Fuel tank:

I cut away the wood at the rear of the nosegear mount, as that wood as well as the front wing mount were holding up the rear of that tank. Bad news. So I removed the offending material with great prejudice, while not weakening the key structures. Now the tank sits level on the top of the nosegear mount. That is as low as she goes, folks. The center of the tank is 3/4" above the centerline of the engine. Not great, but a substantial improvement over the stock set-up.

After the completion of this task, the firewall and all but the immediate nosegear mount was fuelproofed with 30 minute epoxy. Remember fuelproofing?