Part 2:
After tacking the added stretch all the way around the tank.  We moved on to cutting the end off so that it would fit nicer against the seat.  Again we used a cardboard cutout of the front of the seat so that it matched up nicely.  We then cut the area out.

Next we traced the end of the stretch onto cardboard to make a filler panel.  So there is not an open hole at the seat.

Next we welded on the the filler panel and did some finish welding.

All that was left was cleaning up the welds, rust off the piece and making sure the seat matched up with the end of the tank.  It is now ready for body work and paint. 
The final stretch was 4 inches.
Check back in the tech section of our blog for new how to projects.

We were hanging around the shop today really wanting to do some fab work. The problem was that we did not have any projects in need of any fab work. So, we decided to use one of our old, non-usable gas tanks and stretch it. It is a cosmetic stretch, wont actually increase the amount of gas it will hold. Just for looks. This is what it looked like before any work. There are multiple steps and I will post the entire job in a few different posts. So, keep checking back.

You must first clean the paint off of the area that you are going to work with. If we were going to keep the tank we would have stripped the whole tank. But for this we are only going to clean the area we need. A wire wheel on a grinder works great to get the paint off.

Get a hold of some thin cardboard or construction paper and drape it over the tank. Use a marker to roughly line out the basic shape of your stretch. This does not have to be perfect. Make sure you error on the side of too big. You can cut the excess off later. Cut out your basic shape and transfer it to metal and cut that out.

We used some metal that was laying around the shop. If we were going to actually use the tank we would have cleaned the rust off. To start welding find the center point of your tank and the piece that you cut out. Start at the top middle of the tank and line the piece up. Any error will result in a twisted stretch. That is why we start at the top middle of the tank. Starting at the side leaves to much room for error.

Make sure you are all lined up. Tack it in the center and move out from there. Tack about every inch to inch and a half bending the piece around as you go. You will need some clamps and maybe an extra set of hands to make it easier. Once it is all tacked around you can fold in the side pieces int the hollow area at the back of the tank. This makes for a much better looking stretch.

It is now all tacked on and has a 4 1/2 inch tank stretch.  Check back in our tech section for Part 2. We will do the finish grinding and welding. We will also be adding a recessed area for the tank to wrap around the seat.