86 stepside BODY LIFT, Gas tank raising??

[travmanzz]

Hello I am new to this forum and just purchased my second 81-87 style chevy.
It is a short box stepside, I want to install a 2 inch body lift but hate the way the gas tanks hang down, is it possible to lift the tanks with a body lift in? If so can anyone offer advice, post pics of any related mod to doing this.Thanks

[travmanzz]

another pic with my old man scolding me for buying another lifted truck, my last one a 2DR Tahoe ended up on its side in front of a Bar

[maskale]

the way i would do it, take 2 flat pieces of plate, say 1/4" thick. Bolt them onto the tank bracket. Ur making a flat plate to raise the tank up two inches, reusing the the holes in the frame.

Where u drill ur holes is where u need to measure and make sure it will work, and determine how long ur plate needs to be. If the top hole in the frame is less then 2" from top of frame then this will work.


after u cut to length the plate bolt it to the tank bracket using the top two holes, then 2 inches below that drill two more holes all the way through the tank bracket, u will not reuse the two existing bottom holes, reason is to do so u would have to redrill ur frame(unless they are already 2" apart). Now from the lower last two holes u drilled measure down how ever far apart the holes in the frame are and drill two new holes, these bottom two holes may or may not actually make contact with the tank brackets, i can say with out looking at one and measuring, if they do then just drill all the way through the bracket.

So now u should have a total of 6 holes in the plate and at least 4 of those going through to the tank bracket to bolt the bracket to the plate, and like I said if the bottom 2 holes still contact the bracket then u have those also.

U will end up with top 2 bolts above ur frame going through plate and into bracket.

The next 2 will now go though the top holes in ur frame, through the plate and then the bracket.

The bottom 2 will go through frame and plate and bracket if the bracket reaches.

U will need to tack weld ur nuts to the bracket or plate as needed.

Doing it this way u wont redrill ur frame, u will put 2-4 new holes in ur bracket.

At a min u will have 4 bolts holding tank on frame and 4-6 holding bracket to plate depending on how the holes line up.

make sure u maintain clearance all around ur tank so body doesnt rub tank