Replac... Restoring my 60 Gallon Fuel Tank

[zMadMechanic]

I'll have to follow up later with pictures/videos, but I finally succeeded in 'restoring' my fuel tank!

Only took me a year...

FYI - the original 60 gallon & 80 gallon tanks are unavailable new. There is no replacement. I tried several 40 gallon tanks from a standard P30 chassis, but no dice (they are too tall).

What started me on this journey? Well I bought a 1986 Chieftain 27 last September and drove it 2 hours home... only to realize a rather signifcant fuel leak coming from the return line. Problem is/was it was leaking in a section of line that runs on top of the tank. There is/was zero access without dropping the tank. I dropped it only to discover it was in much worse shape than I thought... multiple pin holes in the bottom and heavy rust pitting b/c some idiot undercoated it years ago without the proper prep work... thus trapping all the moisture against the tank. Sending unit was trash too because same idiot (I assume) covered the entire thing in an epoxy-like substance which similarly trapped moisture.