Reffiting The Petrol Tank Cover

Technically the petrol tank is 'outside' the car. it's's sealed away from the cabin. If you ever lift the lid for the tank (under the rear seat)........

Tank exposed

..............and look closely at the box it sits in, you will see that it's vented out to the floor of the car.......

Crescent shaped vents and access holes for plugs

......and that it's corners have seam-sealer on them. Look beyond there mouse nest and you'll see seam sealer and Dum-Dum on the panel joins....

And the lid itself should have a long, tubular foam seal in a channel on its underside. This isn't an anti-rattle thing, it's so that when it's bolted down, it seals. Presumably all of this is to stop fumes entering the cabin - maybe because of the risk of fire, but maybe also just the smell. Have you ever ridden in a car with a constant smell of petrol? It's quite sickening after a while.

Where there have been roof leaks, water can find its way down to sill level and sometimes sit on the concave tank lid under the rear seat. My tank lid looked quite tidy and still had the original sound deadening material stuck to it. I wanted to keep this as original as possible.

the lid itself looks to have been pressed from pre-treated (plated)  steel. rather than strip and repaint it, I cleaned of the rust and just re-sprayed the edges with aluminium effect paint. it was a good colour match. 

I removed the foam sealing bead from under the lip of the lid. After many years it looks quite flattened but if you search around the perimeter you will probably find a little section that retains its original circular profile. I reckon it had about an 8mm diameter.

i bought new foam rubber bead and fitted it. Then discovered what had been supplied was a different size to what i'd ordered. I ordered some more. I tried to make it easy for them, I really did........

Idiot-proofing my order.....

They supplied the wrong size again. I ordered yet more from a different supplier. But it was the same supplier with a different name and guess what: for the third time - they supplied the wrong size.... I gave up and fitted the 'wrong' size seal - slightly larger than the original. If you want to know what company to avoid, it's "PC Industries" on Ebay but, as I say, i suspect they trade under several names. On the plus side, a slightly over-sized seal will ensure that the lid doesn't leak.

I had some lovely Citroen M7 bolts with 12mm hex heads to bolt the top down. 

Lovely shiny new Citroen bolts

I know you can't see them when the seat's back on top.

But I'll know they're there.