1955 Chevy Fuel System - How To Get Gas

If your tank isn't already equipped for a breather, you will need to install one. When working with any type of 90-degree fitting, always make sure there is enough clearance for it to thread in before drilling the hole. We then drilled the tank and welded in a threaded bung. Once you're done welding a steel or stainless steel tank, be sure to do a pressure test (or at least a leak check with water) to ensure there are no gaps or pinholes in your tank before filling it with fuel.

We installed the breather tube (which will accept a ball-check breather fitting) close to the sending unit so we would only have to cut one small access hole in the trunk floor.

With the original filler neck filled, we began planning where to place the new filler neck. Those black lines indicate the left and rear edges of the tank under the floor. By using the fuel tank mounting strap bolts (arrows) as a guide, we determined the exact center of the fuel tank below. Roy decided to mount the fuel filler in the center of the floor. If you're going to store luggage in your trunk, this might not be the best place for it, but Roy generally drives a roadster so he packs light. We placed the filler as far back (closer to rear bumper) on the tank as possible to make it easier to access.

We marked the center of our filler neck location and drilled a small hole through the floor right down through the top of the tank, which was pressed up against the trunk floor. This way, the filler neck will be perfectly centered in our trunk floor hole.

The tank was removed from the car and then, using our small hole as a pilot, we drilled a hole the same diameter as the outer diameter of our new filler neck.

The rough edges were cleaned up using a burr bit to ensure a perfect fit for the new filler neck.

A hole was drilled in the trunk floor using the pilot hole we drilled earlier, and the edges were filed smooth. The diameter of this hole was determined by the diameter of the drip tray shown in step 6.

While we were busy cutting up the trunk floor, we measured for a fuel sender access hole. We took measurements to the front and rear edges of the fuel sender in the tank based on the location of the filler neck.

We measured the width of the sender opening, and double-checked the depth of the opening to create the dimensions of the access hole.

The measurements were transferred to the trunk floor, and we cut out a square opening with a cut-off wheel after marking the outline of the fuel sender access hole. Here's where all of our diligent measuring paid off. The filler hole is centered over the tank, and the fuel sender access hole matches the indentation on the fuel tank for the sender and the breather fitting.

We used this preformed drip-catch for our trunk floor to protect the carpet from drips once the car is upholstered. We checked the fit of the fuel neck with the drip-catch in place just to be sure everything lined up before welding anything in place. We also determined how tall the filler neck should be.

The filler neck was tacked in place at the appropriate depth and the tank was then removed to finish-weld the neck in place. The finished neck puts the top of the cap flush with the top of the drip-catch bezel, and there is plenty of room for insulation and carpet between the trunk floor and the top of the bezel. We will also add a drain hole to the drip-catcher before final installation.

With the tank completed, we turned our attention to mounting the filter and the pump. We used an Edelbrock electric fuel pump and a Fram canister filter. We fabricated some simple brackets to mount each unit to the frame, and we added some rubber cushions to the fuel pump mount to dampen the sound.

The fuel filter should be mounted closest to the tank. Although it came with a bracket that could be mounted directly to the frame, we raised it up so it didn't hang beneath the framerail, which required us to make a simple mounting plate.

We simply transferred the holes from the supplied mounting bracket to a piece of 1-inch strap with a center punch and copied the width of the supplied bracket. We then cut the ends and punched 3/8-inch holes according to our center-punch marks. The bracket was then tack-welded to the top of the 'rail until the final position was determined.

The fuel pump bracket was slightly more complicated since it required two mounting screws for the filter, and three separate mounts for the rubber standoffs. We sprayed a piece of 1/8-inch plate with Dykem and transferred the mounting holes for the pump. We then punched three holes for the standoffs in an equilateral triangle around the mounting holes for the pump. We cut the plate in roughly the shape the holes made and then rounded the corners.

We welded two studs into the plate to make it easier to remove the pump once it's attached to the frame, and bolted in the rubber mounts to make sure everything fit properly. The pump will be mounted next to the filter, making sure there's enough room between them to install and service the fuel line.

After marking the frame for the fuel pump-mounting holes, we drilled and tapped the frame to thread the rubber mounts directly into the framerail and then mounted the filter and pump. We installed fittings and hose ends to get an idea of how we were going to route the fuel line, and we marked the fuel tank (note the "X" on the right corner of the tank) for a new pickup location.

In order to install a new pickup, we removed the tank and drilled a hole for the new pickup tube. We used a stainless pickup tube supplied by Tanks. Since it is mounted in the side of the tank, we needed to bend it at an angle to reach the bottom. We marked a line on the tank as a rough template.

The pickup tube was bent with a tube bender until it matched our mark on the tank. Once the tube was formed, we welded it in place before reinstalling the tank in the car. Next month we'll cover the installation of the Russell braided fuel line and fittings.