My fuel pump has given up so I'm going to be dropping the tank to replace it shortly. My car is a GEMS and there doesn't seem to be any reputable brands available. The options I can see are:

• Britpart
• Allmakes
• LAP?

All of which don't seem great. LAP is the most expensive but is entirely unknown to me. Another option I've read about on RR.net is just replacing the pump itself with an Airtex E3270 but that involves opening the sender unit and possibly some modification. I'd prefer to replace the level sender too so that's a factor against the Airtex. Has anyone purchased one recently? What did you go for?

I've read that the fuel lines could be rusty so I'd like to replace those too whilst I'm in there. Has anyone got any advice on that? Did you make your own lines or buy them?

Island show the LAP one as being OEM but also say that it isn't stocked and to allow 1-2 days for delivery but LRDirect list it but show it as out of stock. I've got a replacement fuel pump in the garage ready for a day when I've got nothing better to do. There's nothing wrong with my pump, but having run solely on LPG for almost 200,000 miles with just under a 1/4 tank of petrol as a reserve, I've worn a dead spot on the gauge sender track at that point. Not sure which one I bought although I suspect the cheapest as I will only have need to use it maybe once every couple of months.

The fuel lines above the tank will almost certainly be rusty, the question is how rusty. One P38 I bought as a spares or repairs project had a fuel leak above the tank but only when the engine was running as the return one had rusted through. I dropped the tank and ran flexible hose from the pump to the filter on the feed side and to an uncorroded section of the return. That is the reason I have put off changing mine as I'm pretty sure that they will be rusty and could possibly start to leak as soon as they are disturbed when I drop the tank. This time I intend replacing them with 3/8" copper tube as I have plenty of it (it's used on the domestic AC systems that I install) and it's easy to work with.

Yes, they were pretty rusty. The channel the pipes run in was full of mud and dust, the picture is after cleaning them out.

I'm thinking about replacing my rear brake lines. I've got an early car with the brake lines that drop down in the centre of the axle. I modified it a few years ago so that I could fit a dual exit exhaust but I've never been particularly happy with the tidiness of it. With the tank out now is the opportunity to fix it.

I'm wondering about moving to a similar setup to the 97> cars where the brake pipes run to each side. In the standard system I believe it routes something like this: hard line on body -> flexi -> chassis mounted hard line -> flexi to caliper. Is there a reason I couldn't just go from the caliper straight to the body hard line with a custom flexi (and appropriate mounts to keep it all in the right place)? The brackets for later cars are unavailable anyway so if I do it it would have to be custom brackets.

I don't see why not. That would do away with the short S shaped hard line that always rusts too. I needed to replace the flexis on another of my cars (not a P38) only to find they were no longer available. I bought a length of Goodrich braided hose and the correct end fittings from Merlin Motorsport (https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/s/goodridge-fluid-transfer/goodridge-600-series-brake-clutch-hose-fittings) and made a set up.

Thanks. That link is interesting. I hadn't considered that I could make the flexi's up myself. Do you need any special tools to be able be able to assemble those fittings yourself?

No, it is far simpler than I expected it to be. There's step by step instructions here https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/knowledge_base_articles/view/how-to-assemble-your-own-brakeline-266, all you need is a small screwdriver, a vice and an open ended spanner (13mm if I remember correctly).