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Mal, part of my problem is that I don't have any water in my workspace, so I guess I have to get it rolling again (with brakes) so I can tow the car over to our shop at work where I can use the pressure washer. But I cut a strip of .020" aluminum and probed around the edges of the water jacket today. The jacket has sticking points along the edges, like it's sort of welded, or more likely crusted, to the block. So I'll cut a longer piece to try to work my way deeper along the edges and get the jacket loose, then it should pull out more easily. Just needs some convincing.

And confirming the sludge in the far end of the jacket has made up my mind to pop out the freeze plugs to more thoroughly clean things out, when I get the car over to the water. But that's not hard so no biggie. I hate to be this far apart and not fix stuff that is easy to get to while I'm here.

So when it gets warmer outside I can quit marking time on tinkering and get some stuff done that is holding up a lot of the other stuff.

And today the temp got up to 44F! Bikini weather. So while the rest of the populace of sunny Fargo was hitting the beaches (well OK, muddy sugar beet fields) I was able to open my hangar door and air out the place. Which meant that I should do a bunch of nice weather things, but also I took the opportunity to drop my gas tank since I had fresh air and wouldn't blow up the place with my propane heater.

What a surprise, the tank was full of really foul-smelling former gas (reminds me of my oil rig days) and a large amount of rusty sludge. Time to take the tank to someplace that can clean it up and seal it, the closest Renu outlet is in Minneapolis which is 250 miles away so I'm polling the troops on other good options. I have a strong recommendation for a place in Bismarck (only 200 miles away!) which is not bad because my wife has been driving over there every week to visit her dad who had a stroke and is in rehab. Well, that's bad but you get my drift on the location. But you'd think there would be a good place for this here in th big city, so we'll see what the car club guys say.

I washed out an ice cream bucket (gallon) of rusty sludge from the tank, there is more in there but might as well let the pros take care of that. And I'll be studying the blogs here for fuel sender options since my float was full of gas, which was OK since the thing is rusted solid anyway. I hope the estimate on fixing this tank is less than $500, since that's about the cost of a new one with shipping from Kanter.

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I had the local radiator shop in Billings boil out my gas tank. I then ordered the magic tank sealer stuff from Eastwood and did the tank myself. That was five years ago and no issue. Just be sure to follow the directions exactly. As long as the tank is nice and clean, and you pour out all of the excess sealer, it will work nicely. I'm betting that you have some tiny holes in the tank if there was any gas left in it over the years. It seems to attract water, which attacks the metal right above the level of the gas, causing pitting and rust.

I would try that unless the cost of boiling and resealing approaches the cost of a new tank.

Expect the Renu process will cost almost as much as a Kanter tank. I think I've heard around $400. Like David, I also took my tank to a local radiator shop. Don't know the exact price on the tank only as it was part of a batch of stuff but am thinking it worked out to around $75. If the tank needs a lot, then I would probably go with the repro over the Renu.

Kanter has correct repro senders for $95 but it you shop you can find Ford senders for a little less. 57-59 Ford & TBird is the sender to get but as mentioned elsewhere, apparently Ford used two sizes of tanks. While the mount on both Ford senders and electric end (around 80 ohms empty, 10 ohms full) is the same as Packard used, the arm length is different. If you get the Ford sender, verify the arm is exactly the same as the Packard. One version is right on, the other is shorter. If you wind up with the the short version, verify the range and stops for full and empty works out to be the same as Packards. If not, arm will have to lengthen and configure to match Packard so the full and empty spots will be the same.

If you just need a float, new are available from many Ford places.

I'm a bit worried about the amount of rust in the tank, not sure how thin the thing is inside there. There is one spot that looks like it might be a pinhole on one side, too. So when I get a chance I'll call around for opinions.

How does the sealer application handle the pickup tube inside the tank?

I'll have to free up the sending unit to check the travel, it's rusted tight.

How does the sealer application handle the pickup tube inside the tank?

Usually not a problem with sealer getting inside the tube although it might be a good idea to give it a blast of air when you finish sloshing just to be sure.

The one thing you absolutely do not want to do after draining the excess out is leave the tank laying flat with the bottom down to cure. The remaining sealant will eventually puddle in the triangular depression where the pickup tube open end sits and block it tighter than you can imagine. If that happens, it is a bitch if not sometimes impossible to open the tube. Let the tank dry at an angle so the excess will flow to one of the sides.

Good thought Howard, I'll make sure that is discussed with whatever vendor I use to reseal if I don't do it myself.

Re: HA's 52 200 Grey Ghost

Well it has been really busy at work and at home, so I haven't gotten much time to work on things. But I've been plinking away at little things right after work, bead blasting parts and generally cleaning things and repainting. Tonight I cleaned up the air ducts and heater core box that I had removed from the firewall. I have to make new seals for the flapper valves, they are just seal materal sandwiched between two steel pieces.

I got the oil lines off the exterior of the engine, they were really on there. I'll see how the lines clean up, if they're dingy then I can make new ones. I am going to install a new oil pressure sender just on the theory that the old one is, well, old. And those are pretty cheap.

The local big car show is coming up in a couple weeks so I will get a chance to talk to folks who know more than I about vendors etc, like the gas tank and interiors and the like. It will be fun to go with a purpose for once, instead of just as a tourist.

Last night I ordered a wiring harness, so when that comes I can start working on getting that tailored to this car. I took my cue from BigKev and got a GM harness, why reinvent the wheel.

And yesterday my water pump came back from Gould, looks great and it was a very good price. I was going to order a kit and do it myself but the retaining pin was rusted off, and I couldn't figure out how to get it out. The guy I talked to at Gould said they see that all the time, so I said he could see this one too. Their price wasn't that much more than a kit would have been.

I saw in this month's Hemmings Classic Car magazine the new reproduction gas tanks Kanter is selling either complete with new sender, gas cap and other items needed, or the tank without the sender and cap. Price looks reasonable compared to the cost of having it cleaned and relined.

I can't find that ad on the Hemmings website, don't get the magazine. Neither Kanter's website nor their latest catalog mention the new tank, although I've seen mention of it here from Jame's blog I think, he would know since he works there.

I do see ads on ebay from tomsclassic which is an outfit in MN, their application chart says it doesn't fit my car but the same part number applies to all of them that year, so it should be the same.