Trunk Refurbishment

While I've got the gas tank in the shop for repair and restoration, I'm taking this opportunity to refurbish the luggage compartment. In addition to removing the old sealant from the tank, I've been scraping away 40-year-old body sealant, rust and paint. This is looking like a bigger project than I'd anticipated. The sealant around the joints is disintegrating and breaking off in large globs and will need to be completely removed, the area cleaned, and new sealant applied. But 40 years of sealant, flaking paint and rust will not be easy to clean. Since it's the trunk, and will be hidden by a fabric liner, appearance isn't an issue. I figure I'll scrape and brush away all the loose rust, scrub the area to remove grease and dirt, and then use a POR treatment or rust encapsulator. And probably finish with a coat of gray primer to reinforce the existing paint and coat the bare metal that's been exposed by my scraping.

Here's resource for auto restoration seam sealing: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/seam-sealing.htm. After treating and painting the surface, I'll need to re-apply sealant around the welds in the trunk. Maybe that should go on after the rust treatment but before the primer. I'll need to do a bit more research, but need to get this done quick, since the gas tank should be back from the shop in about a week.

A case of bad gas

So it was bad gas after all, causing Elsie to run so poorly lately and deteriorate so fast since I bought her. Today I drained the tank, all 10 gallons, and after seeing all the rust and crud that came out with the gas, I decided to bite the bullet and drop the tank. The leak and faulty sending unit need to be fixed anyway, it seemed like a good time. It's a good thing I did! Holding the gas tank, I could tip it back and forth and actually hear the pile of rust flakes sliding back and forth inside. The sending unit was rusted nearly beyond recognition, probably beyond repair.

My friend Austin came over to check Elsie out, and helped with a mini tune-up. I rigged a fuel line to run to a can full of clean gas and we started her up. She ran a little rough, but once the bad gas got burned through, she ran like a champ. Austin adjusted the timing a little, but all in all, she seems fit for service, once the tank's been refurbished and reinstalled.