Monday 6th April. Fuel tanks!

 Dave Maton came up again today to help with a few things. The plan today was to remove the Mk1 fuel tank from my Green Cortina and replace it with a Mk2 version.
The original Mk1 fuel tank on the Lotus Cortina was completely rusted through and so the guy I bought the car from gave me a Mk2 tank for it instead. However, there was also a very, very rare 'tank guard' fitted to the Lotus which I assumed (wrongly) would only fit underneath the Mk1 fuel tank. (See below.) 

So, my train of thought was that because the Green Cortina has a five speed gearbox it is more suitable to be used on long journeys or events. Therefore, it would also make more sense for it to have a Mk2 fuel tank. (Because it holds ten gallons of fuel compared to the Mk1's eight gallons.)
We got the Mk2 tank into the Green Cortina, but were unable to get the job finished as a new seal that I'd ordered for the sender unit hadn't arrived. 

So, we got on with the job of fitting the Mk1 fuel tank into the Lotus and also fitted the very rare tank guard. With this done, we then refitted the secondary fuel tank which was an optional extra for Cortina's back in the day. It's actually a Mk1 Cortina estate tank, but fitted into a tubular metal frame. You can also see where the original filler neck would have been, but this has been welded shut and another filler neck has been crafted into the middle of the tank. (See below.)

The Mk1 estate tank is the same capacity as the Mk1 saloon tank, so the twin tanks on this Lotus Cortina now gives me a capacity of sixteen gallons. That will make a difference. 😊

Our next job was to start running some more new brake pipes. I haven't yet received the new pistons for the front callipers that I ordered, so unfortunately we wasn't going to be able to get the brakes finished today. 
However, we did fit the newly refurbished brake servo and ran some new brake lines from the master cylinder and four-way valve across to it. 

The brake pipes do need lining up a bit better, but time was now up and Dave had to make tracks and get home. We were very pleased with what we'd achieved though. Every bit of work carried out is a step closer to bringing this car back to life.