Projects Father/Son 63 Chevy C10 SWB Build Thread

Looking good. I like the picture with the front clip and bed on. Looks good. Should settle down a bit when you get the motor/trans in.

 

Little by little... Making patch panels is less fun than welding them in...at least for me. We will be glad to get all the rust fixed.

 

You need to borrow my sand blaster?
Progress is good.

 

Hmm...I may consider that.

 

It makes it go a lot quicker and as far as yall are torn down, a little sand won't hurt anything....

 

Ok, so diverting our attention at least for a minute to what gas tank to put in the frame. We really don't want this to look like some aftermarket deal and am not keen on having the fill in the bed floor. So far, I have researched what tanks folks are using for this sort of thing and am considering the 59/60 Impala tank. Would like to hide the fill behind the license plate thinking that seems more "factory" looking than most relocations I have seen. Not knocking what others have done...just trying to make it look like this could have been done in the 60's. Anyone following along here used a 59 Impala tank in one of these and have any pics? I know that is what @Roothawg used in the Okie Apache, but that is also a task force build. I have looked and looked with very little luck finding an actual installation on a 60-66 C10. I have had that suggestion a few times and need to do some actual measuring. I can see possibly needing to modify the inlet tube to make it fit where we would want, but that is no big deal. However, would also like to see pics if anyone has done this already since a pic is worth a thousand words as they say. No reason to re-invent the wheel here.

I had thought of just designing and building a tank to work, but think a factory tank will fit the overall feel of this build better as long as it can be a clean installation. I also found out that we no longer stock pickled and oiled steel at work so that helped in my "find a factory tank" direction...

 

So, Silas asked the question about what folks use in these pickups for a fuel tank out on the fakebook site in a group for these C10's...and got several responses all over the board on suggestions for things that can "work". After reviewing some of that stuff and Silas requesting pics of someone that offered up the install of the Impala tank, I am leaning away from that one now. Unless there is enough room to move a couple crossmembers and get it up inside the frame, I'm not seeing that as "the one". We need to do some measuring and also considering of an early Mustang tank from what I am seeing... We would just have to modify the inlet tube to get it turned back from what I see.

59 Impala tank


Mustang tank


Anyone here have a suggestion besides the kit tanks from the aftermarket places that I don't like either? Thinking that many of the options will hang too low for what I think will both look right and work well.

 

Original tank out of my 66 Suburban, they don't grow on trees though.

 

I tell ya I looked for the same thing and 99 percent of these builds just fill through the bed floor and that doesnt work for me either..

 

Lol...I guess that may be why the original tank has never bothered me. It almost appears “designed in”.

We are committed now on this truck since we welded up the hole in the cab. We will figure something out.

 

Probably get exiled for saying this, but you already said the "m" word lol. The vw bug gas tank is an option. I've used a few of em.

 

Thanks Lloyd! I'll look at that one too. I figured as long as we talk about a 64-1/2 "m" word, we are borderline ok. Just don't tell anyone and we will be good.

 

Shhhhh..... speak no evil

 

The mustang tank sender will mess with getting a good signal to your chevy fuel gauge. Not a huge deal, but worth noting. I recently did a tank install for a friend in a unibody, and we used a 57 chevy tank. These tanks are side fill so you would have to move the fill neck, but that is not too big if a deal. It fit pretty nice between the frame rails. Of course on his I had to make the sender work with a ford...

 

I have seen some pics of guys using 69 F body tank, but they seem to be wide. Not really any tanks that will fit between the rails and be behind the plate. Maybe a 68-72 Nova tank, but again I think its wide and will sit below the frame rails

 

....don't know if this would work in your p.u., but 67-9 Camaro/Firebird,...or 68-72 Nova or (clones) work real well in advanced design trucks, filler is hid by flip-down license plate...not the best pics,...nothing hangs lower than the rear leaf springs...

 

Thanks! I will keep that in mind for our AD project. From what I think I saw, it may be too wide for this frame.

 

yeah they are a little wide, from pics on a C10 forums, I know they usually go to the outer edge of the frame on a 67-72 C10 and they usually hang low, but its what alot of guys use when going to that fancy motor chevy has that the current flavor of the month.

 

Sadly, I have owned all the tanks discussed to where I could mock them up...just none right now. Silas actually sold his chopped shoebox Ford to buy this pu and it had a new Mustang tank that went with it. We sold it to a friend, so I might see if we could borrow it back just to see...

 

...Mustang tank mite fit, but it's hard to route the filler to anywhere but thru the bed floor, at least if you do go with this tank, the filler does end up near the tailgate, not one foot or more ahead of the gate.
...here's pics of a 'stang tank in my 48 Ford F-1,...that frame is fairly narrow compared to Advanced Design GM's, but the tank fits well, is 16 gallons, reasonable price aftermarket, and fills close to the tailgate.

 

So, got side tracked again on other projects as well as the fact that it was WAY too hard to keep the shop warm during Snowmeggedon 2021. Anyway, now that it is about 90 degrees warmer this week than it was last week, we are getting back in the mode of making progress. A good friend @Fif-t-3 sent me the attached pics of what I consider a pretty clean fill door installation which is heading me toward a gas tank that fills toward the drivers side. I do think we would make whatever door we choose swing toward the bedside when open to not be in the way of the gas nozzle filling and also use an older style cap. Then, another good friend gave us an old 55 Chevy car tank today to see how it might mock up in the frame. So far, it seems promising toward a pretty clean install. More to come on that soon.

 

That is a nice looking set up. I guess there is plenty of extra room in the wheel well for the filler neck without worrying about it being hit by the tire?

 

Well, not sure yet, but will report back soon. As close as we have gotten so far is to put the tank down on the floor under the truck to eyeball if it might fit. And, we need to put that tire back on to see what kind of clearances we might have.

 

Sean Connery would say "That is shexay!". Looks like a nice solution.

 

That’s a super clean installation. The downsides would be what if you had the bed full of stuff, were running a tonneau, or a canopy.

You probably already thought of this, but what about saddle tanks that have the filler in the wheel well?

Another idea would be the GM 64-67 A-body tanks. The fuel neck is right in the rear center.

My apologies if those ideas have already come up.

*edit* Ah I now see the mention of Camaro tanks, so the A-body one maybe similar.


Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Later A-bodies were rear fill as well. 68-69. Don't know dimensions though.
If you buy any new tank, at least you can weld on it, to put filler where you want.

 

Thanks guys! We would much rather fill from the rear like behind the license plate or something which is similar to the Camaro’s and A bodies. However, those tanks are all too wide to fit between the frame rails. The issue we run into with tanks that can go in between the rails like a 59 Impala is when pulling the tank up into the frame far enough to keep good ground clearance, to have the fill above the tank level might likely require coming out about the bottom of the tailgate, which isn’t ideal either. We will figure something out soon. Just mainly wanting something that doesn’t seem cobbled in.

 

So, seems another month has gone by with no progress. This past weekend brought some motivation to Silas since we took a couple cars to the SWMO Hot Rod Hundred up in Springfield, MO. He drove the Thunderbird on the first leg of the trip up and then rode with a couple friends in an AD Chevy pu and a 56 Ford Ranch Wagon while we were up there and on part of the trip home. I know he really wants his truck done and also just started a full time job paying decent yesterday. So, hopefully we will have some updates coming soon if we can stay focused and get back on it.

 

Back to work finally! We finished up the patches in the floor pan on the drivers side. Not much progress, but seems he is at least motivated to get back on it. I sold my C10 this past week, so I think that made him want his done.

 

Oh, and I should also mention he has become distracted by another project and apparently wants to be like @Lloyd's paint & glass since he is starting on an El Camino too... I told him we need to finish the pu project first.