1986F150Six Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 And what about the pickups with the in-cab tank? Granted the tank was well protected from rear collisions, but not side. And, don't forget the VWs... 10.6 gallons right in front of you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted September 29, 2021 Author Share Posted September 29, 2021 And, don't forget the VWs... 10.6 gallons right in front of you! Yep. We sure didn't have "safe" vehicles back then, did we? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 Yep. We sure didn't have "safe" vehicles back then, did we? I used to have a 1929 Model A Ford. The gas tank was in the cowl, so the back of the tank was the dashboard. The steering column bracket was riveted to the tank. On my car the rivets had worked loose so gas dripped onto the floor (or your knees). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted September 29, 2021 Author Share Posted September 29, 2021 I used to have a 1929 Model A Ford. The gas tank was in the cowl, so the back of the tank was the dashboard. The steering column bracket was riveted to the tank. On my car the rivets had worked loose so gas dripped onto the floor (or your knees). My nephew that set up the A/C on Big Blue borrowed a Model A for the getaway car on their wedding day. And it caught fire due to one of those fuel tank leaks. They got it put out, but there was damage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 My nephew that set up the A/C on Big Blue borrowed a Model A for the getaway car on their wedding day. And it caught fire due to one of those fuel tank leaks. They got it put out, but there was damage. We fixed that fuel leak by putting some Loc-Tite around the base of the bracket! I was about 10 when my dad implemented that. It was still not leaking 24 years later when I sold that car. And that was even with having the body dipped to strip the old paint and rust and everything to get it ready for new paint! (Sorry, I don't know what Loc-Tite product it was.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ratdude747 Posted September 29, 2021 Share Posted September 29, 2021 My nephew that set up the A/C on Big Blue borrowed a Model A for the getaway car on their wedding day. And it caught fire due to one of those fuel tank leaks. They got it put out, but there was damage. Off topic: At my wedding the "planned" getaway car was supposed to be a Yellow Model A with a rumble seat... but it was rainy. We instead got cheuffered in the same guy's 1917 Model T. Still way cool! I'd like to have a Model A someday... or a Stovebolt Chevy. IMHO it's the best of both worlds; modern(ish) controls but with the old wagon styling. But really any pre-1970's car is cool like that (or any "old" car in general!). But, alas, I'm young and realtively poor; my Bullnose is the oldest thing I've ever owned... or ridden/driven in routinely (my parents' oldest when I was growing up were a 1987 Chevy C10 and a 1988 GMC Safari!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85lebaront2 Posted September 30, 2021 Share Posted September 30, 2021 Off topic: At my wedding the "planned" getaway car was supposed to be a Yellow Model A with a rumble seat... but it was rainy. We instead got cheuffered in the same guy's 1917 Model T. Still way cool! I'd like to have a Model A someday... or a Stovebolt Chevy. IMHO it's the best of both worlds; modern(ish) controls but with the old wagon styling. But really any pre-1970's car is cool like that (or any "old" car in general!). But, alas, I'm young and realtively poor; my Bullnose is the oldest thing I've ever owned... or ridden/driven in routinely (my parents' oldest when I was growing up were a 1987 Chevy C10 and a 1988 GMC Safari!). Earliest car I remember my parents having was a 1948 Pontiac, straight 8 and the 1st year Hydramatic (for Pontiac) They bought it new to replace the 1941 Buick Special dad bought after WWII to replace mom's 1939 Chevy. Mom hated that car, every time they had a little extra money it would break something. My first pickup was a 1958 F100, tank behind the seat. I could fill it in the rain without getting wet. As for safe gas tank locations, the full size Ford wagons and sedans had the tank vertically behind the rear axle where it was in between the frame rails. That was one reason those big land yachts were popular demolition derby cars Between the space between the front bumper and radiator and the gas tank location they where hard to kill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Littlebeefy Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 That is Ralph Nader's Pinto Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nemesis F150 Posted October 1, 2021 Share Posted October 1, 2021 I used to have a 1929 Model A Ford. The gas tank was in the cowl, so the back of the tank was the dashboard. The steering column bracket was riveted to the tank. On my car the rivets had worked loose so gas dripped onto the floor (or your knees). Model A gas tank … brings back memories. We lived in the country and there was a lightly used single lane with turnouts dirt road nearby that had a Model A that was apparently abandoned sitting well off the right of way by a hundred or so feet and slowly being obscured by the woods growing up around it. At the time, Model As were popular for hot rods and with time on my hands I slowly started stripping it, the gas tank being one of the components. Were the early A cowls narrower than the later ones? If I recall (that was a long time ago), this one was narrower than the later versions. Unfortunately, the gas tank had a g'zillion bolts to undo, every few inches all around it. Rusty threads. Seemed the whole body of the car was attached to it. This one aspect I remember well. The body was a sedan and being large it required some thought about how to get it to my parents property. While figuring out how to move it the remaining part of the car "disappeared". Fun activity while it lasted. Dad “cleaned up the property” while I was in the service during Viet Nam and all the parts went away, along with a ’39 Plymouth and a ’50 Ford Panel. Guess I was an early collector. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted October 2, 2021 Share Posted October 2, 2021 .... Were the early A cowls narrower than the later ones? If I recall (that was a long time ago), this one was narrower than the later versions.... Yeah, the '28 and '29 cowl ended with about a 1" step out to the body on each side. The '30 and '31 cowl blended into the body. By the way, the cowl tank in the Model A solved a problem the earlier Model T had. Neither had a fuel pump, relying on gravity to get the fuel from the tank to the carb. The T had the tank lower and further back in the car. It worked fine most of the time, but my grandmother told me about a hill she had to negotiate between her house and her job. It was steep enough that with the T's nose pointed up the hill the gas tank was no longer above the carb, and the engine would run out of gas. So she had to stop at the bottom, turn around and back up the hill to make it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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