So it seems I see some cars with a thin insulating strip between the fuel tank straps and the fuel tank....is it da rubba? or what? I have Patton's pad for the top of the tank...just wondering if the strips on the bottom are necessary? I think it would be a nice addition. What do you guys think?

Tom
68 442 convt (if I am going to get it on the road before the snow flies, better hurry up)
70 F85
95 Aurora
La-Z-Boy recliner (ah ha, that's my problem)

Pic is from a 68 I saw on Epay.

 

There was nothing except the tank pad on mine originally so I put it back together the same way - a new tank pad (between the tank and the trunk bed) without strap pads.

Randy C.

 

I don't remember ever seeing padding on the straps of an A body from the factory.

 

I put them on but wouldn't have if I had know they weren't original. It was VERY difficult to get the strap bolts started.

 

Tom - From all the original cars I've seen (low mileage and LOTS of salvage yard cars) I wouldn't install anything between the straps and the bottom of the tank. Not done at the factory IMO.

Also....once you snug up the straps there isn't any movement between them and the tank....they hold the tanks in place very tight.

Some of this type stuff is a sort of "revisionist history" and is used by some vendors to just sell another product.

One good "check" is to find the page in your year Assembly Manual and see if the part in question appears there. My bet is it doesn't.

The straps on the car in your pic have probably been "messed with" anyway as the black color indicates someone pulled and painted them...orignal straps were galvanized steel and only got coated if a dealer hosed the underside of the car with the extra cost dealer-sprayed undercoating.

I know...."never say never".....but I'll take the "no insulation on top of the straps" side any day.

 

I haven't seen any '68 Cutlass or 442 with insulating strips- about twenty or more, both US and Canada...what I did when I put the straps on is lay a strip of medium bodied sealer on the strap so that moisture won't have a place to sit between the tank and strap, and after the straps are tightened up, just remove whatever squishes out........and then I see a stainless steel tank on e-bay recently

 

There is no padding between the strap and the tank.

 

Here's evidence of factory fuel tank strap insulating strips on a '70 Cutlass Sup. Convertible. Build date August 1969. I'm the 2nd owner since 1977. The car was bone stock when purchased, and this is the first the tank has been removed. The original insulating strips are a combination of cloth and tar / cork material. Tell me this is the unicorn of tank insulating straps on a '70 Cutlass.