The car is a '83 camaro and its being stripped down to go on the top of an American style diner here in the U.K

The interior has been completely stripped out and so to has the engine bay leaving the shell ontop of the suspension .

The car is now at an acceptable weight but due to health and safety , the gas tank must be removed. having lookd underneath the vehicle and seeing how rotten the suspension is , i dont really want to go down the road of removing and replacing it so my question is this.

is it physically possible to cut away enough metal from inside the shell to remove the tank from the top, and has anyone ever done it?

thank. craig

 

I'm unsure if i have posted in the relevant section ????

 

I think you would be cutting a rather large hole in your floorpan, even if the car is just a decoration.

IMO, you should just cut the straps holding the tank in. It's just two metal straps, and if your careful, it shouldn't be TOO dangerous.

I think if you just hack off the suspension bolts and replace them when you are done, that would be the easist route.

 

yeah my concern was that the hole would have to be huge but i thought i would put the question out there.

Really i'm just looking for the easiest way to get shot of the tank , i'm dong a favour for the guy whose brought the car and need to get the job done ASAP.

looks like there is no real short cut and that hard work is the order of the day , the suspension really is rusted up ,.

 

you would essentially need to cut the entire hump out of the trunk area.. or atleast the top of it anyway. Then you'd need to cut the filler neck from the tank because it runs under the rear "frame rail" out to the fender.. In all honesty, and this comes from someone who has removed a tank, you picked one of the harder cars to remove a tank from..
cutting may be easier, but seems like it'd be much more hazardous..

 

Remove the heatshield (if it has one) cut the 2 straps, cut the fuel lines and cut the filler neck. Without that filler neck on it, it should be easier to get out from the bottom.

 

thanks guys,

I'm doing the job this weekend so i'll post how i get on

 

well i completed the job in 3hours , with a mate, and i dropped the tank as if it was going back up , thought it might be good practice for if i need to do it on my '87,.


WHAT A PAIN IN THE ***

trying to manipulate the filler out the way to get the clearance to drop it was a nightmare.

 

About how long it took for me. That stinking filler neck just would not let the tank drop till I just bent the sucker. After sticking the tank back up in, I had to bend the filler neck back into it's original spot.