I took the easy way out and I regret it. How much HP can it handle now?

 

as long as you didn't cut the whole deck out its fine and won't really matter.

 

It's more about being in an accident and fuel getting in the car

 

This. ^^^^^^
I wish GM would have put an access panel in these cars but I'm sure it wouldn't have been cheap to do with all the new crash testing needed to make sure it was safe. Since the panel would be in a crumple zone, I doubt it would fly. Esp wouldn't with some of the hack jobs I've seen on FB.

 

 

No, no you can't. Unless you make a stiffening ring and another piece that can in no was separate from that piece, the stiffener would have to be fully welded all the way around and the mating piece would need to deform with the stiffener. You're only asking for problems in an accident.

My car was hacked before I bought it, and I didn't find out until later. I would always smell fuel in the car on a hot day. It is absolutely the WRONG way to change a fuel pump since you have to cut through the fuel lines and there is no way to get a proper connection on the lines after being cut.

There is a reason most OEMs do not put a fuel pump access in the car, liability.

 

Winner winner chicken dinner. Some of the excuses these shade-tree mechanics come up with to go the easy way is just painful. "New cars have em," "Car isn't worth anything," etc etc. The fact of the matter is that you are creating an additional hazard in event of an accident. Poorly done jobs can also create fume/carbon monoxide issues during normal operation.

 

I didn't even think about CO. When I did the overhaul in my car, I ran out of time to weld the hole closed again, but I "re-sealed" it as best I could, but even with the windows up and sitting at a light I can smell exhaust sometimes.

 

Lotsa 12 oz curls; maybe some empty heaves.

Oh wait... you're asking about the CAR body?

Yeah definitely need to seal it up against the exh gases getting into the car. I can tell you from personal experience, members of the other sex (I'm assuming you're male... therefore I speak, in general, of females) will ABSOLUTELY not even get NEAR the car, let alone INTO it, and even more remotely, will LIKE it, if it smells of exh gas. Any hole in the body will leak that into the vehicle if not properly sealed. These days, in addition to making certain the hack job is at least sealed back up, I'd be checking the welds around the wheel wells, esp on the pass side starting at the spare tire well and going forward from there.

 

The carpet in my 88 has a heavy plastic backing on it, can't imagine any fumes getting through that the car. That tank and fuel pump setup is about as poorly engineered as anything I've run across. Except maybe the alternator on the mid 90s Olds/Lumina with the DOHC engine with the alt. underneath the engine.

 

Find one in the scrap yard, and Sawzall the rear deck panel from the donor. Fabricate a suitable patch panel from the donor metal. Use “nutserts” for a clean job.


https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aaf-all19465

.
.
.

 

the only way to truly make an access hole in a thirdgen work and function correctly is to drop the tank and weld the access door in which defeats the purpose of even doing it since you'll already have your tank dropped lol

 

I agree with the school of thought that I'd never cut my car , and since it's just like that southpark movie "bigger , longer & uncut" , it's gonna stay that way . But , what of the folks who had the decision already made for them ? Folks who bought a car that already WAS cut ? Well , the TGO member "Tibo" had that very situation and produced one of the best access hole repairs I've ever seen . Yes indeed he DID have to remove the tank to properly repair the butchery so there is no real "quickie painless no/low effort" way to do this right , but when given lemons the dude made the best lemonade I've seen and any of you with poorly hacked access holes really oughta look up his thread on how he fixed his .

Now , for those whose cars aren't yet cut , since the tank 100% absolutely HAS to come out to do the pump the "factory" way , and since it also HAS to come out to do a proper access hatch , ask yourself this ; "If I'm gonna have to take the tank out anyway , why not just buy a good (read = expensive compared to buying by the lowest possible price) pump and do it the right way , since a good pump will likely last longer than most of the rest of the car , and save all the fabrication time of properly installing a hatch ?"

In all reality , with a good pump , how may times ARE ya gonna be changing it , once in the car's lifetime ?

 

I wrote out a nice long and informative reply but then I thought the best reply would be to post what you did and we can comment on how to improve what you have done.

And thanks for the kind words OrangeBird!