Removing Propshaft and Emptying Fuel Tank (an overdue update)...

There's been little done in the way of work on the car since last year. I could bandy around the usual excuses, but the fact is that when I have the opportunity to jump on with the car, motivation is thin on the ground, and I'd rather put it off for another night to relax on the sofa in front of the telly.

I'd like to think that I've found a new untapped resource of motivation recently, as I've started working on the car again - however, as the saying goes, "one swallow doesn't make a spring" - so I wont hold my breath.

Besides the current stuff I'm doing on the car, there were a few things that I did on the car that I didn't get around to posting up on here. So, consider this an intermediatary update before (hopefully) some steady progress on the car results in some regular posts of decent progress, and the metal / rust ratio, start to favour steel.

So, the last stuff done. My dad came around with another pair of axle stands that he had saved from the skip at work (the bolts used weren't original and so they could be certified to the SWL they were designed for) and so we got the car off all of its wheels and up at a height that it was much easier to get under the car. I need to replace the crossmember and so need to remove the prop shaft (the gearbox is out anyway).

Lubed up the bolts holding the prop to the differential...

Then it came of pretty easily...

Next, i wanted the handbrake removed as this was bolted through the floor, onto the top flange of the crossmember.

 

Remove the nuts that attach the brake cables to the handbrake 

 

 Lubed up the thread/nut that was holding the handbrake to the crossmember

I tried to soak the screws to remove the fuel tank, but i couldnt get them out without removing the boot floor. Instead, I thought I'd just drain the tank instead.

When its finished, the car will be prone to its own problems without trying to persevere with the original fuel tank like this that turned petrol into this...