Hey all! I am starting my second major project - A Belly Tank Racer! I'm an aircraft mechanic by trade, so this project is the perfect fit for me. After much research, I have determined the Belly Tank to be from an A10 Warthog (Edit - Later discovered to be from the Northrop F5 Tigershark). Attached are pictures of where it sat at the gentleman's house where I purchased the tank from. I have previously completely built and modified a 1991 Honda Shadow VT600C from stock to full custom Hardtail inspired by the Japanese bobber's of the 60's and 70's. Looking forward to this new build as I have many questions and this is my largest project to date. I have a lot of learning to do regarding classic suspension and driveline components as I work my way through this build, but that's the fun part! I have made a little bit of progress so far, so I'll be uploading the rest of the pictures I have in another post or two as I begin immortalizing this build. I'm sure i'll have many questions along the way.
Here are some pictures I took the day I picked it up. I had rented a 20 ft Penske truck to pick the tank up and wondered what the cops would think if they pulled me over and gave me an inspection. Managed to get the tank home safe and sound. Didn't budge an inch on the way home. The tank itself is in perfect condition without a single dent that I can find. For now, the motorcycle lift is the perfect platform to get started.
Congrats on the nice belly tank. Dang, that is one EMPTY work shop. (This is coming from an old hoarder.)
Super - Damn, your Harley would be a perfect fit for me with a "springer" front suspension !! Been looking for a similar built bike like yours for a while. No real luck. A couple close, but...not close enough to what I want. Don't have the time to build one. Oh yeah, nice start on your Bonneville car too. Keep the photos coming. Mike
Thanks Mike, the bike is a 1991 Honda Shadow VT600C that I fully built over 9 months, with around 95% of the bike being built within the first 3 months. Life got in the way so I had to put off finishing it. I was originally going to run a springer front end but I decided to keep it more cost friendly and just rebuild the front forks. The bike is a lot of fun and is my first motorcycle. I never rode it while it was stock due to the left fork leaking into the brake caliper, and an engine oil leak. As it sits now fully customized it is my first motorcycle riding experience - Hard-tailed with a car tire!
I love the tank idea and welcome to the HAMB from East Tennessee. The only suggestion I could make is that you remove the picture of the OT vehicle sitting next to your bike before one of the Moderators deletes your thread. That's a big time no-no here.
I had recently just purchased this home, and I found these wooden blocks just sitting in the shop. Wouldn't you know it, these wooden blocks are shaped PERFECTLY to the contours of the belly tank. They act as the perfect chocks for me to keep the tank stable as I deconstruct the tank to get it gutted out and split in half. It's almost like this build was meant to be! The right side of the tank was easy to position my cut line to get it chopped in half as there was already a welding seam from when the tank was constructed originally. The left side however did not have that welding seam. I opted for some blue painters tape and the eye-ball method. The stabilization fins on the rear are located right on center which helped me get a great starting point for laying my tape. I attempted to use some penetrating oil on the left side inspection cover on what appeared to be your standard phillips head screw... Well, they aren't your standard phillips head screw. They require a special bit to remove. You are able to get a good bite in a tightening direction however in a loosening direction the bits just slip right off due to the angle inside the screw head. I wasn't about to source a bit i'll never find in an attempt to remove screws that probably wouldn't come off anyway so I just decided to slice it instead.
First Cuts! It took me six full 4" cutting wheels on an angle grinder to slice through this 14 foot long tank. My cuts on the horizontal plane weren't 100% straight but it's difficult to keep a cut straight for over 12 feet. i'll straighten and smooth them out at a later date. The inspection cover was decently difficult to cut through, as well as all the unknown baffles and weld seams and structural supports underneath. Even after slicing the horizontal center lines the top of this tank would not budge AT ALL. Looking through the fuel filler cap was the only visible point of entry for me to see what I was up against and I was able to see the rear baffle before I cut, but I couldn't see much more than that. I did know there would be baffles inside being that this tank came from a high speed aircraft and the baffles would be necessary to help minimize fuel surge as the Warthog increased and decreased in altitude. Once I had the tank cut at the half way point I was able to use a flat tip screwdriver to pry open the skin a little bit and use a flashlight to peek inside and from there determined where I needed to make further cuts to the tank. After that I was in with a sizeable window to really see what I was up against and WOW! The engineering that went into the creation of this tank is crazy. The support structure for the hangars are beefy. I found a date inside that was labeled for January 5th, 1970, so this tank is at a minimum 53 years old. The interior of the tank has zero rust and is in near perfect condition which is incredible. This made me very happy to see... I scored a tank with no external damage or dents and a perfect inside. There are 2 surge prevention baffles, 2 fuel transfer pumps, quite a few tubes, grounding straps, etc. which all have to be removed in order for me to split the tank. I have to work from the inside out.
Powerplant I managed to source a 1950 Mercury / Ford Flathead V8 and a 3 on the tree transmission from a gentleman about an hour south of my workplace. The engine was just recently pulled from a 1950 Mercury Custom and i'm told it isn't 100% stock. Per the seller it runs, and the trans should shift through the gears without issue. There looks to be a potential oil leak on the trans i'll need to take care of but i'll get to that when I get to that. I know absolutely nothing about flatheads or this trans so this will be a big learning curve for me. I just about laughed when I saw the trans for the first time. I wasn't expecting it to be so small. This is all new territory (Corvette guy here). The engine came with two sets of carbs; a new set with breather filters that I was told were choking out the motor, and an old vintage set with the Ford logo on the side. It has the motor mounts, and some other miscellaneous bits and pieces. For starters I'll need to source a radiator, as well and put together my own wiring harness but that's pretty far down the road.
The rear half is separated and gutted out! Starting to make some good progress on the tank itself. The Sawzall was my friend here. I still need to work my way through the front of the tank so to get it separated with efficiency I'm probably just going to take a longer Sawzall blade and chop through the baffles and support structure. I'm really not worried about preserving the internals since I'll never be able to use this stuff. The goal is to just get this thing split! I had a crazy thought. The goal is to try and make this lakester street legal, so I may try and re-purpose the transfer pumps into either a singular head and tail light, or two tail lights or two headlights... they are already red so probably two tail lights. I'm also rebuilding the front end of a 2006 Pontiac Vibe for a family member at the same time due to a deer strike so the lakester is going to sit for a bit until I can continue. I've also got no heat in this 1500 sq. ft. garage (yet) so I only make my way to the garage on nicer days when I'm not working. If anyone has the scoop on a good rear end that will be relatively easy to mate to this 1950 mercury flathead and 3 on the tree trans, I'm all ears. I'm sitting inside on the computer for hours at this point researching my options because there really is no instruction manual for one of these. I'd like to run either a Ford 9" rear end or a Banjo rear (frankly anything that would work really), and my currently dilemma is figuring out what can attach to what. The goal is to be able to street the lakester and even drive it to work every now and then so I may even opt for new parts to save myself some headache down the road. I'm pretty sure i'll be welding the rear end to the frame. The torque tube needs to be shortened if I can find one, or it will need an open driveshaft conversion as well as a custom length driveshaft made. If anyone has any info methods to make the trans work with either of those rear ends I'd greatly appreciate your input!
Since you are using the running gear you have you should check out ''Belly Tank Build, UK. Even my build ''Belly Tank Build NZ. They are all different in there approach. JW
Wow! You're jumping in the deep end! This is ambitious. Do you have plans for this as a land speed racer, or just a street legal cruise night thingy? Do you plan to sit down in it, shoulder-wise, or with your torso more hanging out of it? Where are you located? I'm not going to pretend to know everything about A10's, but once upon a time, I was an engine mechanic on them in the Air National Guard. The weird screws are called Torq-Set, yes, they take a dedicated driver tip. That 1970 date code is extremely early, the first ones went in service in '72, so maybe prototype/test mule, or produced before the first release. All that stuff inside, not surprising to me, the plane spends a lot of time at high G's. Perhaps some of it will come in handy as you progress, so maybe hang on to some of it. Have you been to Bonneville? lots of innovative solutions to what you will face. Packaging is everything, so your motorcycle experience should be helpful. Good luck, and welcome to the HAMB!
Come on that's no fun. I would have had that thing strapped to the top of a station wagon or something just to freak people out
Here's a couple of thoughts. It's an awesome journey you're starting on. You say you have no flathead experience and, it appears no experience in what's feasible with a belly tank. Maybe you should post your general location, not your home address, and you might find some HAMBsters in that area close enough to help you out with good advice on your powerplant and driveline. You might even find some knowledgeable Bonneville types close to you. Just saying.
To my eye, the size says headlight(s). But....if, in your state, you can run a single h/l on a 4-wheel vehicle, great. Now, if you have to make a single front steer wheel (trike) and license it as a motorcycle, well.....then a single headlight would work. As a sidebar.....are you going to keep the horizontal stabilizer out back? If so, that seems to be an excellent mounting base for "navigation" lights, utilized as tail/brake/turn signals. Know where you can get A-10 nav lights? (wink) I'd tell you to get yourself a Mopar 8-3/4, but I'm a Mopar guy. Besides, that's an open drive axle, and would require you to convert your trans to an open shaft.. Then you're going to want a suspension system, even if it's only about 4" of travel. That thing is going to beat your backside up on the street without suspension. NO! You have a problem with whatever axle you opt for, and you'll be kicking your own arse all the way to the end of the block. Even if you don't build a suspension system, make the third member bolt in. Build whatever stout brackets you have to, but make it removable for service. So you don't have a torque tube to work with. At this point, I'd be inclined to convert the trans to open drive shaft. It'll be easier, (I think), in the long run for your build. Just my opinion.....Roger
You had me at Warthog. When it comes to engine mounts you might want to consider using truck water pumps with the side tabs to make things easier. Or not. Problem with using truck pumps is that they are wide belt and the Merc you have is narrow belt. You can change the crank pulley and generator pulleys to wide belt ones. Or, if you can find them, a set of earlier Merc pumps which are narrow belt but have the mounting tabs similar to truck pumps. Note, the mounting tab heights are different on the Merc pumps as opposed to truck pumps but that shouldn't be an issue since you have to fabricate how they attach to the frame. @alanp561 makes a good suggestion about adding your location to your profile. Looking forward to more updates.
Wow...really missed that one, didn't I ? In my defence, the engine detail is difficult to see in the shadows. But yeah, great work in any case. Looks very good. Many years back, I had one of those Suzuki Intruders. The engine is painted silver from the factory. I painted mine flat black, not to fool anyone, didn't even think of that, but just because I didn't like all of that silver. The tank and fenders were a dark blue. All of a sudden, Harley guys started waving !! I wondered, what the hell. Then remembered, that from 20ft away, it's just a tall V-Twin, and you really can't tell what engine it is !! The damn thing was...it had NO power. Even for an 1100cc engine, it was huffing and puffing to make it to 100mph ! Mike
I understand these tanks were used for cross country or cross ocean flights. The record holding lakester at Bonneville in F/BGL uses one of these tanks.
Remember I one built awhile back...full suspension....Drove it on the street as you see it....well, not too much,lol....
I'm with GTS225, You gotta have suspension if you want to drive on the street. The thing will bounce uncontrollably in washboard turns and generally beat you to death. Same with welding the rear end to the chassis, how will you fix anything that may go wrong? Might consider an IRS, then you can eliminate a driveshaft altogether, thereby shortening the whole package at least a foot.
Subscribed - as soon as I read your intro and description. I'm on my second Honda 600 Shadow - superb little bikes they are. I owned one for a year before I realized it had two spark plugs per cylinder. That raises another philosophical question regarding OT postings (sorta tongue-in-cheek LOL): If the belly tank came from a 1970 aircraft does that make it Off Topic???
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