Charlie, I wouldn't have ever even considered your project... mostly it just never occurred to me. But I really like your ingenuity!
Most folks don't consider us 027 guys to be "model railroaders," yet it is obvious some of us are, albeit accepting the limitations of that quest. With all the Lionel tooling dollars going into the high-end products, we non-scale guys (what used to be known as "Lionel guys") are forced to be a little more creative.
So I think your Lifesavers tank car is a very clever idea indeed. As for me, my projects have been focused on mimicking more modern-type freight cars...
