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My latest addition to my Dodge Lineup

69DodgeMan

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A long time ago my father had a '49 Dodge B1-B pickup on the farm. I learned to drive (before I was legal to) in that truck. It always seemed extra cool to me, maybe just because it was all I knew at the time. I don't know what he ever did with it, probably traded it off on the POS '65 Chevy that he had later on (he doesn't remember either). Anyway fast forward to September of this year when I happened upon an estate sale that listed a '53 Dodge pickup for sale. I decided to go investigate this truck as I knew it was nearly the same as Dad's old truck that I had liked so well 50 some years earlier. Unfortunately, I couldn't resist and it came home with me regardless of the fact that I already have THREE other running, working trucks on the farm! It's a '53 B4-C 116 flatbed. I think I have a Dodge problem.

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Definitely a cool truck, congrats on a nice score. Having to many is only a problem when you start neglecting them where they slowly rott away, enjoy.
 
Nothing slowly rotting here but me maybe. All my Dodges are stored indoors and driven pretty regularly except the trailer queen Super Bee, and I intend to start driving it a lot more next year. No more babying it for shows anymore. Hope to be able to care for them properly for a lot of years yet. Had the '53 out a couple days ago and boy does that old flat head six run nice! Really glad I bought it.
 
Nothing slowly rotting here but me maybe. All my Dodges are stored indoors and driven pretty regularly except the trailer queen Super Bee, and I intend to start driving it a lot more next year. No more babying it for shows anymore. Hope to be able to care for them properly for a lot of years yet. Had the '53 out a couple days ago and boy does that old flat head six run nice! Really glad I bought it.
Got a pic of the Bee?
 
Nice truck! Eight is great! Pic of the Bee, and the rest of the fleet. They love getting miles put on, that's what they were made for.
 
Been doing some work on the '53 the last week or so. While it ran fine when I purchased it from the estate sale, it didn't run for very long after I got it home. Went to start it and it would stall out, then wouldn't run at all. Found the sediment bowl and carburetor FULL of rust. That explained the comment at the auction from the family that they had a hard time getting it to run for the auction as it had set for quite some time after their father had passed away. Evidently they cleaned the carb and sediment bowl to get it running again, but did nothing to address the real problem, the rusty tank and lines. So the short time I had run it, it sucked the carb full of crap again.

So, first order of business was to clean and rebuild the carb. Luckily a carb kit is still available for these old beasts. Dismantled the entire carb and ran it through the ultrasonic cleaner to get rid of all the fine particle rust that was spread throughout the carb. Then did the rebuild with the carb kit. To make it temporarily mobile again, I outboarded a temp gas tank and ran a temporary fuel line to the freshly cleaned bowl and carb. Also added an inline fuel filter as there was none prior. This got the truck moving under its own power again until I found more time to tackle the tank and fuel line removal/replacement.
 
i'm dodge from the get go as well . its the only one that could hold up to me , lol , but that setup is using spacers from the lug pattern to the other outside rim . they tend to break and or run off center . just keep an eye on them , there's better setups . for the duel look .
 
Two choices to address the rusty gas tank problem, clean/restore the original tank, or find a new replacement tank. Reading up on cleaning/restoring a tank led me to a lot of reviews with mixed results. The tank coatings are expensive and only effective if/when the tank is extremely clean on the inside and it takes a lot of steps using chemicals to clean and hours of labor to get it that way if you can at all. There are many reports of the coating failing after a short period of time due to contamination and then you are right back to square one, a contaminated tank and clogged fuel system and you're out the time and money you put into the coating. Not a very promising option in my opinion.

Second choice, finding a new condition replacement tank for a 65 year old truck. Sounds a bit like finding a "needle in the haystack" right off the bat. Well, looking around for a bit it became obvious that an exact repro tank is NOT available from anyone for a '53 B series Dodge. At least I couldn't find one. However I was able to find something that is supposed to be close and can be modified to work on the "B" series trucks. TanksInc. makes a repro tank for '39 thru '47 Dodge trucks that sounds like a possibility.

TANKS Inc. gas tanks for street rods, muscle cars, custom cars and trucks

So, I decided to give this a try and install a brand new CLEAN tank in my '53. I ordered the 39DP-T tank from Tanksinc. When it arrived and I unpacked it I was immediately impressed with it. This tank is very well made with heavy gauge steel. It is designed to replace the original '39 thru '47 Dodge tank but has some modern upgrades such as a built-in sump for an electric in-tank fuel pump in case you plan to go EFI at some point. Nice!

But, as they said, it must be modified to fit my '53. So I started by getting the tank under the truck and into position so that I could see and measure what needed to be done to bolt it in. Below is their instructions to use this tank on a "B" series truck.

Modifications for the 39-47 Dodge Truck tank to work in the 1948-53 Dodge trucks
From Tanks, Inc.

The 1939-47 Dodge tank is shorter than the 1948-53 Dodge Truck tanks. Also, the neck is at a slightly different angle. The newer trucks used a tank that was 3.5 inches longer than the 39-47 Tanks, Therefore, it requires a bracket at the end of the tank, to the rear, to be constructed to support that end of the shorter tank.

A similar bracket was used in the 39-47 Dodge trucks, that had a longer wheelbase than the 116” of the half ton trucks. Example is the 120” and 133” trucks.
To use the shorter tank in the B Series trucks. It requires a triangle shaped bracket, one side bolted to the frame side (two bolts) and the bottom of frame (one bolt), and the bottom of the triangle would be bolted to the holes in the flange of the gas tank.

As for the front end, the bolt holes on the tank flange line up perfectly with the cross member mounting holes, just the same as the 39-47 trucks, and the angled filler neck lines up with the hole in cab floor. However, it is a slightly different angle and some simple modifications must be made.


The hole in floor should be enlarged about 1 inch on left side to allow connection to filler tube. That tube is longer and has a crook in it that should be removed. (inlet on side of cab is lower on the body)

So, simply cutting off the bottom 5 inches of the steel filler neck and using a longer rubber hose connection will allow good fit. Use about 10” of hose instead of the 5 inches. Tank fits well on the top, and on both sides there is clearance, basically the same as the 39-47 Dodge trucks.



Now, I'm not one to needlessly chop/cut up my classic vehicles to install a part (gas tank in this case) just because someone else said that's how you have to do it. So I've highlighted the text in RED above that I have found to be inaccurate. I now have the tank nicely installed and have NOT cut one iota of original steel on my truck. Everything I've done is 100% reversible and can be put back to factory stock should I ever happen to find a good original tank. :praying:

I'll post some photos of the mods/install later on, but, enough for tonight.
 
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Here are some photos to see the difference between the original B series tank and the replacement tank from a '39-'47 Dodge truck.

This angle shows that the two are somewhat close but not the same. Original is about 3" longer and 2" or 3" shallower than the replacement. Also original is a couple inches wider. The extra depth on the new replacement costs you a few inches ground clearance, but it is still well above the front and rear axles.
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The locations of the filler tube and the sending units are close, but again not exactly the same. Both are a few inches farther to the rear of the tank than the original. Therefore, I clocked the filler tube 60 degrees towards the front/driver side instead of mounting it straight to the side like the original. This is what allows me to NOT have to cut the cab floor for clearance as Tanks suggested in their instructions. Since the sending unit is also a couple inches further to the rear, it does not line up with the access hole in the cab floor. I'm OK with that, I'll just have to drop the tank if I ever need to get to the sender at a later date.
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Here again you can see the difference in the orientation of the filler tube on the new versus old.
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Probably the biggest difference is the "mounting flange". Original is at a "diagonal" whereas the replacement is "horizontal". Also the dimension between the two mounting holes on each end is not the same, TanksInc statement that the front can be "bolted right up" to the original mounting bracket is false. Also the fuel pickup point is in the front lower portion of the new tank versus the top middle of the old. No biggie since I was replacing all the old fuel line anyway, so the new line is routed accordingly.
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Fabbed up a couple of adapters to hang the tank under the truck in original position. Front and rear brackets are NEAR mirror images but rear is about 1/2" shorter than the front.

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