Today I set myself the target of making and installing the Boot Floor.
I had 'found' a nice piece of 2mm sheet aluminium to make the floor with. The original floor had been a piece of 12mm Far Eastern plywood which had seen better days.
Despite me lowering it by 6mm the fuel tank still seemed to stick up about 12mm too high. I was reluctant to lower it any more. My answer was to put a 'power bulge' into the panel, that served two purposes, firstly to accommodate the fuel tank and secondly to strengthen the boot floor.
I used the English Wheel to raise a rim around the affected area, by 'tipping' the sheet while pushing the metal through the rollers with little or no pressure on the metal. I had never done this before so I was pleased when it seemed to achieve what I wanted. After I had raised the area, I stretched the area above the fuel tank by rolling it to a slight crown to help it relieve any stresses in the panel and to help push the power bulge up a little.
This seemed to work well enough with a little adjustment and fine tuning. So I went on to bolt the panel onto the chassis and cut an access hole for the fuel pipe connections and sender unit.
The peculiar colour is from the protective plastic film combined with the fluorescent lamps in the garage.
Made a small cover for the access hole. Will probably fix it with stainless self tappers.
Tomorrow I plan to assemble and fit one of the cylinder heads.