Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

[M Towsley]

Hey guys,

I received the following question from David, he is the guy who builds the nice Taylorcraft metal parts. From the pictures I found the dents are there for clearance. Thanks in advance.

Hello Marty,

Hope things are going well. I need some help, I'm building a new aluminum fuel tank for my Taylorcraft. I have the original tank it is in very poor shape, so I decided to build new. I have copied the old tank perfectly, but ran into a clearance problem with tubes that form a upside down V from the windshield to the firewall. The old tank has a depression on both sides of the upper part of the tank to clear the tubes. But it looks like that was damage from going up on its nose years ago. So my question is do those depression's belong there. I had a steel tank but it was sold and I don't remember if it had those depression's.
Can you shed some light on this for me with your Taylorcraft expertise.

Thank You
David Wenglarz

[woodmw]

Re: Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

Dents are for clearance. Without them, tank won't go up far enough for filler neck to protrude. I bought a new tank from Wag and one dent was off by about 1/2". We had to do some massaging to get it in.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

Marty: a poor photo, but you might see in the left-hand corner the dent to which David refers



I think the forward face of the tank (against the firewall tubes) may also be dented for those tubes, even though the forward face of the tank is bowed to minimise "oil-canning". I can certainly remember re-installing felt strips to prevent potential chafing.

Hope that helps,
Rob

[M Towsley]

Re: Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

Thanks guys,

Rob, I gave him the UK site and a picture of your tank installed in the airframe. I will forward this info to him. He just hates having to dent a perfectly good, newly made tank, which I can understand.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

Marty, I've looked through my photo archives (most of them are unpublished), but unfortunately I have none further of the fuselage tank. But I do have better-resolution versions of the ones you've seen, if that'll help. If they are needed, I can email them.

Rob

[M Towsley]

Re: Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

Thanks Robert, he seemed happy with those. I also found another picture online of a BC-12D tank I sent him. Much appreciated!!!

[M Towsley]

Re: Taylorcraft Main Tank Clearance Dents

David asked that I thank you guys for the help. He will send me the results when done which I will post.