I just got a days work in on my ol 58 ford parts chaser and took a few pics. It started with a aluminum fuel cell and a very rusty bed floor. I got a guy to swap me a mustang tank...I think its a 69-ish but the perimeter size is probably the same as a 65-66. I cut out the bed floor and cut out some crossmembers that were in the way. Then I trimmed a little (about 1/2") on each side top inner framerails so the tank can slide right between the rails....this is when I realized the rails had pulled together about half an inch so I spread the rails and installed a 2x3 square tube crossmember...this was put in where the rear flange of the tank will sit on it. My framerails angled up toward the front and I wanted the tank to sit flat,so I eyeballed a pie wedge cut on the frame and cut and welded it flat,then added a small filler piece of steel where the gap was left.lastly I added a front angle iron piece for support of the front of the tank. I have about 4 hours in it so far...next is a small step notch so I can do flip on the rearend and get this thing down another 6 inches!
here's the framework and how it sits today. I still want to figure out a fill tube that's not in the middle of the bed floor.
my buddy did this on his 51 f 100. he has a oak floor bed and used one of those flush mount motorcycle gas caps. it works out really slick
It looks like I can run a tube over to the corner where the stakepocket was and use a small stainless filler from the boat store...just waiting for Tuesday for the place to open. They have some very cool stuff that can be readily adapted.
The Jalopy Journal
