Adams Probe 16 Restoration Project...

[Zeke]

If you have access to both ends why not run an electrician's fish tape as far as you can? With lube you might be able to pull back a modern fuel line just slightly undersized.

I have more ideas but let's start with that.

[908/930]

You just need to find a good marine mechanic, lots of experience in dealing with tanks bedded into fibreglass.

[Wayne 962]

Thanks for the thoughts, going thru these and will reply in a bit.

Wayne

[gtc]

Originally Posted by 908/930

You just need to find a good marine mechanic, lots of experience in dealing with tanks bedded into fibreglass.

This.
Are you replacing the wood?
I'm not sure how original you want to keep it, but it might make sense to pull the tanks out again and improve the connections and service access while you're at it. IE, move the connections to a place that is still out of sight, but easier to access from inside the car.

[Nostril Cheese]

As the other guy said, find a boat guy. Can you cut access panels on the underside of the tank/car?

Im amazed that they used wood.. how heavy is that car? I use ash to build electric guitars.

[draw]

Originally Posted by Zeke

If you have access to both ends why not run an electrician's fish tape as far as you can? With lube you might be able to pull back a modern fuel line just slightly undersized.

I have more ideas but let's start with that.

I had this idea, too. Or edge trimmer line maybe? If you try this you will need lots of "snot" to lube things up.

[908/930]

Thinking the fuel line is also covered in foam. Probably going to need to do some precision cutting with a hole saw. Drill a 1/4 pilot hole and put a 1/4 steel dowel pin in the hole saw to guide it, less chance of damage.

[LWJ]

Since you can access the janky old fuel line at the filter, can you feed a flexible cable (like a boxster top drive cable) into the line?

If so, you now have a metal cable following the path of the fuel line.

I don't know the name of the tech but there are gizmos that can pick up a metallic substance through the glass / wood.

I am thinking generically about how they trace plumbing with a trace wire.

I am not an engineer. Hope this helps.

Killer ride. Never heard of the Probe 16.

[gtc]

Being able to fish a new line in won't do much good if he can't see/reach the hose barb on the tank.

[Dan J]

Wayne,
You know what needs to be done. You can see where it was previously cut, Bite the bullet and cut the tanks out ,repair correctly and reinstall. Good to go

[rusnak]

You guys: The yellow car is not his car. The bottom of the tank was exposed when someone else cut the fiberglass away and did not touch the wood of the yellow car. The yellow car is in England.

Wayne is dreading cutting the fiberglass/wood. He is thinking that he may have to cut an access hole in the wheel well, but is exploring other ideas. His tank is OK, but the fuel lines (he thinks) are bad.

[Wayne 962]

I'll post some clarifying information here soon. Apparently I wasn't clear enough though - the tanks themselves are perfectly fine (quite dirty inside, but we can fix that from the fuel sender access hole). There is no need to cut the tanks out and replace them - they were already replaced with stainless steel ones which look great!

[sparkysvega]

Originally Posted by Prestallion

Is there anybody in your area that can do mobile nondestructive testing? They usually do ultrasonic and X-ray inspections of industrial equipment, their X-ray machines should easily be able to penetrate through wood and fiberglass. If not that, then maybe call a local mobile medical X-ray company and see if their machines can pass through wood/fiberglass?

Not sure how cheap/expensive it would be, just a thought.

I second this idea. I had to have some holes cored through a concrete floor in a multi story building. The general contractor had the floor x-rayed to check for any piping . Not sure who they used , but I’m sure you can find someone to do it .

[Wayne 962]

Here's a two minute drawing of the situation:



I need to figure out the best way to access the port on the back of the tanks while minimizing the amount of damage / drilling to get access / visibility.

-Wayne

[rusnak]

If you can use either a liquid to heat the tank, or a gas to cool it, then it should show up pretty clearly with a FLIR infrared camera. You would need to circulate the media through the fuel hose in order to illuminate the fuel fitting on infra-red.

[Wayne 962]

I have a FLIR camera - we use it to spot wildlife at night and I dig it out any time I possibly can find a use for it. It doesn't work very well *through* walls unless there is a big heat differential. On the commercials for it, they show it being used to spot "hot spots" for electrical problems in the walls, but that doesn't really work - the heat needs to dissipate to the outside of an outlet or dimmer switch and the surface needs to be actually warmer. I think that the wood / fiberglass would dissipate the heat on the surface and the camera wouldn't see anything. I thought about blowing a hair dryer / heat gun through the tank and seeing what happened - I guess it doesn't hurt to at least try that.

I think my worst nightmare is deciding to cut an access hole and then finding that I'm in the wrong spot. If I cut a hole from the fender well, I think I only need to be correct in the X-Y plane, and I think I can measure and figure out where I need to be based upon what I can measure inside the tank. Maybe the same from the bottom. Not sure.

-Wayne

[pavulon]

If you end up going through the wheel well, a used fiber optic bronchoscope provides a lot of flexibility and a light source in a small diameter on a roughly 2.5 ft length. Video scopes give a better image but are more complex. In this way, you may (or may not) be able to directly inspect and make informed decisions about if/where to cut an access hole via a much smaller hole for inspection.

Probably overkill but what aspect of this project is rational?

[908/930]

Not sure if this will work, can you get a small magnet in the hose near the fitting or possibly in the tank near the barb and use a small compass to point to the location?

[maxnine11]

Try taking it through Customs.
Free body scan!

[Wayne 962]

Hmm, x-ray machines work by sending the rays through something and then having a receptor on the other side to receive the rays that are not blocked. When you x-ray your hand, the x-rays start at the top of your hand, go through, get blocked by bone, and then the ones not blocked pass through to the sensor (or film) below. In order to get this process to work, you need to have an x-ray generator, and also a receptor on the other side. In the case with the tank, I don't see any spot where one would be able to put a "receptor?"?

Ultra sound works differently by bouncing sound waves off of stuff. That might work.

I just bought a new mini boroscope off of Amazon - it will be here tomorrow. The probe is 4mm in side. Man, the technology behind these is insane. With a coupon, the cost was about $100. Got good reviews too! Teslong NTS300. The probe might be small enough to stick through the hose itself.

More info coming soon...

-Wayne