[tobiism]

For a high sitting Sporty tank, would you put a flat bottom on it, or make a smaller tunnel? I don't want this thing to look half-assed, so am just curious to everyone's opinions.

I like the tunnel to only cover half of the backbone. Fully flat bottoms look half-assed.

 

[tobiism]

How do you all recommend making the new tunnel/bottom? I've seen folks who do it all out of one piece - forming a tunnel and then bending the sides of the piece of metal up 90 deg. I don't have easy (i.e. free) access to a metal break, so I was going to make it out of three pieces - the tunnel, and two pieces to make the bottom. Is this a bad idea?

Also, would you form a new tunnel out of some sheet metal, or would you take the old tunnel, cut it up, and re-use it?

Thanks.

I took a flat sheet of steel, drew three lines on it, a centerline, and one line
on either side of it spaced an equal distance to a quarter of the
circumference of the 1.5" backbone , took a piece of 1.5"OD pipe and marked a centerline down it. I mounted the pipe in a vice and matched up the centerlines and bent the sheet around the pipe. Then I opened up the bend a little bit to fit it into a sheetmetal brake, clamped it down and bent the flats. Once you've done that you just sit the new tunnel on the work table and sit the tank on top of it, trace out the shape and cut it out.
If you don't have a brake you could clamp the tunnelunder a piece of angle iron on the edge of the table and bend it that way.