Bellytanks.......a study in alternative uses

I have been working on compiling all of the pics and info on Bellytanks that I have been gathering over the past 8 years, and I realized while looking at some of the pics, how many uses, (other than land speed racing) there are out there for these surplus items.

Obviously, there are hundreds, ranging from water tanks to carnival rides, and I don't want to post a million pics, but I do want to share with you guys a few of the different things I personally have done, or have in my collection.

The first, is obviously my race car, which by the way is almost done, and if I make it to Bonneville in August, great !! if not, I'll be there in October. I'm not gonna kill myself.

The second, is a fun project my buddy Drew and I did last year, he had one and a half small tanks that came off a carnival ride, so we made two soapbox derby cars out of them. Fun!!
There is also a wagon that I bought at Turlock swapmeet last year. Cool windshield huh?

The third is really cool. Lucky Burton and myself did a bar interior recently, and I knew where a bunch of big droptanks are at a salvage yard in Sun Valley, so we took one, cut it up, powdercoated it, and made it a hood for a firepit. It turned out great.
Lucky is also making a go kart out of a tank, it's the one hanging from the ceiling. Now that will be fun at El Mirage.

I'm also throwing in a great pic of two tanks converted into a boat.

I hope to do a Bellytank book one day, so please feel free to post pics of your own alternative use tanks.

Enjoy!

PS. If anyone can repost these pics larger, instead of thumbnails, please do, and let me know how.

 

ahh...envy....

i think i've seen some of those selling here...maybe twice in my life....

i need to get out west more often....

one day i have an insane project that will need at least 3 of them...of different sizes.....it's been in my dreams for hell...at least a few years,haha

 

Oh,

Here's one more I forgot. it's a gas tank made from two noses of a small aluminum wing tank. I bought it years ago from a guy that used to run it in his lakes car back in the late 40's.

 

Here are a few, including my street legal Lakester project.....

 

WOW - what bar is that? do you have more pics?

 

Wanna sell it? Would be a perfect tank for my military themed pickup.hahaha

I saw a cool test bomb on E-bay the other day that would be very cool to use. @4' tall, had the fins and all the markings. Originally was filled with powder. I guess I should have saved the picture of it.

 

Bobby and I built that bar its called Saints and Sinners near Culver City. Its bad ass. We used that bellytank for the fireplace hood. Lucky

 

Cool thread! Keep the pics coming. I love it.

 

Where the hell do you get them from? Ive always thought it would be fun to put something together out of one.

 

Hi Bob.

 

Hi Lucky.

 

Hey where did the picture of the bellytank canoes come from?

 

Whats up Peiro?

 

I don't remember where I got that one. I remember someone saying they were B-52 tanks used by the Vietnamese, but I didn't realize B-52's used a drop tank. The one I am building my Lakster out of is off a US Navy A-7 Corsair II. It really has a nice shape to it.

 

Let's see some pics RokonBob.

 

I need to push it out of the garage and get some better shots of it.

 

Sorry no pics. but, in '53 I sold my '39 Indian four engine to John Cotton's
father. And they built a wing tanker to take to the salt flats. John went on
to become an important figure in the future of hot rods.

 

A little off the subject, but not too far off.

Near the end of WW2, the Germans were salvaging every bit of aluminum they could get their hands on.
Crashed Allied bombers and fighters were a veritable bonanza.

The Allies realized that Germany was salvaging aluminum to help their war machine and also realized that pickling off the aluminum drop tanks from P-38's, P-47's and especially so the P-51's was further aiding the Germans.
The P-51's because they were usually deeper into the continent than the P-38 or P-47 could go.

Someone came up with the bright idea to use the small aluminum panels that held the fuel and vent lines as well as the other aluminum pieces that held the attachment points and build a paper-mache fuel tank utilizing these small bits of aluminum.

It was suggested to the war board who promptly nixed the idea as unsound, but by that time the Allies had been using the paper-mache tanks for a couple of months.

The paper-mache tanks had their limitations, fueling was required within a couple of hours prior to lighting off the engine.
Their useful life was 12-15 hours if I remember right.
And once fueled, even if fuel was drained, deterioration was in progress so that tank was wasted.

Not much for the Germans to salvage with the sodden mess the paper-mache tanks made out of themselves.

The mucky mucks at the war board were a little embarassed to find they'd turned down an idea that was in service and worked well.

More than likely, one of the developers was a hot rodder working on a flight crew....

 

C9,

Here is a picture of a stack of paper mache tanks.

 

These are from a local Los Angeles builder Baron Margo. If you want to see some more crazy stuff this guy builds go to: www.baronmargo.com
I guess one of these was in a movie recently. Lucky

 

How Do I Figure Where Mine Are From?

Abot 12 -14feet Long And Nose And Tail Will Remove?
Paperdog

 

Sounds like about the size used on a Phantom II......

Those suckers needed a LOT of gas......

 

Here's a great shot. These look like the same size as the wagon and soap box car.

 

I posted a while back about the tank project I am working on. I was planning to base my chassis on a Model-T frame as the early cars did.
But plans have changed since I found a original belly tank lakester frame. It is a full tube chassis that shows very nice construction skills. It is set up for a V8 60 and uses the 37-40 tube front axle from the V8 60 cars. It has been modified with the square roll bar, a few cross members removed and the narrowed rear. It was probably done to make it a drag car. The workmanship on the modifications is much more crude. Like the rest of you I am working on a limited budget so progress will be slow as i search for the correct parts. I plan to remove the changes and put it back to full width rear and original late 40s belly tank configuration. The limited info I have so far is that it was built in CA and then ended up in Mt. Sterling IL. The only name I know associated with it is Harold "Spud" Lewis. It was sold from his estate after years of sitting outside on the farm. If anyone can find any info or photos of the car please let me know.
thanks for any info,
Byron

 

My grandfather was a 8th AF P51 ground crew fuel man stationed in England and Europe. He told me stories about the tanks he called "cardboard". He said if the tanks became unuseable or the plane had to turn back and land and they were dropped the crew would play with them. He said they would cut the top out to make little one man boat to float in the local stream or pond with a paddle made from junk. His description was pretty funny as you can imagine they were not very stable.
I have a few of his photos from that time and one shows him standing while holding a tank upright on either side of him. They are just about the same height as him.

 

Hey Byron,

nice to see you back on here again, the chassis looks like a real score, look forward to seeing the updates!!

 

Byron,

Post, or email me the pics of your Grandpa with the tanks.

 

byron, was that the chassis that was listed on egay? I was following that for my uncles belly tank project. he is planning on an A frame for his but the old tube chassis would have been cool