The story begins when I bought my Fulvia at the summer of 1995 . At the first time that I attempted to fill the fuel tank to the top I understood that I had a fuel leakage from the top of the fuel tank under the carpet of the boot. The result of that leakage was a black fluid that dropped from the bottom of the tank to the ground because the fuel dissolve the pitch that covers the tank to protect from rusting When I phone to the previous owner of the car he told me " Oh I forgot to tell you not to fill the tank to the top ,but this is not big problem for you ,just a few more visits to the gas station."

From all the other problems that I had with the car this was the more important because of the fire dangerous so I decided first to replace the old fuel tank with a new one , and second to find the reason of this fuel leakage to eliminate the probability of having the same problem in the future.

So I first try to find a new fuel tank. You can’t imagine how difficult was to find not new but not even second hand fuel tank for FULVIA Coupe here in GREECE . If you don’t have the possibility to find information like these I find now at the Internet , you are just like a blind man and at that time I didn’t know anything about Internet.

After many visits to stores with old spare parts in ATHENS I found a fuel tank from a S2 car that seemed to be in good condition and I bought it knowing that I had to make a little hole to the top ,to connect the pipe for the returned fuel that exists on S3 cars and does not exist to the older models. The gauge sending unit of that fuel tank was in good condition , had no rust around it so I thought that the inner of the tank had not rust too .At the same time I found in a magazine for classic cars the telephone of the Omicron Engineering in UK and I contacted them asking for a fuel tank. They answered to me that found a second hand fuel tank of a S2 car too , so as the two fuel tanks were the same type I prefer to buy the tank from Athens to avoid transport delays. That it was my big mistake because from that moment and then my adventures with the new fuel tank just begin.

I found the cause of the old tank destruction when I understand that I had an water leakage of the boot through many holes of the body .The water that throws through these holes trapped around the upper part of the fuel tank and because of the difficulty to see that water ( you have to remove the spare wheel and lift the rubber carpet ) the water stays there for a long time and destroy the upper part of the fuel tank with rust .

I put out of the car the old fuel tank and I replaced it with the new one but fortunately I didn’t throw the old one away . After exactly twenty kilometres the engine stops because of bad fuel supply .When I open the bonnet to see what is happening I show that the fuel pump couldn’t pump the fuel to the carbs because of the full of rust fuel filter. I change the filter but after fifty kilommetres I had the same problems. So I examined carefully the inner of the fuel tank with a special tool and I found that it was full of rust inside . Someone advice me to fill the tank with a special fluid that "eats" the rust so I fill it with that fluid and for many hours I shake it trying to eliminate the rust . That time I didn’t know that the inner of the tank was in very bad condition and the rust had create big holes at the metallic surface and even I put out off it too many rust, in a few weeks the rust will be created again.. That time I phoned to the man who selling me the tank from Athens to complain about it and he told me that put out that fuel from a car that was immovable for five years and put a good gauge sending unit on it because its own was destroyed by the rust .He told me that was sorry about it but it was the only one that found .

Anyway after all that elaboration of it with the antirust fluid I thought that I finished with that so I put it back to the car but now I found that the gauge sending unit was not working any more because its mechanism corrosed from the antirust fluid. I put the old gauge sending unit that was different type form the new one and for many months I change the fuel filter every two or three weeks and every two months I cleaned the carbs of the fuel rust. I lived with that problem until I decide to restore the car from the beginning .