An Introduction: Chris Collins and Morris Tilly Project

[jack neville]

I've digressed a bit to have a look at the fuel tanks I have to work with. This is a Tilly tank. Filler on top and about 150 mm longer than a car tank.

[jack neville]

The Tilly tank has a big hole in the bottom and I suspect a very untidy interior. They share the same stamped end and flanges for filler necks and guages. So I opened up the car tank and removed one end and baffle. Looking at the end I am contemplating getting some steel plates lazar cut and pressing some new end pieces in the same pattern. However before I try that I sweated that one end apart. It looks solid and might be able to be cleaned up and re-zinced. If I can recover all four ends and the baffles and recondition them I will just have to fold up the body of the tank and solder all the parts back together.

[jack neville]

Both ends and baffles have been removed and they will clean up quite well. There is no rust to worry about so I melted off all the solder and removed the drain plug fitting, and the fuel line pick up and fuel gauge float. The flanges for them were sweated off and cleaned up. I will get a piece of galvanized iron and shape up for the replacement body and solder it back together. If needed maybe some POR 15 fuel tank sealer to cover the ends.

[jack neville]

I got some galvanized iron cut to the exact size required and dressed both ends to form a lap joint for the main body of the tank. Another job for my hi-tech folding equipment.

[jack neville]

The tanks are 865mm long and I had to work out a way of folding the curves in to follow the seams in the end flanges. A bit of scrap steel and pipe and the old G clamps into action again. I used a piece of 100 mm heavy steel channel and a piece of 50mm pipe and welded some scrap in the inside of the channel to centre the pipe. The four locking pliers help centre the sheet where I want it to be without moving until there is some load on the sheet.

[jack neville]

The first fold with that pipe came out a little too tight so I opened it up a little and pressed it again with a larger pipe. Instead of altering the press I slid the larger pipe over the thinner one. This came out exactly as I needed.

[jack neville]

I checked each fold in the end flange as I went. It was a little bit of guesswork as to exactly where the next fold was to be positioned but I managed to get it pretty close. Once the four folds were done the lap joint was closed up. To keep the joint nice and tight I forced a couple of pieces of timber inside.