So naturally, I was pretty blown away by this tremendous offer from
@agne2520 - but I was not too bashful to
immediately say "Yes! I want that...."
Well, wait - it wasn't immediate - I had just mailed a check to Montana Overland (went out the day before) to buy one - which now I wouldn't need, after all. So I called that vendor, and asked him to "cancel" the sale - and shred or return my check when it got to him. He was very kind about it, and agreed. He hadn't pulled the tank yet. So
THEN, I said "Yes."
And so Agne and I worked through the details, and he agreed to build a crate, and he shipped it via Fastenal a few days later. We set it up so that Fastenal billed me directly for the shipping. (Which was a lot, but that's definitely OK.)
And in due course, I got this
BEAUTIFULLY built crate! I was pretty impressed with the workmanship. And the tank inside was very sound.
Everything on the tank was carefully braced and supported and cushioned. Really well made. Wow.
In fact, I turned that crate on its side, added a shelf, and converted it into a cabinet - which now holds various painting supplies, including the "patina recreation department" stuff. And I have positive thoughts about Agne every time I go to it.
I really tried - repeatedly - to get him to take some money for the tank, and his time and effort to build that crate and take it to ship it to me, and so forth. But he firmly would not. Willys Karma....
Then we had some Forum discussion about the presence of what appeared to be TWO sender holes on the top side of Agne's tank (his name is actually Brian, but I'm stuck on Agne in my head). Nobody could say why they were there, it wasn't a normal thing to find - it was ust kinda weird. We concluded that somebody musta needed to use a second/replacement sender, couldn't find the right size, and just made a new opening. Who knows? Doesn't really matter. But we talked about it, to see if it was something that maybe
did matter.
October 21, 2020:
"... Agne2520 (my new Best Friend! haha) and I were talking about this gas tank, and we noticed that on the top side, his tank (1951) has what appears to be TWO openings for sending units. And my 1948 tank has only one.
Does this mean anything to anyone? Why would there be two of them? I thought possibly this was something that was done on tanks that came later than my '48 - but can't imagine a reason.
I don't really care - it's on top and will be invisible, but it IS curious.
Anybody have any opinions?
Here's my tank, with just the one opening -
And Brian's tank, with two - "
And then I learned that Agne's tank - from a 1951 - had a somewhat different inlet filler pipe than my original tank. So that "Early style Tank" must be only for 1947 to 1950, after all.
I was planning to take it to the radiator shop, and have them boil it out, leak-check it - the usual routine with such things. You might also recall above that Agne said there was an old repair which might be an issue at the filler pipe connection. So I decided to have the radiator shop remove the filler tube from my original tank, and weld then solder it to the new tank here. Two birds with one stone there. And while they were at it - make a nice round patch for the extra sender hole on top.
And I was very happy with their work. But unfortunately, their flushing process did not remove the old coating on the outside skin. It was coated with some kind of gummy, tarry, paint (?) like substance - TOUGH stuff. Which I later spent many hours scraping and rubbing away with solvents and elbow grease. Finally got it all shiny again.
So to keep our Time-line straight here - this Gas Tank work was happening slowly through the winter months, while I was primarily working on the Bed, and later the Frame refurbishment. I think it was in January or February that it was at the radiator shop. And later I would spend an hour here and there rubbing on it - instead of rubbing on the Frame! haha
And by late winter, I did the rear axle rebuild - we're coming to that part of the story - but let's finish talking about the Gas Tank while that's the current topic.
The original tanks are mounted with 3 wooden blocks (oak). And being a Willys, naturally the 2 towards the front are a different size than the one in the rear. And I needed those blocks...
March 25, 2020:
"I didn't have any oak laying around for the little wooden blocks that mount the gas tank. Then I remembered, sure I do! ... Firewood can serve many purposes....
< from memory, this was just an early mock-up below, to trial-fit the wooden blocks. I hadn't finished rubbing on the tank quite yet. I also see the axle was done and back in by then - but we'll get to that part of the story soon... >
And it was
IN there! Beautiful!
Now one last nice part of the Gas Tank story - I called Kaiser-Willys and told them I had bought a re-pop tank from them 2 years earlier - and wasn't going to use it. Still had their wrappings on it. And much to my surprise - they agreed to take it back! So I shipped it off, and they mailed me a check, a full refund.
All costs considered, I actually ended up with less money in the original steel tank project (shipping, radiator shop, etc) than what that re-pop tank cost! That was a win!