I helped a guy finish a Series 5 and he being the second owner we had some challenges. The topic of this thread was one. This is what we did. It amounted to drilling a reducer and machining the elbow to fit and then soft soldered the two together. This was then screwed into the larger reducer mated to the wing tank. We also did as Dave suggests with a plate under the fabric to accept a cover. A note on the plate under the fabric. Rans uses Polycarbonate sheet as the mounting plate. It is thick enough to accept a self tapping sheet metal screw - Panhead. It eliminates the need for Nutcerts or other fasteners and has more thread contact than an aluminum plate. I used the Polycarbonate exclusively on my more recent IV build.
During the life of my first Model IV, removing the finger strainers was a regular part of the Annual Condition Inspection and I occasionally found some stuff in there. One time it was a piece of rubber obviously from a Card Lock Pump system overhaul as I always used a Mr. Funnel during my MoGas fueling.
I didn't feel comfortable assembling as the manual suggested and Larry not being able to fairly easily remove the finger strainer for periodic inspections.
Thanks Lowell
I installed the smaller elbow, and I tapped out the tank slightly and I have notched the capstrip. It ends up being just barely what is needed but it will work. Love the idea of using polycarbonate for the access. But I also am very impressed with the access cover Gary made. Not sure how people get through this without everyones support here. Thanks.
Eddie