weld or rivet?

[asifnyc]

looking for opinions. I'm mounting my battery in the trunk using this battery tray. I have a mig welder and a hand riveter. If I use rivets I can only put them in across two-thirds of the bottom of the tray before I "hit" the gas tank underneath. If I weld I assume I need to remove the gas tank so I don't blow myself up right? Seems easier to just rivet it but will that be strong enough? maybe removing the gas tank won't be as big a hassle as I'm imagining? I don't have any help so removing the tank would be just me and a jack. I'm not sure how much gas is in it so I'm not sure how heavy it is right now...

[jackfrost]

you might want to check with any sanctioning body rules that you might participate in the future.

and, FWIW, I replaced the gas tank in my Javelin by myself when the old one started leaking all over the place (in December)

[Mathius]

The risks are very low of setting off your gas tank, but if you don't feel comfortable, I'm not going to suggest it. If it were me, I wouldn't mount it straight to the floor. That piece isn't contoured to fit your vehicle, it's made up of right angles and is more or less a square box. If it were me, I'd cut and weld some brackets that I could weld to the side of the trunk and then hang the batter box off of that.

The results would be more form fitting to the vehicle and look more professional then just having that tray riveted to the bottom of your trunk with the hangers standing up in the air.

Mathius

[Bryce]

NHRA requires 3/8" bolts to hold down the battery box. so i dont think rivets will work.

[oestek]

You may want to make some brackets that bolt to the trunk floor and bolt the tray to it.