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| Classic Performance Products |
| Installing CPP's Fuel Cell |
| By Jeremy Cook |
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| In the ongoing quest to build a truck that will truly tear it up on the
streets and give any muscle car a run for its money in the slalom, this
month we bring you the gas tank relocation program on our Project Road Rage.
As with any older standard cab truck, one of the goals of the build was
to get the stock gas tank out of the cab to free up some space, and also
to add some much needed weight to the back end of the truck. Classic Performance
Products has become known for high-quality products that are easy installs
on classic street trucks, and this all-aluminum, 19-Gallon fuel cell is
no exception. CPP tanks are vehicle specific, so you know it will fit like
a glove and will have all the right holes in the right places. In just a
few hours and a trip to the mom and pop auto parts store, Road Rage was
fired up with a completely new fuel system from the fuel pump back, and
a tank that not only looks better, but also will ultimately help the truck
perform better |
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| Ditching the in-cab gas tank is always high on the priority list of so-equipped
older trucks. It's always nice to free up a little storage of stereo space,
too. We made quick work of its Iremoval. |
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| The open space behind the axle and between the framerails on our subject
truck was just begging to be filled. |
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| Classic Performance Products 19-gallon, aluminum fuel cell comes with fuel
filler and down tube, brass fittings, and mounting hardware. Sending unit
sold separately. |
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| Our first step was to jack the CPP cell into place between the framerails.
We protected it from the jack with cardboard. |
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| With the tank centered between the framerails, the bolt brackets were used
to mark for drilling the three holes on each side. |
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| We then drilled the six holes with a 3/8 inch drill bit. We also trimmed
the corner of the tank mount to clear our custom panhard mount. |
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| Once the holes were drilled, the bolt brackets were slid into the frame
and lined up over the holes. |
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| Then the bolts are started from the underside. |
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| With the bolts tight, we turned our attention to the top side of the tank. |
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| The fule filler and hose were installed onto the spout with the supplied
heavy-duty clamps. |
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| Then the overflow fitting was threaded into the lop bung. |
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| On the front bottom corner we used the left bung for the fuel inlet and
plugged the right one. It will come in handy if we switch over to fuel
injection. |
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| The fuel sender must be shortened to correspond with the tank depth. |
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| Once shortened, it was bolted into the tank. Later the stock sending wire
will be lengthened to reach the new unit. |
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| We hit the parts store for 10 feet of 3/8-inch steel fuel line and a few
feet of rubber hose along with the various clamps we needed. The tubing
has been pre bent and wound up being exactly the proper length we needed. |
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| We joined the two lengths under the cab and used the stock clamps to hold
the tubing in place. |
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| The line runs out just under the step notch, requiring about 2 feet of rubber
hose to connect to the tank. We ran an overflow line back up into the
framerail. |
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| Up front, the tubing ends just under the engine mount. It took another foot
to connect to the fuel pump. |
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| Marcel and I cut out a piece of sheet metal and welded it into the former
filler hole. |
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| Then it was ground down smooth. |
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| Once cleaned up, we covered it up with a quick coat of rattle can primer. |
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| We poured some fresh petrol into the CPP cell and fired up the truck. Check
out what a perfect fit to the frame the fuel cell is. |
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