FB ute chrome and fuel tank repair

[rusted]

Hi ,
I went and had a look at the display on sunday at Narrandera with the kids.It was great to see all the cars.There was lots of good stuff there.
I noticed that the majority of utes and vans had painted guage cluster instead of chrome along with the rear tail light surrounds and front headlight bezels.My old fb ute has all this in chrome.Is this normal ?

Also has anyone replaced the top in the ute fuel tank?Mine is ok on the bottom and holds fuel but the top has a few holes and some bad corrosion.Turns out there had been a hession bag left inside the spare wheel cavity which held the moisture for a number of years.

I was thinking of removing the top with an air chisel to let it vent out and wash with detergent before putting a welder or the gas near it to solder a new top on.

Has anyone blasted the fueltank and used fibreglass on the top to fix the holes with success?The insides are nice and shiny and I thought if it was blasted and then coated with fibreglass and the matting whether this would be a good longlasting repair.Some of the holes are the size of a 10 cent coin.

Suggestions please?

cheers
Rusted

[EKjimmy]

utes only came as in standard form, so painted instrument cluster was normal-over the last 50 years im sure either a dealer or previous owner has put a chrome special cluster in your ute to dress it up a bit.

not sure what to do with the fuel tank, still waiting to do mine

Jimmy

[reidy]

Be very, very careful when trying to weld fuel tanks as residual petrol fumes can cause an explosion with catastrophic results
Better to rely on experts to do any repairs to fuel tanks. If it costs a bit more it is money well spent.

[blue ute]

Utes came out with standard trim, ie painted guage cluster, rear tail light surrounds and front headlight bezels & no arm rest on the doors - but they do look much better with chrome

[bootlegger]

I weld up fuel tanks all the time. Before you cut the top off stick the filler tube over an exhaust pipe of a running car at fast idle. Leave it there until the tank is too hot to hold in your bare hands. You should be able to weld it up after that without blowing yourself up. Ive done hundreds of them that way. Even a tank that hasnt had fuel in it for years could still have residual fuel trapped in the seams. The exhaust gas purges it all out.
I heard about a scrap guy cutting himself wide open (he died) oxy cutting lids off rusty 44 gallon drums in Balmain.

Ive cut the top off my Van tank to do the same thing. I got it sanblasted while it was apart.

Good luck Dave

[artyfartymarty]

dont use epoxy, it reacts with the fuel solvents