Quote Originally Posted by Don Shillady
Gee, this is a beautiful build, but two years ago I got a lot of flack about a rear tank in my A with references to the old Pinto lawsuits. I am way down on the skill level but I was able to make a cardboard mockup and then paid quite a sum to Rock Valley to weld one up in 14 gauge stainless steel, compared to their usual use of thinner 16 gauge stainless. I do not know the exact thickness of the 14 guage stainless but I had to trim the tabs for the mounts and I burned up a small Mikuta grinder using it to cut through the stainless very slowly. I wanted to simulate a rumble seat and even added a 4" wide steel bar (0.25" thick) behind the tank for rear protection, so it surprises me that you have an aluminum tank down low. I can say that I recall building a 10' sailboat that was overbuilt to the point that it was too heavy to lift so I tend to overbuild, although at a lower level of skill compared to the work shown here. For what it is worth Rock Valley told me they have a display of one of their tanks that was in an accident and has a dent 1/3 the width of the tank and it did not leak! Hey your build is already about 1000 times better than mine but maybe you ought to reconsider use of aluminum in a low rear mounted tank? Check with Rock Valley they can use your existing patterns OR maybe I misunderstood you saying "aluminum" above? My tank came out to be on the small side at about 13.1 gallons U.S. but at the price of gas today that is still about $40/fillup. Relative to discussion of roadster weight on another thread, I realize while writing this that the 4" wide steel bar and stainless for the tank certainly did not reduce the weight of my roadster and I guess I am looking at 2500+ pounds total but there is a safety issue here and the stainless tank is my response.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder
Don,
I agree with you, I always try to think about safety when I build something. But I have to be honest if I built IT based on what ifs, it would be really ugly. I always believe that no matter how hard you try, if you ever get "T" boned in one of these things you can probably kiss it good bye.
I do have frame work around my tank though.
Ken