First time post, nice to say hello

I have an 87 560sl been sitting forever so I am going through and cleaning up the fuel delivery systems. I have all the fuel pumps out and have drained the tank and want to replace the tank strainer. I have removed the output line 19mm and I am at the point where I need the 46mm socket to remove the strainer from the tank. Unfortunately this is my situation as you can see I can not even come close to get a socket on this. Am I forced to completely remove this tank just to get to the strainer?

Thanks