Priya's SX/4 project

[86Woodgrain]

OK. Wicked cool car by the way.

[priya]

OK. Wicked cool car by the way.

Thanks.  If you ever make it into the city during the winter and want to have a look you can come by.  email me at [email protected] if you do.

[priya]

I thought I had my spoiler all fixed after the previous repairs but I found cracks on the side of it:

[priya]

And here it is after paint and back on the car:

[priya]

It was a bit of a challenge getting the nuts and washer back on the spoiler.  My workaround was to put a circle of butyl on both the nut and washer, then put them in the socket so they stay will I push them up into place and turn them on:

[priya]

I pulled the spark plugs after 7k kilometers, they looked pretty grim for the amount of time they've been in there.  Hopefully the new ultra fine filter will keep the carburetor operating properly.  I have yet to drive the car since making these changes, last time I took it out it was steering erratically as it needs a power steering box.  The transmission pan is leaking pretty badly too but we don't have the funds to fix that stuff at this time.

[priya]

One other thing I took on was to drill holes in the interior panel covering the hatch area so I can undo the hatch from inside the car if the popper should fail.

This way a socket can fit on the nuts holding on the post for the latch:

[priya]

The last thing I did on the Eagle was to touch up the paint on the inside of the hatch as a few rust spots had begun to show through, when I originally sprayed the inside of the hatch the paint was much too thin around the latch area..  I didn't have the original paint I used on the interior so I ended up with a semi-gloss that wasn't too far out as you can see in the after pictures:

[Canoe]

... I'm putting in a very large high efficiency fuel filter from a Cat diesel with 2 micron filter capacity.  The reason for this is there's a lot of rust sediment in my gas tank and new tanks are not available. ...

Keep an eye open for a fibreglass gas tank on parts cars.
Also, to save your tank before it's too far gone, consider pulling it and treating it.

• Washed out with a detergent like Dawn, fully rinsed, then some Evapo-rust inside, spending some time in different orientations to get rust off of all internal surfaces.
• Then you can make the call on if you put a layer of fibreglass in places on the outside, or give it a layer all over, just because. I'd be tempted to use epoxy resin. 
• Plus, to prevent future rust inside, there are coatings for inside gas tanks. I had access to them from a friend who rebuilt airplanes. I guess they thought that having an engine quiet due to a rusted tank would be a bad thing.

[priya]

Keep an eye open for a fibreglass gas tank on parts cars.
Also, to save your tank before it's too far gone, consider pulling it and treating it.

• Washed out with a detergent like Dawn, fully rinsed, then some Evapo-rust inside, spending some time in different orientations to get rust off of all internal surfaces.
• Then you can make the call on if you put a layer of fibreglass in places on the outside, or give it a layer all over, just because. I'd be tempted to use epoxy resin. 
• Plus, to prevent future rust inside, there are coatings for inside gas tanks. I had access to them from a friend who rebuilt airplanes. I guess they thought that having an engine quiet due to a rusted tank would be a bad thing.

"fiberglass gas tank"?  What cars would have a fiberglass gas tank?

Thanks for the suggestions Canoe, I don't know why we didn't try something like that when we were putting the car together.  The husband wasn't warm to the idea of putting a coating inside the tank although I don't recall why.

[Canoe]

"fiberglass gas tank"?  What cars would have a fiberglass gas tank?
...
The husband wasn't warm to the idea of putting a coating inside the tank although I don't recall why.

The fibreglass gas tank was on one of the Eagle parts-cars I got. It was a wagon too. Aftermarket replacement. Perfect fit to the stock size, straps, fill pipe & gasket, etc.. Seller made sure I knew about it so I'd grab it before scrapping the vehicle once I'd removed what I wanted. Needed a ground wire to the fuel level sender. I moved it to my '81 with its 119. I'm sure I kept that tank when the '81 went to scrap, but I don't recall where I stashed it. Think it's in my storage locker.

You don't want to guess when you put something inside the tank, as that may dissolve and go to the engine as gunk, or in solution and precipitate in the carb, etc.. You want something that is intended for, and rated for, gasoline, ethanol and steel tanks. Due to the ethanol in fuel, and the can's & sealer's age, I wouldn't use the old can of sealer I have from the aviation friend back in the 90's. Consider modern fuel additives too. Verifying it's good for your intended usage is NOT done by the online seller saying "sure it is!" Who makes it, what's the installation prep & procedure, and what's the warranty. Google turns some up, but you'd have to do your research. I'd want to find out what was in the liner, so I could look for products that failed that used those. 

As to if you should line it after you de-rust it, look to the vehicle restoration enthusiasts, where they're dealing with various degrees of rust, and possibly cracking, etc.. Simply pulling it and doing the de-rusting may be enough. If it hasn't lost much thickness to rust inside (I've no idea how to gauge that), I'd consider brushing or rolling some epoxy resin on the outside for rust proofing (may or may not be cheaper than DIY epoxy primer, or having a shop give it a flash coat of epoxy primer the next time they're shooting that), then a top coat of something like Waxoyl Hardwax.

[maddog]

priya's Eagle is an SX/4 and not one of the 50 series cars like the wagons and sedans that most of us have. And so unfortunately it has a different fuel tank. The only way to get a new fuel tank for her car that I know of would be to have someone make a new one and that's not going to be cheap.

[Canoe]

Obviously a 30 series, but given someone was making aftermarket fibreglass tanks for the 50 series, someone could have done the same for the 30 series. So keep an eye out on parts cars.

And the scarcity and the cost of getting a new one custom made, is the reason why refurbish the current rusting gas tank before it needs patching or structural support.

[Trooper]

http://amceaglesden.com/guide/Cherokee_gas_tank_retrofit

[vangremlin]

http://amceaglesden.com/guide/Cherokee_gas_tank_retrofit

This is a good how-to, but they installed the Cherokee tank in a wagon, not an SX/4.  Would be nice if there was a good replacement for the stock tank!