Update 6/11

It's been a while since I've updated this space so time to bring you guys up to speed.

Since I last posted my repair on the fan failed, so I've removed it from the engine. Better to have no fan than a shrapnel hazard in the engine bay. Plus I would have needed a new belt to turn the fan, and who wants to spend like 5$ on a new belt.

The engine is back in the car, the transmission is obviously mated to it and everything is hooked back up and was driving for a few hours. I feel as if the car is resisting any attempts at finishing this point. After she ran and drove I've discovered I either have a bad alternator or a fairly substantial short. When the battery is reconnected it sparks (obviously a short somewhere) and the starter starts trying to turn over, which after some research is either due to an internal short in the starter solenoid or a by-product of the MSD ignition box being wired the way it is.

After the second test drive the clutch stopped fully depressing, so the car wouldn't go into gear. I determined that problem was a combination of an air-bubble in the lines and a lack of adjustment in the clutch release arm. I fixed the adjustment and re-bled the lines and it seemed to go into gear, but once again fix one problem and at least one more pops up. I crank the engine back on to test my clutch fix and I've got cylinder knock, like the timing is off by 90 degrees or more. That would make sense except for the part where I did timing literally the day before and the engine was purring at the factory recommended 6 degrees before TDC (at cranking). We also noticed that there is a crack in the top of the boot in my Bosch Blue ignition coil, which is then arcing through that crack to the positive terminal. A great thing to have in the engine bay of a carbuerated car: a fire-starter. So with the arcing and the cylinder knock I changed back to the MSD Blaster coil that is recommended with the MSD 6A ignition box. Now on cranking the engine backfires and spits scorched gas up through the top of the carburetor. So I'm 100% sure there is a timing issue of some kind, however I have no idea how it just appeared overnight.

I come back the next day to try to diagnose the timing issue and the whole garage smells like gas. Upon further inspection the gas tank is leaking from a pinhole somewhere, despite the KBS sealer I used early on it in this project. So I removed the tank, with some help to keep it from pouring gas everywhere, drained it and set about removing paint to find the pin-hole that was leaking. Of course it wasn't a single pin-hole, or even a couple pin-holes, there is probably somewhere north of 50 holes in this tank. The KBS coating on the inside is flaking off the sides in huge sheets and the gas obviously got between the coating and the tank surface, rusting holes through and peeling off the seal.

 Fill it with water to check what's leaking...

Like a freaking sieve. Upon removing all the paint from the tank I found dozens and dozens of pinholes, more than half were leaking as bad as this one.

So now I'm three steps backwards when she was so close to being done. I've got the tank from the parts car, and it appears to be free of pin-holes, but it is in very similar condition to the first tank; so full of rust. So I've got a few options.  First I can try to repair the first tank, cut it open, clean out the rust, solder or weld up the pinholes, re-seal it, and then weld it back together. Or I can send that tank off and have it repaired professionally for around $300-$400. Or I can do attempt again using a sealing kit on the parts car's tank. I may try my hand at fixing the first tank because at this point it's basically junk, if that doesn't work I'll probably just send off the second one to be professionally repaired and for it to come back with a warranty.

Hopefully while the tank is being fixed I can diagnose the short and fix it, then when the gas tank is ready I'll fix the timing and that will be it, knock-on-wood.