When I embarked on this car restoration, I knew there would be unexpected challenges. The consistent theme of fuel and rust together is the most unexpected challenge to date.

About six weeks ago I received a replacement fuel tank from BluntTech after consistently changing fuel filters and constantly seeing rust sediment in the carburetor. Before this, I’d replaced the fuel pump and flushed the fuel lines. I’d had enough!

Then two weeks ago the fuel sending unit that had been on back order finally arrived from Kooglewerks.

Then the weather was finally cooperating, so last weekend I decided to siphon the remaining fuel from the rusty tank. The plan was to quickly swap them. Plans don’t go as planned.

The siphoning didn’t go great. I’d siphoned out about 2 gallons (of ~10), got impatient, and muscled the 3/4 full 60 lb tank out of the trunk space.

Oh look! A rusty hole! Dang, that’s ugly.

This is not ideal. This means I can’t quickly swap the tank as planned. This means the project was put on hold for another week.

Yesterday morning in the gloomy and blustering 35 degree Omaha weather, I started working at the rusty section to see how bad it really is. These rusty spots can be a bigger issue than initially thought. Turns out I didn’t have the tools needed to do the cutting I needed to, so some Lowe’s gift cards leftover from Christmas were put to work.

I decided to purchase the Dremel 4300 in lieu of an angle grinder at this point in time. I’ve read that it’s supposed to be able to cut the thin metal I’m working with and also will come in very handy in doing spot rust body repairs in the future. It’s not battery operated, which is a huge draw for me. I’m not sure why every power tool needs to be battery operated these days.

That’s where the project sits. I was able to wire wheel away some surface rust. In the end, no matter what I do with the rusty section for now, I’ll clean up and re-prime the area.

As for the rust solution, I’m going to take a ‘full fix it later’ approach so I can get this thing on the road and have some fun this summer. I have some other body work that I know I’ll need to address in the future, but that won’t be happening until the new garage goes in. I plan to learn to weld, which is horrifying on a couple of levels.

Anyway, for now there’s only so much I can do in my garage with one outlet, zero lighting, and a partially inoperable overhead door. So I’m focused on making this summer fun as much as possible on the road.