Removing tank support along lateral supports?
 

I have a large portion of the spotwelds drilled out of my tank support but i noticed the tank support is not spot welded to the lateral supports. on the passenger side it is welded in the normal fashion.

what's the best way to get this thing separated from the lateral supports without damaging them? i'm tempted to grind the welds down but i am REALLY concerned about not leaving enough metal for the replacement pan and support to join to.

thanks for the help!

BTW, my car was equipped with factory A/C so i have that damned box thingy that the front condensor fits in. my plan, since i am going to be replacing the entire pan, is to take a cutting wheel to it and open it up so i can better pry up the tank support. anybody have a better idea?



Erik


BTW, i can't effing believe i'm doing this job! fun fun fun!

Erik-

I just did this about 3 days ago. I used a dremel with a reinforced cutting disk to cut around each of those welds. I got all the rest of the spotwelds drilled out and pried the tank support up enough to give me a better angle to finish cutting around the welds. A few whacks with a hammer and chisel and it came out pretty easily.

I am being very careful about not cutting the wrong piece, so I have used a dremel to cut out the entire pan. I've gone through 15 disks!

Like you, I can't believe I am doing this. Of course, once I pulled back that tank support and saw all of that rust I realized that this repair needs to be done NOW. Without the forum as a resource, I never would have attempted this.

Good luck

Steve B.

thanks steve, i will do the same.

i have the tank-side part of the support pried up and i nearly passed out when i looked in that cavity! unbelievable amount of rust and junk. it also turns out that one portion of the tank support (nearest the bumper and on the driver side) had actually been eaten away entirely and i was able to put a large screwdriver in there.

when people talk about 'tip of the iceberg' in relation to rust issues they are not kidding.

Erik-

Yeah, unfortunately mine looks similar. I will definitely need to do some repair on both longitudinal sections which I am not looking forward to. The upside is that I am going to get a lot of practice on welding skills. Be sure to keep us updated on your progress.

Steve B.

will do. i don't know about the lateral supports just yet. i surely hope i don't have to get into fabricating stuff.

I'm just about to jump into this project too:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1180014371.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1180014408.jpg

Sounds like you chaps are ahead of me, where did you source your replacement panels?

Good luck with the rest of your missions :-)

I bought my suspension pan and tank support from Restoration Design about a year ago. However, I've been trying to order some stuff from them in the last couple of months and they've been completely uncommunicative by email or phone. Stoddards likely has a ready supply.

Steve B.

Front suspension pan replacement tutorial
 

For a great PowerPoint presentation on replacing the front pan, go to Ed Mayo's website at http://webpages.charter.net/mayo/

Re: Front suspension pan replacement tutorial
 

Thanks for the link, thats great and just what I needed at this stage.

Hey Jevvy,
What a coincidence I was about to send you this link.

Keep me informed

Ian