Quote:

Do you mean the Henney-Packard? If so, it's on the Seattle Craig's List but located in Puyallup which is some distance south and beyond all the lakes from Seattle. In fact, it's just a couple miles- literally - from were I kept my 1941 Henney-Packard as a teenager in the '60s, which was at my grandmother's house in Sumner. Working on it gave me something to do when I stayed there and I would drive down in my 1940 110.

Oddly, they were simply crimped over so come loose easily. Typically we warn newcomers to grip be before trying to take out the plug but posted too late that you were working in the tank!

Once it has turned in the tank, there is not much you can do about it short of opening up the tank and soldering from the inside. I tried brazing one once from the outside but it didn't work.

I see. I had wondered if that's what it was but it sure looked like holes! I hope the plug came out easily without the bit turning that it threads into.

Typically any undercoating is put onto the assembled car so the top would indeed be bare. When reinstalling (or installing the new one), be sure it has a good ground to the frame. If it doesn't, the gauge won't work.

People seem very keen on cutting up their cars for convenience sake and, of course, it's their choice. Personally, I could not make myself cut a hole in the trunk floor just on the off-chance that I would need to access the sender. I would prefer to just do it right in the first place and expect it to last many years. Your tank will be out anyway so no point testing the old sender when you will very likely need to replace it. A new one is inexpensive and comes with a new retainer and gasket.

As for trying to repair your old tank, it appears to be in far worse condition than the one in my 1965 Cadillac which was only just barely salvageable with pinholes rather than large gaping openings. The Pinholes could be be brazed but the only way to fix a tank with holes is to cut a large access hole into it, sandblast the inside throughly, clean it out and make any repairs, and weld the hole shut again - THEN seal it. Trust me, if I could have bought a new tank it would have been half the cost of the repair but for my Cadillac, reproductions are not made so grab one for your Packard while you can.

Those sold by Motor City Classics supposedly fit better (Kanter's have a bad bend to the filler that requires a mandrel to bend to fit) and they have a notch under the filler cap that causes leaks. I've not yet tried either one so this is based on other postings made here on this site although I do have a Motor City Classics tank waiting for me at my shop.

Motor City Classics as linked above still has them and they also have the sender although the latter is difficult to find on their site. It is the same sender as used on some Ford models and is listed that way. If your tank is that badly rusted (looks unrepairable to me), likely the sender is bad to so you might as well replace both.

I appreciate it as one never knows! Some of the places I've already contacted were long shots too. I was holding hopes for one in the same state as the car which isn't a muffler shop at all but so far no reply.

There is also Waldron but so far I've not gotten an answer of whether they can do it or not. Apparently due to COVID-19 restrictions Jon has been having to work alone and is swamped so only just looked at the blueprint this morning even though I sent it to him a month or two ago.

UPDATE: Jon, for some reason, dug out their 1951 Patrician 400 template and laid it out on the floor with dimensions penciled in for each bend even though I had said several times that this was entirely different. Apparently he didn't believe me and thought it could be made from that. In the end, they said they couldn't do it which I'm sure is the result of not knowing how to read a blueprint. No fault of theirs as not everyone has that skill.

Most standard muffler shops use mandrel bending which will not work on this one. It will work for many cars but this one has a number of slight bends close together that mandrels apparently can't handle. I did write to them, though, so we'll see what they say if they ever respond! That was last week and still nothing

No, not even close but I had thought of that before I got the blueprint. The professional coaches have a full-width gas tank and no spare tire well so the pipe has a couple interesting bends and jogs to run along the frame while the passenger car's runs straight out between the well and the tank.