Hot Rods Gas Tank Stuck will not come down

Hi All,

I feel like a super newb for asking this, but, I have a 1965 pontiac bonneville that has junk in the tank.

I removed the vent line, feed line, fuel level sending wire and ground wire, I then supported the tank and removed both straps.
I lowered the jack, and, the tank just stays up there. I removed carpeting in the trunk to see if there were any fasteners but there is nothing. I pry on the tank but it does not move. It also seems to flex the bottom of the trunk when I am prying on the tank.
Almost like it is either rusted in there or got epoxied in there.
Am i missing something or has anyone else run into this?

 

Spray a few cans of brake clean between tank & trunk ,, tar matt has it stuck !!

 

Use a heat guy or hair dryer and heat the trunk floor, if it is the tar mat, that should free it up.

Ray

 

We just did this same thing on a '66 Bonneville, and sprayed PB Blaster and used a heat gun as eddy and Ray have suggested. The owner was convinced there was something else holding it up and was pleasantly surprised when it came out.

 

Some cars have thick strips of sticky tar paper stuff under the gas tank, agree that solvent and or heat should break it free.

 

Hmmmm, gas tank. Heat.

Do be careful....

 

My Thoughts exactly!

 

Yes..... Please....

 

ALARMISTS!! No one suggested putting heat gun/hair dryer into the neck of the gas tank...though that likely would dislodge it..........the floor of the trunk, and the presumed tar paper barrier between the the trunk floor and tank body are not likely to transfer enough heat to ignite tank fumes....but, just to be really safe, fill the tank with water. That will purge the fumes and the extra weight will assist in breaking the bond between the tank and trunk floor.

edit: put a support of some kind under the tank if you do the water thing!

Ray

 

Don't drop the hair dryer in the water or stand in the new puddle you made filling the tank.

 

Gotta share this one: Many years ago was scrapping out a rusty Dodge Conversion Van, had the extended fiberglass roof so you could almost stand up in the thing, the table that converts to a bed, ect, ect. After salvaging everything I wanted I chopped the hoses, wiring and straps but the gas tank just wouldn't budge. I tried screwdrivers, pry bars, demolition bars, you name it, nothing worked. Finally got out the 6' long pry bar made from a Dodge front suspension torsion bar and went mad-monkey, having to jump up and down on the bar before the gas tank would let go. What held it in place was about a dozen 3" long screws that went through the plywood, the floor of the van and right into the gas tank. The van had been driving around like that since new.

 

Fill the tank with water and take a nap underneath. It will wake you up.

 

Have another vehicle running use garden hose from tail pipe into gastank to burn off fumes

 

Or take some really positive action, and stick a lighted torch in there...thanks Ray, I needed a good laugh this morning

 

The good old conversion/too long a screw in the wrong place syndrome. I have seen one go through the wiring harness behind the dash, but usually found them jamming a widow regulator or scratching the windowand/or the window tint. This subject could make a good thread on it's own...and make a good technician want to slit his wrists.

 

Junkman. WHOA really? and there were no gas fumes?? That's wild. Bruce.

 

thanks guys tomorrow i will try heat on the tar, i can see the tar so shouldn't be a problem

 

Oxy-acetylene will make quick work of tank removal.............

 

"Fill the tank with water and take a nap underneath. It will wake you up."
Yes. It's just waiting...it knows eventually you will crawl back under for a look-see. Simple physics...I can't remember its number in Newton's laws right off. A heavy car part that mysteriously refuses to come off will release instantly once you get your head under it. The EMT's will drag you out by your ankles, sliding the tank out so you...ummm...
could have worked on it.

 

LOL Sunday I helped a kid change a fuel pump in a late model Chevy truck. All the weld nuts had broken loose on the bed and I was no where close to home so we decided to use a cut off wheel and cut a hole in the bed floor (which should have been there anyway), the tank was about half full. The kid says, "is this gonna blow up?" I said, "probably not but I haven't been blown up in a while sooooo." Nuthing was gassing out so I wasn't too concerned but even if it did I had the bed floor between me and the tank.

Gasoline usually takes some pretty serious heat or a fire to ignite it.

 

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Ain't it interesting how we've had electric fuel pumps for at least a decade now, and the U.S. mfgr's haven't added an access panel to the beds of pickups. I have seen a few panels in cars and SUV's, but.......

Roger

 

Yea actually my '88 S-10 had electric in the tank. No access panel.

This kids truck now has an access panel, but I just about imagine that the pump will outlast the truck.

 

I have a buddy that does a lot of demo derby cars. Out on his farm, he has a tractor with a bucket, and a tree stump about 2 1/2' high. For many years, he would put the back bumper of the next demo car on the stump with the tractor, and slide under the car with his cutting torch and cut the gas tank straps along with a few other things he did with every demo car. One time, he had a late 70s GM car on the stump, and slid under it with his torch. As he cut the 1st gas tank strap, the explosion blew him out from under the car. He was knocked out for 3 days when he woke up in a hospital bed. He was lucky.

It seems that one tank had some rust holes in the top, and a spark from cutting the strap got into the tank and ignited the gas in the tank. He no longer cuts the gas tank straps with his torch.

The point is, sometimes a hole in the top of the tank is not detectable until its too late. Be careful cutting around gas tanks. You may not be as lucky as my buddy. Gene

 

Is the spark from a spark plug "pretty serious"?

You can extinguish a match in a bucket of gasoline. It's the vapor you have to worry about.

 

Actually, it isn't the liquid gasoline that is so volatile, it is the vapors that ignite...
but where there is liquid gas, there are vapors.........

Ray

 

Anyone remember Mr. Wizard on TV back in the 60's? He demonstrated the liquid vs. vapor thing in a pyrex beaker one day. He had an electric spark ignitor and submerged it in gasoline to demonstrate that liquid wouldn't burn. Then he pulled it up in the vapor above the liquid and... WALA!

So, as a10 yr. old kid, (no one was home) I thought I would duplicate that experiment in the attached garage of our new house. I put a couple cups of gas in a 2 lb. coffee can, threw a stick match in it, and it went out. I tried it again just holding it above the can and it lit right up, just like the TV show.

Then sudden panic hit!!! How am I going to put this thing out!!! What if the house burns down??? I grabbed an old 45 record player (in a little plastic case) and set it on top of the flaming coffee can, and it went out!!! WHEW!!!

I could have, should have, gotten an @$$ whoppin', but I never told anybody...

It did melt a nice ring into the case of the record player.

 

There was an older neighbor kid down the street who must have seen the same Mr. Wizard show. John was always impressing the neighborhood with his pyro skills, he had recently torched an electric guitar with a lighter and a can of hair spray, ala Jimi Hendrix, and set the can of hair spray alight also. Kids ran for their lives before he got it put out. Well, on this day, he decided to demonstrate extinguishing a lit cigarette in a cup full of gasoline. Not being quick enough, it set the cup of gas on fire. He jumped back on knocked the cup over so now there was a flaming puddle of gasoline on the floor of his garage. Just then his mom pulled in the driveway. Thinking quickly, he grabbed a sack of quickrete and threw it on the burning puddle and nonchalantly sat down in a lawn chair. His mom knew something was up from the look on everyone's faces, but no one dared tell.

 

these stories i feel like i missed out on the good old days of being boys.

Nowadays liberalism doesn't allow these fun things to happen

 

Which is why kids today don't have any common sense, they never had any real life experiences. Just Fing video games.

 

When I was a kid in Alaska, my dad would light a pan of gas and slide it under the oil pan of my mom's car. Of course, it was 20 degrees or less. He said it would barely burn.