Fuel Leaks, Stripping Paint and Odds and Ends

Dateline - 07/02/2016 - 07/04/2016 - The week started off a bit rocky when I found out that the wonderful relay system that I had installed in the trunk to control flow from the two tanks leaked, badly!  Gas had been flowing down into the spare tire area and basically stripped the paint!  Here is a picture of the damage.

Paint damage done by gas leak in trunk.

So I went on line and purchased an actual auxiliary tank control valve that is a replacement for exiting valves for Ford and GM trucks and installed that.  This is actually a better solution because it is a three way valve so I only need to power it when I have gas coming from the right hand tank.  With no power, gas flows from the left tank.  I did loose the ability to shut gas off completely when the power is off, but that is a small price to pay to know that it is not going to leak!

Since the paint is pretty much destroyed in the trunk, I decided to strip it and paint the trunk with POR15, which is a very tough, solvent resistant primer.  This should seal the bottom well and be a good base for the new paint.

Another item I ordered was a replacement for the radiator filler.  The one I had was leaking badly from the overflow tube.  I purchased an aluminum replacement part that fits in the same place in the upper radiator hose.  So, while I was waiting for the paint stripper in the trunk to work, I got the engine running and hot enough to try out the electric radiator cooling fan.  Took some time to get it to come on around at 180 degrees, but I finally got it to cycle correctly.  It is good to know the fan is work correctly.  I have the manual override in the car also, but I definitely wanted these to work correctly via the thermostat mounted in the radiator.

While the engine was running, I noticed that I had a transmission fluid leak from the radiator.  One of the new lines I created did not seat correctly, so I had to put some more turns on the fitting.  I'm keeping an eye on that to make sure it is fixed.

I also worked on the Information Center circuit board.  I had to etch a new board so that the brake and oil warning lights would work correctly.  I also read that I should put load resisters in place to make sure I don't burn out the diodes, so I created a new board design with the correct changes, printed out on the laser printer, and etched a new board (see prior posts on the process here
http://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2013/03/odds-and-ends-and-odds.html
http://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2013/03/feels-like-slow-weekend.html and http://leapingv8s.blogspot.com/2013/01/not-feeling-well-but-work-goes-on_28.html).  I'm still waiting for the diodes and resisters to come from Amazon.  Here is the new board layout:

New circuit board for Information Center that has load resisters and positive power to brake and oil warning lights

I also worked on the plastic surround for the information center.  I did a 3D print a long time ago in PLA plastic, but wanted to do one in ABS because I can get a much smoother finish.  The problem is that I lost the original model I used to do the print, so I had to take one that I had modified and reshape it to the correct size and shape.  That took about four hours, but I did get one printed out finally.

Taking care of some other odds and ends, I sand blasted and painted the outside headlight bucked, painted a defroster vent I bought on ebay to replace the one I had that had a broken frame.  I also finish sanding the steering wheel which I had stripped and filled last summer, and put five coats of clear lacquer on it.  And I mounted the rear deck panel and rear speakers.  I didn't get around to mounting the center brake light yet.  I want to wait until I get the window glass in place to make sure it fits correctly.

Now I have to paint the trunk bottom again and reinstall the new gas flow system.  I also need to finish the center console fascia, but the list is getting really short now! I'm starting to run out of things to do on the car that don't require having the body panels installed.  That's a really cool thing!