FH Fuel Tank

The FH trial build continues with the tank fitting and inspection. At the outset the tank looks quite good - a bit scaly here and there but little damage as found:

One of the main reasons for the trial fit is that this is a late tank as befits the bike and as such it has a single point fixing, presumably derived from BSA who owned Ariel at the time. The single mounting bolt fits in a steel 'bucket' sitting in a hole in the middle of the tank.

The hole has had a braze repair which prevents the rubber being removed at anything other than a very jaunty angle, which makes it impossible - or at least very tricky - to get the bolt in. I've ground the braze back as far as I dare with a drum sander in the Dremel.

Removing the knee rubbers is next. The drive side is fine, but the tank has a shallow dent on the timing side. I'm going to get this professionally painted and I think I will ask the repairer to sort this out:

This is the chrome trim - it needs some work to make it fit:

These are the components of the centre mount, including the bucket and the tee bolt on the left. On the right is the nut and the centre rubber, which fits in the bucket, with its sleeve. The other rubber is one of the four which fit in the tank mounting holes on the frame - Ariel didn't change the tank supports on the frame from those that had been used since the 1920s.

Here's the centre mount in place:

The tank badges are there - in fact I have four to choose from. The chromes trims they sit on are pretty good, but I will have to find or make some shorter 3BA raised countersunk screws.

All in all, not too bad. There's a weld repair needed for the bar that the chrome trim fits to at the front of the tank, but nothing disastrous.