The original felt padding on the two upper side panels just behind the seats has deteriorated beyond use. I picked up some nice soft sponge weather stripping (one side sticky) that fits nicely and seems to work fine.
Upper side panels in place and T-tops finished and installed. Time to get at the fuel lines.
The rubber boot around the gas cap is old, hard and dry. It split getting it out so that’ll have to be ordered.
Some minor surface rust. Not too bad overall. the ground connection might be a problem. The two rubber gas line extensions leading to the tank filler connection are what I want to replace with ethanol proof hose. Super tight spot to work in.
I managed to get the short pipes off the tank connectors, but there was no way to get at the inner clips, remove the pipes or hope to get new pipes in place. I did find that if I reached up behind the tank from under the car I could pull the two pipes over just enough to get access.
I measured two short lengths of 1/4″ and 3/8″ ethanol proof pipe and slid them over the exposed pipes and installed the clips. I would have been easier to use gear clamps as there is little room to get pliers in to squeeze the clips. The pipes are actually bent to the rear and I had to over bend them forward to get them to line up with the tank connections.
In the end the ground was so rusted that it broke off. Not a problem. I removed a bolt from the tank filler housing, sand blasted it and connected to it with a new U electrical connector on the bolt. The bolt’s fixed washer needed to fit flush with the housing so I slipped the connector between the bolt head and the washer.
New pipes clipped in place. The emissions system pipe on the left also needed to be replaced. I managed that with a set of curved long nose pliers through the gas filler opening.
An order in from Summit Racing. A Fel-Pro steel beaded gasket (.015 compressed), a few bottles of Lucas Zddp and four AC Delco oil filters.
To be sure of the gasket fit I matched it up to the new gasket – here the old one is on the bottom. All the holes matched up as they should. Soon time to get back to the motor and get the top end back on the block.
Next: Finishing the gas line work and on to the exhaust