2015 Project Thread!

I can sympathize with the lack of funds. I have similar circumstances, but look at it as an opportunity to plan things out. I ususally use that time to make things that I need, like the testing devices and the light. Funnily enough, the light I made is not even in my possession, somebody else is using it. The MATCO guy was interested; I reckon he’s hoping no more of them appear in the shop…
Yeah I’d burn the fuel level down low and get that pump changed just to see if the fuel pressure drop goes away. I think you’ll be ok. I used one from O’Riellys, it was made by Carter, it lasted quite a while. It got to where as long as the car was running; it ran fine, but if it sat overnight and you did a cold start, it was a buggar to get it to turn on, I thought it was the ccrm, but it was the pump instead. I may have damaged it when the baffles in the tank went south, when I did a long hard right with a low tank, the pressure would drop and the engine would begin the stall. It wasn’t noisey till the end, but only on occasion. I had to hook up a test light and a fuel pressure gauge to find it, the light stayed on when cornering…….then in the mornings while cycling the key, the light would come on, but no pressure or noise, dammmm, replaced pump, problem gone.
How much more time do you have before you set it up for the winter. You may find that someone sells braided lines for an SN95. Why do you guys have a shortage of SN95’s, I would have thought they were plentiful due to the rust? I used the lines and rear brakes from a 97 model, v6/8 are the same.

Haha, that's funny about the Matco guy.

Yeah, I really hate pulling the tank. I'll bet I've done it 20 times or more...

Sometimes it doesn't snow until December. Some paranoid guys store their cars away in like September just to be sure, but I think that's just silly. Those are the same guys who don't even keep their cars that long because their short attention span moves on to something else. In the end, it wouldn't have made any difference if they'd gotten any salt on that car because it's the next guy who's benefiting from it now. Stupid. Me, if things are relatively dry and warm, I'll bust my car out in January and take it for a ride. It's not perfect, and it's proooooobably never going to be.

Junk Mustangs are held in high regard here. For one, they don't sell as many because of the climate, so there's fewer of them around to begin with. They never appear in junkyards because guys hold on to them and sell the parts for a mint. Especially brake parts. Everyone knows you can upgrade a Fox with SN95 5 lug brakes and axles.

I remember in the mid-'90s when I had my first car, a '79 notchback Mustang, there was a whole row of Foxes at the local yard. I've heard the '90s was really a drought in the car hobby, when I came of driving age. Now that the car hobby has really taken off again there are very, very few. I think because of all those fix-up shows on TV, Barrett-Jackson and eBay and everything, people just want to cash in. I'd rather buy brand new parts for way too much money than support those money grubbing opportunists. Me, I almost always give my parts away.

Anyway, it doesn't help that I don't have many car connections locally either. You probably know tons of guys that have rows of cars on their property working in a Ford shop.

wow that's crazy, I was given 3 mustangs, the others were all 200 dollar cars, true they are worth more in parts, then that cash was turned into parts for my car....we are lucky here in this area of AZ. no salt, no snow, just dry rot.
youre right about the shows, people think turds are gold coins.

I'll bet also, the rise of the "winter car" has made a difference in the number of Mustangs being junked too. No one drives their Mustang in the winter, even if it's a stripped down V6 one. That happened about the time the SN95 cars were starting to move on to their second owners. I used to see rusted out Foxes all the time, but rusted out SN95s are a rare sight even to this day!

Even the housing boom may have contributed to it. Everyone just HAD to buy new houses at the beginning of the century, so they all have room to store junk cars on their property, rather than living in a crowded inner-ring suburb or urban neighborhood. Everyone decided to make all their dreams come true RIGHT NOW and put them on credit. Big pole barn shops with hoists and everything... I know a guy that has just a regular I.T. job and he has like SIX late modelish cars, and room for EVERY one of them in his garage. It's HUGE. And there's a hoist, of course. And he just lives in a newer suburb, not out in the country or anything.

I have had a good life, but I never dreamed of having so many cars because I had a life, however I always bought and sold, traded, bartered etc. if I worked from home I'd have to have premises elsewhere, one car in the drive is about all I could suffer, I cant stop working if there is something that needs doing, however this year has been tough on me......I want to do a lot, but the funds are not there.
i' hate to live near someone who makes a lot of noise revving up engines etc, at one time we all used to do woodwork of some kind, but the guys have either died off or moved, it was a really social group, even though my social skills are lacking!

Yeah, that's just silly to have so many cars at once. I had a lot of cars when I was younger, but not at the same time! When I wanted a different kind of car, I would sell the one I had first. What a concept! I didn't have 2 cars at once until 1999 or so, and not consistently since then.

What I really don't understand is some of these guys on Four Eyed Pride that have like 9 cars that don't run, and a couple that do. Why?! That would drive me crazy! It drives me crazy when my ONE project car doesn't run! That would just be overwhelming. And there's more than one that has a '69 Mach 1 among their "fleet"! Sorry, but if I have a '69 Mach 1 that needs work, the Fox bodies gotta go!

I'd like to think we live in a pretty nice suburb, but we even get revvers here. One neighbor has a driving age kid that just bought a late '80s Chevy truck. They're ALWAYS wrenching on that thing. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. There are a couple neighbors with obnoxious-loud cruiser type bikes too. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. If the thing's not running right, get it fixed for f*** sake!! You know those things are just loud for the sake of being loud. It's stuff like that that makes me hate bikes. I'm just not a bike guy, what can I say. I'm not a pickup guy either. There's a guy down the street with a diesel F-350 that roars in and out of the neighborhood like SIXTEEN times a day. What the f*** are you doing going back and forth back and forth back and forth?! WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I've decided he's a drug dealer making deliveries. He's a young guy so he shouldn't be able to afford a truck like that. It's stuff like that that makes me want to quiet my car down too. I know there's at least a performance advantage with my car being loud, so there's an actual REASON for it, but still.

Yeah though, what's it like to know your neighbors? I wouldn't know. hahahaha

I would hope the other cars were donors for one good Fairmont, the Mach1 would definitely be the GEM, even if it was a clone….i know in the Chevy world, there are more Z/28 on the road than were ever built. But a single real or cloned-up MACH1 is worth more than a truck load Z/28’s to me. I’m not much into following “the crowds” same color, same wheels etc.
I think I’m happy, nice wife, nice son, good dog, nice house, good job, a few good friends. I tried to save for a rainy day, and when it came, what a relief, life has been good for the most part for our family. I don’t need to have a loud exhaust, burn rubber at every opportunity etc. yeah I’d like to have a fleet of cars to work on if I was a billionaire, but there were be a good selection otherwise things would get boring fast. But I also have other interests.
I see no reason to speed in the neighborhood, that’s just plain stupid. What if something goes wrong……..i would like to get a good stereo, that that's always low on the priorities, I'd rather have a mirror with an electro-chromatic compass in it, yeah I know it's dumb......

Yeah, I'd have no problem with having a Mach 1 clone either. I just wouldn't go telling people it's a Mach 1 if it's not. There's a guy my dad knows that has a nice red one. He thinks it's a Mach 1. It isn't. There are two telling signs to me. For one, it has the "MUSTANG" badges on the front fenders, in addition to the Mach stripes. And also, it doesn't have the "MACH 1" badge on the passenger side of the dash. I say the previous owner slapped the Mach stripes on a regular sportsroof and pulled a fast one on my dad's friend, haha.

I saw production numbers recently and they made a ton more plain sportsroofs than Mach 1s. What I want to know is, where are they all?! All you ever see are Machs and Bosses.

I pretty much only play my stereo loud on the highway.

Clones of that nature are allowed, there were only so many mach 1 (or Z/28) made, what pisses me off is everybody having the same color wheels etc, get a life.
I question the fascination promoted by speed parts catalog like major 2, and hot rod magazines etc with GM products, not every FORD hot rod is a stripped-down 32 model. While true I am a fan of many makes and models, I find it painful to purchase a hot rod mag full of chevies. There is a show on TV called graveyard cars, they deal with CHRYSLER cars, it’s a good show to watch if you like CHRYSLER cars, and a good restoration show. There are a couple of other shows that are good also.

While true, not every ford has survived due to crashes, rust, etc, there is still a pedigree that exists, when the mainstream public thinks about a hot rod, they think GM, Camaro, Chevelle etc, nobody wants or remembers the falcon, thunderbolt, cougar, maverick, LTD, Torino Duster, dart, challenger charger,
etc. they say that the parts are too expensive for ford and other engines, I say lose that stupid chrome if your that hard-up….

True a 10 yr old could rebuild a chevy engine, I think it was a good engine, but I liked the 327 better, (remember the 327/375) also back then you could put a the correct journal sized 283 crank in it and make a 302!!! I remember the 307 engine, it was crap just like the 4.2 liter ford engine….the 289 351, 302 460 and others like the 340, 383 magnum 428 HO etc are still sought after in the real world.
Its all good, just like an all Fairmont magazine would get boring after a short while.
however I am quick to render a compliment when deserved because I still believe in innovation and imagination, and some guys really apply talent, not just money. I don’t like to run any guys project down because it just aint nice; what if I need a jump start one day…..
I had a guy who was having his ego stroked at the gas station about his Camaro, no doubt he could have blown my Fairmont away (probably in second gear) my reply was Benson is 26 miles away and straight, Tombstone is 16 miles away and has some awesome corners and hills, I prefer Tombstone, but it’s up to you…..thankfully no reply; silence is golden………… I felt guilty of being the a-hole at the party, but it was deserved. Tons of money and horsepower picking on a lowly ugly Fairmont with a stock 4.6. I suppose if it came down to it, I could have followed him and waited till he overheated and gently passed by…..
My favorite reply to “what’s it do thru the quarter” I usually say “it makes more noise and the a/c cuts out”.
If a guy wants to race his car, Tucson is 70 or so miles away, and there is a good race track there that gives time-slips. If I drove my Fairmont there, I’d have to sit in the damned thing the entire evening and miss all the races in case the tow truck driver tried to haul away another junk car!
I love cars and having fun, if I was a millionaire, I’d probably do the same stuff; have fun, maybe I could do a couple of Bob Glidden clones one in red and one in blue, (I prefer the blue stripes)…..he was and still is a wiley old fella. Hy maybe even a couple of “animal jim’s” Zephyrs, one in red one in white, what famous two cars that you rarely hear of, read up on animal Jims zephyr “Zeke”.

Yeah, sometimes I see pics of those cars in the Facebook Ford powered Fairmont group. Animal Jim himself is even there. I'm just not really interested in professional racing and never have been. It's cool that there are Fairmont driving heroes out there. I just don't like the "race car" look. Even if it really IS a race car, haha. I don't like big 'n littles... I don't like cars covered with stickers... I don't like stripped interiors... and so on. But if you just did the stripes, that would be cool, haha.

That's funny about waiting for his car to overheat. And very true. That's why I don't like cars with ridiculous horsepower either. The only way to get that is to make it no longer usable as a car. Screw that. He probably assumed you were packing an LS turbocharged within an inch of its life. Because isn't that what EVERYONE does with Fairmonts?

I've seen Graveyard Cars. I'm not a Mopar guy, so I'm not interested. Sometimes I do try to get Mopar guys to commiserate about Chevy being so dominant in the aftermarket performance world, but they usually end up dissing Ford just as much as Chevy guys do.

I always get mad when I hear guys talking about how much more expensive it would be to build a Ford (usually trying to rationalize putting a Chevy engine in their Ford). I mean, no, I haven't personally done a side by side comparison, but I know that's a myth. One that the Chevy guys are only too happy to perpetuate.

Car Craft annoys me pretty often. It's about every other issue I want to cancel it. Chevy, Chevy, Chevy, Chevy, followed by Chevy. Does anything else really matter? YES! Plus, why don't they have that many readers' rides anymore? It's always like ONE stupid late model Camaro or some crap. Muscle Mustangs and Fast Fords is cool enough, I guess, but the feature cars are almost always some impossible high-dollar build. "Guy gets 4,000 horsepower out of his 2013 GT!" Yeah, so what? Endless money can do a lot of things, but what about the rest of us?

I like to have something I can paly with, chop/change-chop change. the thing I like about graveyard cars is that they care about the customer, and getting it right for whatever reason. I cant afford their cars, but I like the principle.
I like the Fairmont body style, something about "lines" I don't get tired of the style, I still think its cool even today. I just wish I had another one that I could take my time on, but "her indoors" would turn into Dracula or something and go for the jugular.
one day i'll wake up with a plan not derived from boredom, but that requires growing up, and I don't know if i'm ready.........that involves clear thinking!

yesterday I made a battery operated 80 watt led inspection lamp using a coffee thermos that we cant find the lid for with a silver colored metal liner and a piece if discarded black & decker three wire extension cord that was dumped off in my bay. obviously its a lot smaller than the last one, but its a lot easier to use under the hood, under the dash, and would be great for changing a tire. I am using all three wires for a high/low output, don't want too much light some times. it doesn't get hot as I heat soaked it all afternoon. I just wish I could find a cap/lid so I could cut the center out and make a lense cover.
the first cable I used was speaker cable, It is plenty heavy enough to carry the load, I was just worried about it getting damaged, so I opted for the extension cord, a bit heavier and bulkier, but should last forever.
originally I fitted an accessory plug to it for use the accessory plug in the car, then I started to think not all cars have one, so using spade connectors, it is wired to use accessory plug or alligator clamps.
I had to stay at the nest, because the wife has been coughing up blood again, and we don't have a pulmonologist here in tow and have to wait till Monday to see hers in Tucson, unless it gets worse.
I went to our new local hospital, nice big place well manicured laws etc, but no pulmonologist. no clear message what to do, but they could take her in the ambulance if necessary. basically its still the same hospital, just new premises that is only fit for cuts, burns & scrapes..........trauma center???????

I've been watching more Garage Squad lately. I like it because their builds are very down to earth. They have to do it all in the owner's garage, so pretty much it's just about fixing what's broken, and some modest upgrades. Mostly the kind of stuff I can do, or would do given the choice. No completely redone bodies with all new metal and crazy expensive paint jobs and all-custom interiors. Usually their criteria seems to call for bodies and paint that don't really need anything. And at least there's the possibility there'll be a Ford on it, unlike Graveyard Cars. I keep joking with the wife it would be fun to try and get them to come fix my car. My story just isn't heartwarming enough though, haha. Stacey David wouldn't bother with me either, haha. I bought the car only 10 years ago, and pretty much the only reason it isn't a well-oiled machine is because of some stupid mistakes I've made. It's all about learning though, I guess.

I started crafting a letter to Car Craft. They recently had their staff turn over and they have a new editor who's always asking for input. Oh, I've got some input for 'em! Muscle cars are beyond the budget of their blue collar audience. They should move on to '80s cars.

I hope your wife feels better soon.

Your new light sounds pretty sweet. You might try a thrift store for the cap you need. I've bought a few more LED bulbs for the house. Seems like they are growing in availability and varieties. I finally got the LED bulbs I've always wanted for the stupid microwave lights that burn out every couple of months.

you have got stop running yourself down, we all make "mistakes" change plans, re-engineer, alter things. the good thing is that these ideas are your own, not from a kit or copy-cat, whats wrong with that.
yeah garage squad has a week to complete. they do some good work, and I like that, I don't see it on the TV anymore, but they do a fair amount of thinking and that's good, it's not just loads of stuff out of boxes. I'd like a job like that, but they'd fire my ass....
you are right about the magazines and affordability.

we're off to Tucson on Wednesday.

Yeah, you're right. It IS all about learning, and there definitely was not an easy recipe for putting one of these cars together. Sometimes you just have to go with what parts fall in your lap, whether they're the best ones to use or not. I do try to guide people wrestling with the same questions on one of these cars when I find them. Maybe I can save them some of the headache I've dealt with, but I suppose people do just need to learn on their own in the end.

You know, it occurs to me, you have an automatic in your car. AODE or 4R70, right? What did you do for a crossmember/tranny mount arrangement? What year is your car?

A few LTD LXs have turned up for sale in GOOD shape for CHEAP! like less than I paid for my car! Man, that would have saved me SO much work if I'd started with one of those instead! Kind of a fun "what if", but I'm not veering off the path I'm on now. WAY too much invested in my car.

I've been doing some caliper shopping for when I do my brake swap in the spring. I was thinking maybe I could try and use my different style calipers as cores. I wonder if they would even accept them. For example, I would trade my front '99-04 style calipers for the '94-98 ones I would buy. I wonder if they'd be okay with that. Couldn't hurt to ask.

I hope you guys get some good answers in Tucson.

well, the good thing, is that there are some forums with good info out there now.
I am using the 4R70W trans, and mount from the 97 mustang. I had to drill out the spot welds that held the original C4 trans mount brackets.  
It went pretty good, first I put the AJE crossmember  and front suspension in, I set the engine in the crossmeber, all went well.
Then I bolted the trans to the engine, the trans tunnel had to be modified with a hammer to give room for the neutral start switch, and get the trans level with the car, and allow for fitting the trans mounting crossmember.
Once that was done I hand tightened the trans cross member to the trans mount  and once it was all lined-up, we welded in the trans mount brackets to the body.
I used a new solid trans mount from a 91 crown vic, as the mustang mount was too thick.
I’m thinking that the smaller/tidier 99 up trans mount would have been a better choice, but I didn’t have one. All my mustangs were 97 & below, so I used what I had.
I’ve not seen the specs on the calipers, but so far I am happy with the PBR”S, no problems. I’m pretty sure you could unload the PBR’s, however; most parts guys would not notice so long as the box was full.
I like the PBR, twin pistons, low drag, excellent heat transfer, light weight  ETC
I did have to change the transmission yoke on the driveshaft, but that was easy, funny enough the first u-joint I got was faulty, which was very apparent.
You may like to get moving on one of those LTD’S for your son……….

Oh, okay you moved the brackets. That's cheating, haha.

Well, the problem is that I was hoping to buy calipers online. They most definitely DO look in the box. I guess I don't have to buy online though. I suppose a rebuild is a rebuild.

Haha, good one. We're supposed to store another car for 12 years while he gets old enough to drive it. Ain't gonna happen, haha.

Well, I went to put gas in the Zeph yesterday, and it did its old trick again. Big puddle of gas on the ground. Seriously, what gives? I really have NO idea. Every dang thing under there is new! And I think it's coming from the top of the gas tank. How does gas rise from the bottom of the tank to the top to leak out like that?! It has to be magic! There's hardly any gas in it when this happens. Maybe 3-4 gallons at the VERY most. All the seals are new, the tank itself is new, the vapor valve thingy is new... I'm fairly sure the vapor hose is unobstructed... and it's also new... And yet, we have a magic leak. Man, I was steamed about that one. All these years, all these new parts, same old problem.

The gas station pump nozzle is always shutting off if you don't hold the trigger just right. That's never worked either.

At least I have to pull the tank anyway to do the pump, but still. I have NO CLUE what's causing this problem.

well I had to change the mountings for the ATX because the 4R70W length is a little longer, I think the AJE cross member also brings the engine rearward.
s c a r e y....fuel leaks..........
when you take your tank out to put the pump, here's a good idea....
run the tank dry with the existing pump, it doesn't matter if it runs dry. the purpose of this operation is to remove the tank with out any chance of spillage so you can see if there are any fuel stains on the tank or return lines.
if you don't or cant see any stains, take the tank to the radiator shop and have them inspect and reseal it, it would be a waste to have all those new LED's melted, I've seen cars that had burned down from fuel leaks, it aint pretty.
definitely strange, are you ever filling the tank full or just splash and dash.
is this intermittent?
there may/has to be a vent concern if the filler nozzle keeps cutting off, I don't know what type if filler pipe you have single large pipe or 2 smaller pipes going into one.
new doesn't mean anything, it just means that it costs more and should be clean.

Yeah, the fact that you can't just pump gas into it has deterred me from filling it up. The last time I pulled the tank (2013, I think) and tried to address this problem, and then went to the gas station and still had the nozzle click off right away made me pretty mad too. I'm sure you were there for that one too.

I've been thinking for a while that the carbon canister and purge valve could have something to do with the venting problem. I seem to remember though the last time I brought it up, most people said that couldn't be it. I don't know. I might throw new ones of those in just to make myself feel better.

My filler neck is from an '82 Futura. So that would have been the different style tank. The flat kind that didn't have the cutout for the spare tire. You can tell the angle is a bit different. Maybe it's sitting really cockeyed in its hole/seal. The reason I went to that filler neck was because it fits in the smaller diameter filler neck hole in the LTD wagon tank I'm using. The original Zeph filler neck was a larger diameter. Anyway, you probably remember, I've tried all kinds of things with the filler neck. I had one that was cut with a rubber hose in the middle when I was trying to get my Mustang tank to fit better, and all that. I'm trying to track down a proper LTD wagon filler neck now. No idea if that's going to help, but plenty of other guys have LTD wagon tanks and don't have this problem.

if you're concerned about the carbon canister being blocked, disconnect the hose and let it vent to atmosphere.

I'll try that when I go to test things. I had a guy suggest using shop air to mildly pressurize the system and then listen for leaks.

that is NOT a good idea!! a good Idea would be to use a smoke machine, let me think.......
what year and model LTD wagon is your tank from, maybe I can look a photo of the tank up on line to see what may be happening, is the pump on top, does the pump have a round seal like an o-ring, or flat on the top and bottom.
splashing fuel vapors can escape if the pump seal on the top of the tank is bad/distorted because if air can escape, so might fuel splashes, remember fuel is a solvent....that's why a smoke machine would be best, I don't have one..........
when you drop the tank, you may see fuel stains.

Here's a pic of the tank, passenger side view.



Pump is on top w/ round o-ring.

What do you mean by fuel is a solvent? There's splashing in there so violent that it can splash out the top? I can barely do more than a trickle coming out of the filler nozzle or else it clicks off.

I had a guy ask me if fuel could be coming back up the filler neck. I think it might be. the puddle appears right about where that hose is that lets the plastic box between the filler neck and body drain. It also could be coming from the front/top of the tank itself though. I didn't have a flashlight with me this last time, so I didn't look that closely. The filler neck I have DOES have the split for air to come back out, but I'm thinking maybe I have to hold the filler nozzle so far out just to get it not to click off, fuel might be going down both passages. And if there's nowhere for vapors to escape, the pressure in the tank is forcing fuel back up the filler neck.

The thing that stinks here is, the only way I can "test" this per se is to go to a gas station and pump gas into the tank, which makes it all the more difficult when I go to pull the tank out.

i'm thinking that the if the filler neck matches the "era" of the tank, it should be ok. does the filler nozzle click off as soon as you start pumping, or does it pump a while at full speed then click off.
I thinking that if the nozzle shuts off right away it must be a filler pipe concern, does the fuel pool-up in the filler neck and spill-out.
once again I made mine from a ranger filler neck, a rubber hose that goes into the tank, a piece of exhaust pipe custom bent at the exhaust shop, and a piece of rubber hose that connects the filler neck to the exhaust pipe.

It clicks off almost right away. I wasn't watching that closely to see if fuel was coming back up the filler neck and pooling in the plastic box thingy then draining out the little hose. It probably was. I usually just watch the gallons number to see how much gas I'm putting in. I usually don't add more than 3 gallons at a time.

If it's an issue with the filler neck, what could it be?! Something blocking it? Admittedly I've never stuck anything down it to see if it's blocked or anything. That's about the only thing I could imagine would cause what you're describing. Wouldn't that be stupid if it WAS blocked? After all that? Shoot. I guess it certainly could be. The fuel pump assembly I got from that same junkyard had become the home of some wasps.

Sorry for the delay in a decent reply, but migraine season is upon us, and I had to work like a crazy person to get the hours up at work.
I kind of think this may be a filler neck issue, I know that sometimes parts are bad or don’t work correctly, but as you say the filler nozzle clicks off right away, I suspect the neck.
It kind of sounds that way, this doesn’t mean the neck itself is bad, it could simply have a blockage.
Here is a ‘john” suggestion, it may work, it may not, as you don’t have a smoke machine to test for leakages, try this. You always have to improvise in this life…..
Go to lowes/Home depot/Ace hardware and get some chalk for the string lines used by carpenters, black, blue whatever, just a dark color, not white.
Get a spray bottle, fill it up with water and spray the suspected leakage areas. Try to dowse the suspected leakage area with the chalk.
Let the solution dry.
Once its dry, head on over to the filling station and start pumping, when the leakage appears, stop pumping, pull the car away and sit a spell before crawling under the car (coke & Cheetos come to mind).
Once it’s safe, crawl under the suspected area, and look for trails, this may lead you to the source of the leak if there is one.
If it looks like it’s coming from the spill catcher in the trunk and running onto the ground, it’s almost got to be a venting issue or length issue with the filler hose or pipe. I had to wrap a piece of tape around the filler pipe, to gauge how far in the pipe/hose was going into the tank, to find it has right up against the pump….
as winter is coming fast approaching; you could drive the thing down here and leave it in the care of our nonexistent /unrecognized clandestine workshop division, and pick it up in the spring. nothing like a dry winter storage. we could send you some "go-pro" footage of the progress and further recommendations. it's up to you.....there's one hell of a dyno-tuner in phoenix....we also have an award winning detailer.  
i'd try the chalk/water solution first, unless you want nightmares.