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Ugh - Where to find a 1965 Delta 88 gas tank & sending unit???
Sooo...I dropped and drained the tank from my "garage find".
33 years of fuel sitting in a gas tank makes a terrible mess - 15 gallons of black varnish that smelled up the neighborhood and pounds sandy sludge. There are at least 2 or 3 pinholes on top of the tank, and the sending unit is destroyed, covered in a black mass of growth.
Bummed that it looks like I'll need to replace the tank and for sure the sending unit.
But after searching the web for an hour or two - I can't find any for these cars!
Any advice about where to find a new tank and sending unit for a 1965 Delta 88?
No saving this Pinhole leaks on the top -- see all the residue?
Check with a local radiator shop. Many will repair gas tanks.
Thank you both! These options give me hope! I'll check these and my local options before looking for new. I definitely want to keep the OE tank and even sending unit if I can. They both seem pretty far gone, but we'll see.
That fuel tank can be repaired with a DIY kit. If you don't feel comfortable restoring the tank yourself while wearing gloves, eye protection and a respirator then; as others have said, local radiator shops will usually give you a quote for doing the repair.
Had the tank on my 67 done about 5 years ago by a local radiator shop. Was $165.00. I pulled the tank from a 1960 Dodge Pioneer, took it to them for same cleaning, told me their chemicals had more than doubled in price, now was almost $700.00 to clean a tank. At 74, I'm wondering if I'm still up to restorations.
Update: My Delta 88 tank is being restored. No-one offers new replacement tanks for these mid-sixties B-body Oldsmobiles (Darksider issues). Mine's in pretty poor shape with a good number of pin holes on top and over 5 lbs. of solid residue and rust waste from broken-down 30-year-old leaded gas. It's interesting that the rust holes are all on top of the tank. This car has been garaged its entire life. It rusted inside-out. I suspect that the water from the fuel separated and kept the top of the tank wet, creating rust up there. All the heavy petroleum debris kept the rust from doing any real damage to the bottom of the tank. This meant that Plan A was to find a same or similar size new tank and swap filler necks. But no dice.
Here is what I've learned. The tank in this 1965 Delta 88 is NOT the same dimensions as any other GM big car that I could find a replacement tank for. This in spite of threads on this forum and even from my tank repair guy's research that said it was the same general dimension as an Impala, Biscayne or other GM B-bodies. It is not. I looked through hundreds of tanks in aftermarket (online) catalogues (the largest and most promising being spectrapremiumDOTcom). From my research the only thing remotely close that "might" work is a tank for a same year Pontiac GTO/Tempest. That has the same sender location, is narrower than others, with a long filler neck, but the Delta 88, unlike any tank I could find, is actually narrower left/right than it is front/back. I don't have exact dimensions since its at the tank repair joint, but from the clean spot underneath the car it's roughly 30" left/right and 32" front/back (you can tell in the pic above). All other tanks are around 36" wide - a major difference.
So onto Plan B -- It's been hot tanked twice, and the 15-20 pinholes will be soldered. Since the damage is from the inside, the outside for soldering will be nice and smooth. Then it will be coated in probably 3 passes internally to seal it for a good long time.
I'm glad about keeping the original tank to this survivor specimen, but not so excited about the cost of this work (which is as yet unknown as it's hourly). But like all projects, the costs are quickly forgotten. This is the only thing keeping me from getting back on the road. I'm aiming for a local cars and coffee next weekend!
Last edited by Oldster65; March 4th, 2023 at 11:36 AM.
To add to this ^. I DID find a NOS fuel sending unit. No-one had them new, but I found this one by scouring eBay "GM fuel sending unit" searches looking for the very unique-but-recognizable shape. The seller had no idea what GM car it was for. Definitely a score. It wasn't cheap, but who know how many of these exist still?
I picked up my renovated gas tank and installed it early this a.m. after installing the NOS fuel sender I found. I'm going to complete this thread with pictures and dimensions of this original tank for reference. I hope it helps others in in the future.
In summary: No one makes a replacement tank for these big B-body Olds - welcome to the Darksiders - nor are there replacement fuel sending units. I lucked out finding an NOS pickup and sending unit on EBay.
My tank would usually have been in the landfill. My radiator guy turned out to be a die-hard Olds fan with two amazing Cutlass' and really stepped up for me. It needed 135 pin holes soldered/covered up and then it was coated inside and outside by the restorer - $750 - but this car remains 100% original.
Dimensions of the tank seem unusual since it's longer than it is wide. 36" (front to back) x 30" (right to left) x 7" (front height) x 5" (rear height) - with a 14" filler next (doglegged at 5")
Tank back in place - original straps Rear height Front height ~14" long filler neck Top - 36" front to back (note all the repairs - 136 pinholes -- all on top) 30" right to left NOS fuel pickup and sending unit PN 6426057 Sender installed (new lock ring and O ring)
Great work on that 88 tank. For reference, 65-66 88’s and 98’s had the same tank capacity of 25 gallons, but I believe the filler necks were different to make up for the differences in the rear bumper shapes. Try to find a 98 tank….
In case it matters to you one day, your search should include 88’s and 65-66 Starfires. But yeah, pretty rare overall these days.
Enjoy the car and if you get bored/curious, look around under my user name for other posts on the topic of 65-66 big cars. I’ve been at the hobby for a while. Say, oh, 40 years…
January 29th, 2023, 04:58 PM
- but this car remains 100% original.
