Major hassles this month as it was time to rig up the fuel hose, pump some fuel through and have a think about starting the car.

With the hose connected up, a litre or so of petrol in the tank and switch on the fuel pump. After quite a while of clonking away and not pumping any fuel I decided that the location of the fuel pump high up on the transmission tunnel must be wrong. It wasn't ideal for the poor little, usually gravity fed, pump which would be struggling to suck the fuel all the way the length of the car.

I had to cut out my nice rubber mounting point I'd made as it's all been panelled over with the bodywork.

After several hours (I won't go into the gory details) I've finally got the pump mounted on a sturdy bracket at the back of the car, under the fuel tank so it should feed it with fuel.

Got ready under the car with the clamped off fuel hose and very carefully pulled off the bottom hose - bearing in mind that I'm under a fuel tank which has fuel in it and about to pull off the hose. Prised it off and instantly pushed the new one on - quite chuffed with myself as I didn't spill a drop of fuel.

Then I realised that I should have at least spilt a little bit... took the hose off and absolutely no fuel came out the tank outlet. Turns out that it has to be drilled out - I really could have done with knowing this before now having wasted my time and now facing the prospect of drilling upwards into a fuel-filled tank. Again, I won't go into the gory details but managed to do it without burning the house down.

Stuck some petrol in the tank for the 2nd time, fired up the pump and YES - fuel began to pump through and into a jar in the engine bay. Happy with the result I went to bed. Awoke the next day to the stench of petrol through the house. I had a look and the remaining fuel had leaked from around the union on the tank

The union was as tight as it was going without breaking anything (bearing in mind it's a placcy tank). I spoke to Mark Fisher and it turns out that my tank is one of a dodgy batch, he said I could swop it out or some people have had success at sealing it. I decided to try sealing it, purely as the tank would be impossible to remove as it's now surrounded by bonded in bodywork. Unfortunately the repair only lasted a week and I decided it would've been a bodge and not really good enough for a new car.

Spoke to Mark again to see what he could suggest as the tank was tightly fitted inside the bodywork. As it happens it is possible to perform the impossible by jacking up the rear, taking off the wheels, a bit of the brakes and prising the tank out sideways.

This was really really painful as I couldn't get easy access to the retaining bolts, these being blocked by the boot floor. After removing ALL of my skin from my fingers I finally got it out, and replaced it with the new tank from Mark which had much beefier fittings. This took absolutely ages to do due to lack of access at this area of the car. All in all this has been the biggest pain in the neck so far.

This is however not the end of the story in terms of disasters with petrol - see next month...

Lack of garage space - I NEED a barn
Here's the biggest bit of space around the tank - this is behind the tank and to the bodywork, as you can see - the bodywork doesn't really allow much access. You can also see where the fog light is recessed.