Fuel tank support straps

[cass3958]

Fuel tank support straps.
When I rebuilt my S Type four years ago I used as many of the original parts that I could to keep originality and to save cost. Now with a little more money in the pot I am going over some of the items I patched up to see if I can replace them with new items. One of the items I patched up were the tank straps. All four were corroded and two had snapped. With the use of some aluminium strips and a rivet gun I was able to remove the corroded sections and replace with good material. Now four years on I want to replace them with new so looked online and was shocked at the cost of them. SNG want over £60 per strap and below are the prices from Martin Robey. No wonder the cost of rebuilding our cars has gone up so much.
BD25253 RHF TANK STRAP £54.06
BD25254 LHF TANK STRAP £54.06
BD25255 RHR TANK STRAP £49.00
BD25256 LHR TANK STRAP £49.00
Me thinks that as I have some stainless steel sheet in the garage I might be manufacturing some new ones myself using the old as a template. Another job for the New Year.

[Glyn Ruck]

I fortunately had one good set out of 3 cars! They should be stainless steel at that price.

Priced a new tropical radiator recently? £714.00 inc Vat. And I complained when I bought mine.

[cass3958]

They should be stainless steel at that price.

You would think with an inlay of gold leave but no just plain old mild steel. Oh and the rubbers are all extra!

[Jose]

make them out of leather.

[Glyn Ruck]

make them out of leather.

Even if this was a good idea how are you going to tension them against the grooved rubber blocks the tanks mount on?

[Jose]

hot rodders use leather, not metal...
same principle as bonnet leather straps

http://www.hotrodleather.com/index.php/ ... traps.html

[Glyn Ruck]

Won't work easily with hanging tanks. Tensioning will be difficult. The original design is far better. The rubber mounting blocks are only held in place by strap tension.

[Albion]

Anyone has got an idea with regards to paint colour for fuel tanks? This is what mine look like.

[Orlando St.R]

Anyone has got an idea with regards to paint colour for fuel tanks?

I bought one new one from Martin Robey, which was black, and the other one was refurbished and came back black. It didn't occur to me that they might be any other colour. The photo I have of the original in my car before refurbishment shows it mostly rust-coloured, but there are hints of black on the bottom. That could be the original dealer-applied underseal, I guess. See what you think.

GUV_2014_07_02_IMG_2780.JPG (3.46 MiB) Viewed 2992 times

When you see tanks for sale on ebay, they are almost always black, eg:

ebay-fuel-tank.jpg (226.9 KiB) Viewed 2992 times

[cass3958]

All the ones I have seen are black but with modern paints you could have it the same colour as your exterior car colour. What I would do and have done is make sure you give it lots of coats of paint. Starting with an anti rust, then lots of stone chip and finally any colour you want.
If you are refurbishing your tanks can I recommend that you put a layer or two of fiberglass and resin on the leading outside edge of the tank as this is the area that is exposed to the dirty coming off the back wheel and is where almost every second hand tank I have looked at has been perforated with rust. I have just replaced my right hand tank with a good one I bought at Stoneleigh last year but I made sure I did the above before fitting it.