tell it like it is and this time will be no different!  I suck at thinking this way!!!  I destroyed multiple pieces of fuel line getting it close to right.  Never mind perfect!!  Here's a shot of the wrecked attempts, moving in time from left to right:

Clearly, there was some trial and error going on and you can kind of see an evolution in the thought process.  In fact, the only thing wrong with the far right attempt was that I somehow got the length measurement wrong and it ended up being an inch too short.  However, you can see how the line needed to exit the fuel tank fitting and make a 90 degree bend downward.  After running down the side of the tank it makes a 45 degree bend and then another bend to get past the bottom of the tank.  Then almost a 90 degree bend to exit the floor of the cab.

After many trips to the FLAPS, I finally got it right and installed it onto the tank and snaked it through the bottom of the truck!  After all of that, I decided to strap the tank down and then attach the filler neck hoses.

This time around, the straps were EASY to attach!  What the heck?!?  Seems as though having the filler neck hoses attached before strapping the tank down prevented me from settling the tank into it's proper location.  With the hoses disconnected, it was a breeze.  Good Grief!  After that, it was simply a matter of wiggling the filler neck/hose assembly into position, attaching the connecting hoses and retightening the hose clamps.  OY!  Then, it was a simple matter to connect the new ground wire to the rear of the cab (after a light sanding of the metal to ensure a good ground connection, of course) and the new sending unit wire to the sending unit.

When all was said and done, it looked like this:

Here it is with the seat frame reinstalled:

The fuel line does protrude into the seat frame's space a bit, so I had to move it forward a notch or two.  Since it's likely that I will be the only driver of the truck, for the near future, the seat won't get moved again and hitting the fuel line isn't going to be an issue.

Now, it is time to move under the truck and start prepping for engine removal.  First on the list will be disconnection/securing the torque tube so that I can remove the transmission.  Once the transmission is out, there will be a bunch of items that will need to be disconnected.  Then it will be engine removal time!  Getting closer!

That's all for now.  Don't forget to click a box below!  It's anonymous!