The day before, I had finally gotten through the registration and all the legal stuff on the car. I took it for a drive across town to McDonalds's for lunch. In the way there, I stopped at a gas station and filled the tank. Walking back to the car after eating, I saw something dripping from under the front end. The tank was leaking profusely.
I was going France the next evening and desperately wanted to get the car done, and go for a drive with my whole family on Saturday. I had one day left. So I stayed up late Friday night and yanked the tank. I carefully drained it, vented it and brazed up the pinholes. This was about the 5th time I had removed this tank. Prior to this, the petcock was leaking, I put it together wrong, etc. etc. I was damn tired of removing the tank, I wanted to make damn sure it was fixed this time. So I rigged an air line and pressurized it to about 15psi. I sprayed soapy water on the outside and found many more microscopic holes that I otherwise would have missed. I brazed them up, re-sealed the outside, and filled the tank with water and left it overnight. Next morning there was nary a leak.
So I re-installed the tank, and on a super bright, sunny Saturday, my wife and two kids drove out to the next town to an ice cream stand (yes, the kids had to finish their ice cream before getting back in the car). I got waves and stares and compliments at red lights. It was wonderful.
I had managed to abscond
from work a new digital camera that I was taking on my trip "for business
purposes". Before I tucked the car away when I got back, I parked it in
the front yard and took some pictures.
The pictures below
are shown as thumbnails, click on them to see a full size image.....
3/4 view, front [1024 x 768 px]
Interior/dash, from driver's side [1024 x 768 px]
Interior/dash, from passenger side [1024 x 768 px]
3/4 view, rear [893 x 529 px]
Rear w/vintage MA plate [1024 x 768 px]
Driver's side [918 x 494 px]
3/4 view, front [809 x 518 px]
Underside, right rear [1024 x 768 px]
Engine after a minor detail job July, 2000
