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Fitting My Falcon's LPG Tanks & Doors
Widening Rear Wings   

     

 

Bonnet catch


To get the catches to stand vertical without cutting the bonnet I made stainless steel wedges to stand on the wings.

 

Gas tank frame

The tanks for LPG are sited where the original petrol tank was located. Why? There has to be a minimum ground clearance which setting them in this place comfortably gives, and I did not want to loose either the boot space or the rear seat space by fitting the tanks there. 

The new frame was welded into place before the petrol tank frame was cut off so that the bumper mounting bar is in exactly the same place as originally made.

 


Gas tank frame and 1tank


First tank in place. The tank is supported in two shaped cradles and clamped down with shaped top bars.

 

Gas tank frame and 2 tank


Both tanks fitted

 


Gas tank in boot

The boot is fitted over the gas tanks and an inspection hatch cut into the boot floor. An aluminium plate forms the hatch cover. Each tank must be isolated by an electrically operated solenoid valve and the multi-valve units in the tanks mounted at exactly 30 degrees.

 

Front end gas
At the engine end a regulator is mounted vertically and in line with the car for best performance. High pressure gas is fed in through another electrically operated solenoid valve and low pressure gas is fed via a splitter into each carburettor. 

The petrol feed also has a solenoid valve so that both gas and petrol cannot be fed into the engine at the same time. The engine coolant is fed through the regulator to heat the gas.

 

Near Side & Off Side Door Panels

To make space for the seats which are marginally wider than the CBU the door panels are made to use the gap between the door panel and the outside fibreglass skin.  

 

I started with making the panels in cardboard, then covered them with resin before applying 2 layers of fibreglass to both sides. 

 

Space was made for a bottle/flask in the n/s door and for a cloth and squeegee in the o-s door.

 

The o-s door panel picture also shows the tread strips I have made from stainless steel bar. The rubber insert strip will be glued in when the car is finished!

 

Petrol tanks


Replacement petrol tanks made from stainless steel fit under the floor-pans on each side. This is approximately the same volume as the original tank and still not less than 6.5 inches ground clearance.

 

 Widen Rear Wheel Arches
For Fitting Wider Wheels


To accommodate the wheels I wanted (wire look-alike) I had to widen the wings and rear arches by about 2 inches. 
1
Shows wheel fitted before widening.

 

2 

The wing mounted on aluminium spacers. 

 

3 

Three layers of fibreglass were applied from the top in a u-shape to hold the spacers and give a form for filling and shaping. I used cling-film on the car so that the fibreglass did not stick to the body.

 

 

4 

The u-channel thus formed was filled with expanding foam filler, which was then 
5 

Trimmed to shape, approximately ¼ inch below the desired line. The foam was then resin-coated and then

 

6 

Filled with a base filler (pink) and final shape with a cellulose putty (grey).
The rear skirt had ‘V’ inserts each side to make it the right width for the wheel arches and also the rear bumper. (see rear lights picture 1)

Rear lights 1 –2


I made backing plates from the base of an old pressure cooker. 
The plates fix onto the body-work and then the lamp units bolt onto the plates. Note the ‘V’ shape inserted to the rear skirt to widen it to match the widened arches.

To keep the rear lights clean I intend to fill over the moulding. This means that once done there is no rear-access to the light units.

 

 

Photo 2.

 


 

 

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Safe Driving All the Best Regards Robbie 
 

 

 

 

 

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