At the risk of jolting this thread back to "what did you do today", today I replaced the fuel tank. Conceptually pretty easy, execution was honestly kind of a pain in the ass! Biggest headaches: (1) I sheared one of the bolts holding the straps and had to weld on a nut to get it out. (2) getting the neck on the tank to line up with the fuel filler neck. I ended up taking the neck out, then installing the tank, then *trying* to put the neck back on, then taking the filler neck out of the plastic cover that fills the gap around the gas cap and installing it, then realizing it would be pretty tricky to get that rubber ring seated back onto the plastic cover with it installed, taking it back out and seating the ring on the bench, then *trying* to install the whole thing again, only to realize that that makes it seemingly impossible to get the metal bracket that mounts to the engine bay wall to line up, then just kind of jamming everything together and calling it a day. (3) the fuel gauge isn't reading any level now. Hoping that just sorts itself out after a week or so of driving.
On the upside, my suspicion that the old tank was completely rusted inside proved to be 100% correct. If these cars have sat for a long period of time, at least in my experience replacing the fuel tank is imperative. The sending unit was pretty rusted/oxidized as well; I'm pretty tempted to replace that as well and see if it cures the nascent lack-of-fuel-gauge problem. These cars are a delight; aren't they?