Fuel tank

I am about to remove the fuel tank from my 2000 1.7 because I will be welding very close to that area, and I’m not yet ready for my celestial wings!
The tank will be inspected before refitting, and I’m not expecting any problems with it, but I wondered if it was the same as a Fiesta tank if it did need replacing?

According to this you can fit a Fiesta one providing it's for the right year. There's apparently some differences with the breather pipe but it isn't a show stopper.

That’s great, thank you!

No worries.

The vast majority of the aftermarket tanks don’t have the same shape swirl pot inside, and the sender unit gets caught so be very careful that what you buy will work.

Well, I successfully removed the tank, as I have to do some welding and grinding in that area. Not too bad a job apart from undoing the hose clips on the filler and breather hoses.
It would appear that I have been lucky, in that the the tank is still serviceable - just! Whereas the underside looks great, the top half, which is normally hidden, had some localised corrosion but no perforations. Left another year, and the tank would probably fail. I have carefully removed all the crusty bits, treated it with Jenolite, and will probably give it a coat of POR15.
I did discover that the filler hose is starting to degrade, presumably due to the modern petrol. It has become very soft and slightly porous. Looking online for a suitable replacement, it appears that anything that is not mega expensive won’t tolerate constant contact with petrol. Has anyone here found a suitable source at a reasonable price?

It depends which part you mean, just had a quick look back through and can see it's in 3 pieces apparently.

[ref]McCloud 85[/ref] used this type of hose in his build and someone asked him whether they are suitable for petrol, he said "Those silicone hoses used are fluoro lined which makes them resistant to fuel and oil. Below is a pic showing the inner lining of them"