Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Garage => Topic started by: Gary t on Friday,April 02, 2021, 04:16:59 PM
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anyone that has an aluminum fuel tank do you have ant idea what thickness of sheet it was made out of?
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I made mine from 2mm but I suppose with careful attention to where the brackets are attached for mounting the tanks you could go thinner, especially if you made a few folds to strengthen it up.
I picked 2mm because I hadn't welded Al before and wasn't sure I could manage with anything thinner. Plus I wasn't bothered about weight saving, it was the non-rusting aspect I was interested in. There's still a slight weight reduction, density of steel is 7.85 against 2.6 for Al so 1mm steel=3mm Al. (very roughly)
Brian
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I had a Banks alloy tank & it kept splitting when half full over bumps, that was 1.5mm, next one will be 2mm & baffled.
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I had a Banks alloy tank & it kept splitting when half full over bumps, that was 1.5mm, next one will be 2mm & baffled.
Out of interest, where did it split ? I would honestly have thought 1.5mm would be ok if the mounting brackets had a spreader plate to distribute the load.
Brian
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on the welds as far as i can remember, the 2 main panels flexed when half full
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heck, that's surprising, I wouldn't have expected that with only 0.5mm less.
Mine aren't baffled and the base/sides are rock solid. I had one out a few years ago and even the mounting brackets (which did concern me) were fine with no distortion.
Brian
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I hillclimbed / sprinted my S2 for a few years besides driving it like I stole it every time I went out in it, nowadays I have a tank manufacturer who will remake it for me
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Germany knew how to make tanks that resisted splitting.
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Gavin, somehow I don’t think that tank is in line with Chunky’s edict to add lightness! ;D
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Gavin, somehow I don’t think that tank is in line with Chunky’s edict to add lightness! ;D
To be fair, Chunky wasn't contemplating invading Poland, either. :D