Replacing Fuel Tank Straps

[EvilGenius]

Any good methods to remove the tank strap rivets? My strap broke off when I pulled the tank mount off and I need to remove the remnants of the old strap before I can clean up the mount and paint it.

Also should the lower part of the tank mount be welded to the upper part like this?

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[DanMcG]

You could easily center punch and drill the rivets out, but I'm not sure the remaining piece of strap will come out without a fight.
If you have a welder, I'd grind off the welds, separate the two pieces, remove the old rivets and strap, then put it back together.

 

[Frankenchevy]

I don’t think that’s factory. I drill mine out when I replaced the straps. Here are photos of mine from different angles after drilling out the strap rivets.

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[Frankenchevy]

Duplicate post

 

[legopnuematic]

grind the heads off and punch them through. cut the welded piece off when I did mine and threw it away. All that I could see that it did was rust the main bracket out. Rusted to the point I had to cut it off and weld in a new piece as shown below. I used 5/16 carriage bolts pressed in the holes as studs to bolt on the new straps

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[EvilGenius]

Thanks for all the help!

 

[spanky1205]

Do not forget to add the anti-squeak straps back in between the brackets and the tank. Look around online, you can buy the original material from different places or there are plenty of other materials people have had great luck using. I forgot to order anything when I did mine and ended up using old pieces of a 5" wide tie down strap that had been retired from use. It has worked great for the last year.

If it helps I started out with brackets just like the OP has and switched to what Frankenchevy has pictured. I pulled everything from a truck in the salvage yard. I also converted from a 16 gallon tank to a 20 gallon tank at the same time. Everything bolted up just like it belonged there from the factory. I had to change the filler neck hose and vent tube that was it.