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Old 10-06-2015, 01:59 AM
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mach4 mach4 is offline
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Location: San Diego County, CA
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Just something to think about....

The roof on a 123 is a structural member. When you cut that away, as in making a convertible, or in your case a pick up, you're significantly weakening the structure. Stories abound of people cutting the top off their car to make a convertible only to have them collapse in the middle. The 123 is a unibody (frameless) design where the body itself is the "frame". Cars like my 107 roadster use a beefed up tunnel and side rails to provide the structural integrity to go topless.

I'd be more concerned with this quite critical aspect of the project as opposed to the more trivial fuel tank positioning. Fuel tanks can be welded up out of aluminum quite easily, or even fabbed up using epoxy and fiberglass, in most any shape available. (I made a fiberglass aux tank to fit the spare tire well on my diesel SL but in the end decided a spare tire was more important than 1000 mi legs.)

There is no fuel pump at the tank on a 123. It uses a lift pump on the side of the injector pump to draw fuel from the tank under vacuum. The wires you see are for the fuel sender for the fuel gauge.

You should really consider starting with a wagon - that way you've already got the tail gate and the flat fuel tank. An order of magnitude easier I think. And the SLS as well for carrying a load.
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Last edited by mach4; 10-06-2015 at 02:11 AM.
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