First of all, I continued with the "getting parts out of my way" strategy. The gas tank is rather a big part. It was up next. The procedure is already well established: dissemble, clean, rust paint, assemble, install.
It was almost be too easy. Of course, there had to be some deviation from the plan:
That's the filler neck seal on the gas tank. It dried up good and cracked. While I was removing it, the part almost separated into two. A quick call to Ford Parts department confirmed that they still overcharge. I had to order the part from the local Part Source for much less but with a couple of days wait. Apparently, it is a common problem with Mustangs. Usually, people notice the gas smell as the symptom. Here's the new part:
The other tricky step was the actual mounting. The gas tank has some folds of the pinch weld. Those folds are done to accommodate the Mustang mounting location. Factory Five, however, uses the pinch weld edges for mounting. Some elbow grease and pliers had to be employed to get the tank in.
I left the job half done. I still have to put the evap lines back on. The charcoal canister is still on the shelf. I also got a new fuel filter but could not find a nice spot to mount it yet. In fact, I was planning on getting a battery relocation kit which would be mounted in the same area. It would make sense to route the fuel lines and mount the filter once other parts are in place.
