BSA Hornet tank...

A while back ago, a customer asked me to build him a gas tank for his 60'S BSA Hornet.  I actually did one several years ago and wished I would have documented it a little better.  So, here's my chance.

First things first, the material needs to be cut roughly the correct size.  There is quit a bit of shrinking to be done and any extra material will only hinder the process.  I used some thin paper to make a rough template.  Everywhere there is a fold, the metal will be required to be shrunk.

Transferring it to some aluminum sheet, I marked the area that I did not want to manipulate.  This area will be the relatively flat sides of the tank.

I use a set of thumbnail shrinking dies in my Pullmax.  There are some disadvantages of using a Pullmax to shrink with compared to using a power hammer.  Mainly, the Pullmax doesn't compensate for the change in material thickness.  A power hammer has a spring loaded anvil and tends to be much less abrupt.  As I have not gotten very far on my power hammer build, so this is really my only option.

Here it is after about 20 minutes on the Pullmax.  About every 5 minutes, I stopped and checked my progress on the buck just to make sure I was obtaining the correct shape.

After a slight adjustment on the die spacing, I have the basic shaped roughed out.  You can see my markings where the front needs to be brought out or raised "up".  It appears that I actually shrunk it a bit too much, however, the English wheel will have no problem stretching it back out. 

I am always amazed at how well the English Wheel smooths out the lumpy mess left from the shrinking dies.  This is only after a couple minutes of wheeling.

There is still a way to go, but at least the hard part is done.

Here is the other tank that I built:

BSA Tank

Transmission mount....

With the front of the engine bolted in, now comes the transmission mount. 

As for the transmission, I was originally planning on using an S-10 T5 from a '93-'96.  These are the ones with the Ford bolt pattern but the GM bearing retainer.  These are easy to find, usually very inexpensive and are World Class.  I also happen to have 6 of them on the shelf.  So, when I happen to hurt one, I will have a replacement. 

What's nice about the LS platform is that they accept a standard GM aluminum bellhousing.  I just so happened to have several aluminum truck bellhousings that would clear the LS flywheel.  Being truck bellhousings, they have a 5-1/8" diameter register.  Using a T5-9495-518 adapter plate, everything bolted up as it was suppose to.  Not only does this adapter have the Ford bolt pattern with the 4-11/16" bore for the GM bearing retainer, it has a 5-1/8" diameter male register for the bellhousing.

Once I set set the engine in with the transmission bolted on, The S-10 shifter was too far forward.  after some quick measuring, the Camaro tail shaft place the shifter exactly in the center of the stock cutout.

The problem with the Camaro T5's is that they are rotated at 15 degrees for clearance issues.  This means that the rear mount is rotated as well.  So, to over come this, I designed an offset mounting bracket to obtain the correct orientation.  To check the fit, I 3D printed it first before I will eventually machine it from solid.

The original cross member lent itself to a simple modification for the new mount.  I will eventually add several gussets to strengthen the tab.

Next comes the wiring...