25/3/18

Had a bit of an explore around the fuel tank area in readiness for tank removal (necessary to facilitate welding repairs to the boot floor. Swept out the rusty fragments and sprayed penetrating fluid on the bolts. They all came out easily enough with use of the socket extension and some arm stretching. Three of the bolts are hanging on because they are held in place with square nuts which sit in a recess and when they loosen they drop out of the recess and just spin. I think I will try again with some mole grips, but it’s a bit of a stretch being under the car and in the boot at the same time. I also undid the fuel line and disconnected the power to the fuel pump.

As an aside, earlier I pumped a can full of petrol from the tank by running the fuel line into the can and leaving the pump on – this was to re-fuel the lawnmower. I also labelled the loom in this area as this will need to be tidied out of the way for welding.

I checked the exhaust and having released the manifold, realised it was only held on right near the rear with one hanger. So, I now have an exhaust lying on the ground except it cannot be removed because the manifold will not fit down through the engine bay. Decided I probably need to therefore get a cutting disk and cut the exhaust pipe somewhere at the front so I can pull the manifold up and out. It means damaging the exhaust, but where the manifold fits to the twin downpipes the bolts look well rusty and it is cheaper to cut the pipe than cut the manifold.