Pulled the seat and tank today to start cleaning everything up. I noticed on the back of the cab behind the tank it has a bunch of gas smelling thick tar/dirt build up. I started scraping it but was really making no progress. What's the best way to remove all the gunk? Some of it is soft like tar. I was thinking of soaking it down with a good degreaser or something to break it up. It's pretty much the whole back cab behind the tank. Ideas?

 

I might venture a guess that someone shot some undercoating back there as a sound deadener. Any gas leak that severe, over a 50+ year time frame , would have had a real bad result. And sadly, that technique is occasionally used to hide rust, bondo, or other undesirable forms of damage.

 

My first thought was that it was a fire retardant or something similar. The truck was a one owner farm truck. I scraped about a 1/4 of it off and the cab is in great shape behind it, no rust or holes.. It’s just a pain to get off. I wasn’t sure if this was something from the factory or from the original owner. I'll have to take a pic later tonight. It’s definitely a black tar like substance but hard.

 

Most likely rustproofing used to deaden sound a bit in these tincan cabs. Very little sound deadener from the factory, but the tar itself is not from the factory.

 

My 56 has the same thing. It does not cover the whole panel. And harder than nails. Before anybody can say anything I know it's 57- 60 forum. But I have a 56 and two 57's and tend to lurk around here on this forum.

 

Hey Thrifty lurking is acceptable, I lurk on our former forum.
Greg have you tried a heat gun to loosen it, if it was me and was no real reason for taking it out I would leave it. According to my 1959 ford truck body, trim & sealant manual. several models did recieve a sound treatment 52 inches wide by 14 inches high.
Good luck in your quest!

 

Now that I removed half of it already, I wish I would have left it. I guess i mainly wanted to see what was under it. I'm going to be repainting the inside anyway. This is the tar I was talking about.

 

I have seen it on some trucks. Not all though. Prehistoric dynamat!

 

I have three mid fifty f series trucks which all had this coating. I removed it by warming it up with a plumbers torch until it scraped off clean and easy. Only thing I would wonder about is if there is a "gas smell", it may ignite easy. Never had that in any of mine.