Low-Life, Dirty Dog, Scoundrel.

I have an old 2001 F150 that we use around the place when we need a pickup truck.  I don't need a truck every day, but we need one often enough to keep one around.  It's paid for, it's mine, ad it starts every time we turn the ignition.

Belle needed it a couple of weeks ago to run an errand, so she took it out.  About three days later I needed it and and noticed that the fuel gauge was about a quarter of a tank, so I stopped and filled it up.  I got to the store, and when I came out, realized that I had a fuel leak.  A substantial  fuel leak.  I got under the truck and saw a stream of fuel coming from the tank, so I looked i the console, found a pencil, and jammed it up in the hole, then duct-taped it in place.   I am a redneck, after all.

Pencil stuck i the hole, duct-taped i place.

Second son is a first-class mechanic with his own shop, so I talked to him about what I could do to fix the problem.  I took it to his shop this afternoon for a more complete exam.

Did I mention that he has a lift?  Everyone needs a lift in the shop

So, we got it up o the lift and drained the tank.  Then made a close inspection to analyze the problem.

That's the hole in the tank, and it's obviously been drilled.  That is not road-damage.  Some dirty, low-life scumbag crawled under my truck with a drill and drilled a hole i the tank to steal gasoline.

We tapped the hole and put a bolt in it, the bolt covered with Yamabond, a gasket material that Yamaha uses to seal engine cases.  Think Permatex on steroids, but impervious to gasoline.  The truck is still in the shop.  We're going to let it dry for 24 hours, then see if we have any leaks.

What kind of lowlife, dirty dog, scoundrel drills a hole in a gas tank to steal a little fuel?   I ain't never seen nothing like that, and I've seen a lot of things.