Fuel Can

[Harry]

1966 230SL

So I tried a Search before starting this thread, but to no avail.  I am fabricating a new "Fuel Can" (as called on the Bud's Benz site) - the sheet metal housing that is around the electric fuel pump under the car at the rear end.  Bud's provides a couple of good photos of the one they offer for the Early 230SL and it depicts two large holes through the side of the body of the can.  One is for the fuel line from the tank and the other is for the line from the pump to the Injection Pump.  My Fuel Can was pretty deteriorated from rust but I can find the partial remnants of those two holes.

It would be very helpful if some with an early 230SL could share photos of the Fuel Can installed on the car with these two lines feeding through.  One of the holes in the Bud's photo just doesn't look like it would fit the line to the FIP - location wise.  But I can't be confident that line on my car is original.  (It may be but I don't know.)

Thanks very much!
Harry

[BobH]

Hello Harry, it depends on what pump you have installed, the original early, long pump, or the later short pump.  The various pump "cans", "shrouds", or "covers" are shown on here

https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Fuel/FuelPumpCovers

Once you identify which cover is suitable for your car and pump, you can search again using any of these descriptions, and you may find some helpful pictures of them in situ

[Harry]

Thanks BobH!

[Harry]

1966 230SL

I expect the purist's shall cringe but here is my fabricated fuel can.  The original had a good deal rust and was just cosmetically detractive.  So I cut the cylindrical portion away from the formed bottom (not rusted), rolled a new piece of sheet metal to fit the salvaged bottom, welded it along the vertical seam and along where it meets the bottom.  I then made the cut outs using the old can as a template.  (I transferred those by wrapping a piece of paper around the old can and tracing them on the paper, then used that to trace them onto the new can.)  Much better and a fraction of the cost for a new replacement can.

Harry

[Harry]

I forgot to mention that at the same time I removed the fuel pump mounting bracket, sand-blasted it, repainted it, replaced the rubber mounts with new mounts and hardware.