I just had my first day of working on my 1970 sport spider. I opened the gas tank and saw a bit of rust inside. Question - do I have to replace the gas tank or is there something that can treat the tank?

the tank can be removed and taken to a radiator shop who will dip it in their cleaning tank and then coat the inside. I tried this with very poor results, so i bought a new tank. You need to evaluate if the rust is bad enough to be flaking into the fuel.

I used POR 15's tank treatment, it worked very well but is very important that you follow the directions exactly!! Depending on the damage you may be better off with a new tank. I used my harbor freight flexible scope to inspect the tank to see if it was rotted. New tanks are not that expensive in the big scheme of things compared to a poor running car or worse a fire.

If the tank is still sound, I've had good results so far with a tank re-condition kit. Others with a rad shop flush, and of course if there is someone parting out a spider nearby, they might have a tank in decent shape. Of course buying new is best I suppose. I think a clean tank is paramount to a well running car. Rust flakes screw up a FI pump in a hurry. Perhaps not so much in a mechanical pump. But any crap gets by the filter then you will have issues.

New tanks are only $139, hardly worth messing with an old one IMO:

http://www.autoricambi.us/product/FU3-4 ... arbureted/

Thanks Vandor. I wasn't aware of that website. I have only been on International Auto.

Ok so epic fail. Filled the tank with fuel to attempt a test fire and now I have fuel all over my garage. I ended up having two pin holes in the tank. I tried catching as much fuel as possible but still will have clean up tomorrow.

Taking the positive I now have two projects. 1 get a new fuel tank. 2 I have to fix the battery terminals because they were a bit rusty and I couldn't tighten the battery.

Taking the positives and moving forward.

Instead of getting a new terminal for the negative cable just get a whole new cable. Those clamp-on terminals just add one more place where things corrode and build up resistance.

Correct! This might help

http://wwwe.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopi ... it=battery

I did the new gas tank thing after taking it to Redi Rad who cleaned and then found the pin holes.($30.00) Cost to repair was $300.00 Cnd with a three year guarantee.

So I bought a new one from AR. See my posts under funcar restorations gas tank etc. Where are you located? Shipping is expensive from Texas to Ontario so get the parts you will need for the job the first time. Call Ramzi at AR and he will give you good advice on what you will need, how to do the job and a price quote. Then get a second opinion if you are not happy. I'm happy with my out come and it gave me confidence to take on other restoration projects. You will find the members of this forum very helpful.

ICESKATER1611 wrote:Ok so epic fail. Filled the tank with fuel to attempt a test fire and now I have fuel all over my garage. I ended up having two pin holes in the tank. I tried catching as much fuel as possible but still will have clean up tomorrow.

Taking the positive I now have two projects. 1 get a new fuel tank. 2 I have to fix the battery terminals because they were a bit rusty and I couldn't tighten the battery.

Taking the positives and moving forward.

you have to take the negatives too. batteries won't work with only positives.

Funcar wrote:I did the new gas tank thing after taking it to Redi Rad who cleaned and then found the pin holes.($30.00) Cost to repair was $300.00 Cnd with a three year guarantee.

So I bought a new one from AR. See my posts under funcar restorations gas tank etc. Where are you located? Shipping is expensive from Texas to Ontario so get the parts you will need for the job the first time. Call Ramzi at AR and he will give you good advice on what you will need, how to do the job and a price quote. Then get a second opinion if you are not happy. I'm happy with my out come and it gave me confidence to take on other restoration projects. You will find the members of this forum very helpful.

Funcar - I am in New Hampshire so shipping wasn't too bad. Was going to order the tank today, i may take the advise i have seen and give Ramzi a call.

Ok so spent a couple of hours in the garage tonight. I just ordered my new fuel tank and a timing belt so as i wait for those i thought i would go ahead and clean up some stuff and also get a better idea of the true status of the car.

My initial look through the car i noticed a small hole in the floor board on the driver side. Tonight i removed the driver seat and the carpet to get a better idea of what the floor board is. well...the hole is a tad larger than I initially thought. I need to figure out how to post pictures. other than that it seems pretty solid. The seat actually looked pretty good too. the bottom seat seat had some good cushion left. Only issue is that 1. its black and i wanted to change the interior to tan or beige and 2. even if i wanted to keep it black it would need to be re-upholstered. Again, i have to sign up for a site so i can share some photos.

I also started to wire brush the carb cover as the paint was chipping. Also coming from the carb there is a curved metal piece that needs to be scraped and repainted. Question - what is the best way to treat and repaint the carb cover and metal?

I also removed one of the battery terminals due as the connector is not budging and i couldn't tighten it on the battery. Question - what is the best way to loosen it up so i can tighten on the battery?

I am just happy to be moving on the car whether its just cleaning up the car a bit or getting some big projects completed.

Any help is appreciated and once again sorry for no pics right now!

Gas tank is coming this Thursday.

Question - Is is difficult to change out the fuel lines? Do i need special lines or are they more or less generic?