Still haven't heard from the community college weenies, so I'm leaning more towards the idea of getting it running and putting off the paint and body.

The big thing standing between me and a running car is the fuel system. I let fuel turn to varnish in it, so now I get to deal with it. I've already done the carb and the fuel line.

Here's the tank, which is in way worse shape than I thought it would be -





The surface rust isn't a big deal. It can be fixed and wouldn't keep me from driving if I didn't touch it at all.



This rubber piece is 5 years new - took a few months to get last time, so I'm glad to see it hasn't deteriorated. Which it shouldn't have, but Murphy's Law and all . . .





Here's the problem - this tank was very carefully and painstaking sealed with U.S. Standard tank sealant, and yet there's all this rust. The varnish would be bad enough to deal with. I can get the varnish boiled out, and seal the tank again, but it looks like I can expect the tank to be rusted out again in a couple years.

Here's another problem along the same lines - the fuel sending unit -









I've cleaned it up before when it was rusted this bad. It didn't last. Not cool.

The filler neck is about as bad -











I sealed the inside of this with U.S. Standard Tank Sealant too, and here it is rusted through again.

Here's the cap -





I'm starting to think metal has no business being part of a car's fuel system. I could buy all this new, keep the tank full, and hope for the best. I'm open to plastic alternatives though. I don't care about keeping the car in mint stock condition. Whatever works best is best.

Moving on . . .





The worst of the flaking paint. In the top pic, the paint has peeled down to the bare metal. To the left you can see an old touch-up which is also starting to flake up.

The trunk is covered with flakes like in the bottom pic. This one's quarter sized. The others are mostly in the 1/4" range.

The interior of the trunk is decent -





This may have been legible before it was painted over.



There's surface rust under the trunk mat, but no holes.

Finally, here's the exhaust stuff I bought as a teenager and never installed -



Thought he was gonna go fast