As I was wandering around Auto Zone I happened to spy the repair manual for the VW, which happened to be out of the plastic wrapper. So I picked it up and quickly looked up how to remove the gas tank., seems pretty straight forward. So I get home and plunge into it. First I snipped the two wires going into the top of the tank. Then I cut the fuel hose coming out of the side with some large wire snipers. Just a small amount of gas came out. Next, I removed the two very rusty 7/16 bolts on the bottom that keep the metal straps attached to the metal bar on the bottom. The straps then had to be bent, not difficult, and moved out of the way. The gas tank came out rather easily. What was funny was the two straps protruding out of the front of the car - to a creative guy like me they looked like antennae. I have a Martian Car, "ET come get your car!" Enough silliness. The straps came out after I removed two large bolts located on the top of the suspension, as I recall I think they were 11/16. I also took out the bracket that was attached to the straps as well.
Since I am going to add a 3 inch body lift, I noticed the support bar for the gas tank and began to ponder whether I really need to recreate the entire subframe on most GTEs. If the body goes up three inches, I cut the fiberglass area under the bumper (as directed in the GTE Manual) to make room and build a battery rack so it's a half a subframe that uses the gas tank support beam and the mounts in the back to the top of the suspension where the straps were. Hmmm. The original GTE called for almost 500 lbs of batteries under the hood. My entire Lithium battery pack weighs less than 400 lbs. I can easily fit 15-20 of the 48 batteries up front. Tonight I'll take some measurements and call a welder. I also need to remove the starter from the transmission and figure out how I am going to cover the resulting hole that's left. Sounds like a plan.
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