I still have the original bench seat that I had recovered. All is fine, but I did have to use a smaller steering wheel with the stock steering column. I noticed that many of us use a tilt column to get the wheel up, but so far that isn't in my plans.

So...

Is there any real gain from removing the gas tank?

 

Thanks!! This is a really old thread!! The seat still looks pretty good after a couple of years on the road. It's not my daily driver, but I am putting a few miles on now and then.

Dan

 

From the standpoint of the seat, not really. I have seen guys here remove the gas tank from the cab in anticipation of putting a late model seat in the truck. Then, they always discover that removing that tank didn't give them any more room (because even if the new seat is adjustable, the top of the seat still strikes the back of the cab before it gets anywhere close to the tank). It's a matter of geometry. The only seats that are affected are the highly customized, homemade jobs where they extend the whole thing (speakers, console, etc.) all the way to the back of the cab.

 

Hey Jon,
Is there anything to be gained from removing the gas tank?

Hmmm I'll take the other side of this one. Yes...
o You get the smelly old gas tank out of the cab back under the bed where it belongs. Our tank had a leak around the gasket I could never quite fix - a drop of gasoline smells up the whole cab.

o You don't have to hear the gas sloshing around next to you constantly reminding you of the movie "Towering Inferno".

Our truck is a '50 F1. The cabs are really small - especially compared to today's standard truck cab. You'll appreciate every square inch you can free up. We used a Chevy S10 seat that's pretty thin in the back so I think we gained a few inches. The biggest way to gain inches is to re-do the steering column/wheel then you can set it where you want & get the tilt just right.

I like having the gas tank out of the cab. If I had a nice stock '50 that ran well & didn't need much work would I do it? No - not worth the effort. If you have to do extensive work on your truck anyway I'd do it.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Ben in Austin
My truck is just fine with the tank in the cab but I do smell a little after a fillup. My sender gasket leaks just a bit and I hope some goop will fix that.

Truck is on the road so I'm just chasing Ford EFI EECIV issues.

 

Anyone have a bench seat that is 52" for Ford F1 with the center console that folds up for 3 seats or down for drink holder/ arm rest??

Thanks

 

I used a 40/20/40 bench seat from a 2005 Dodge Dakota. I removed the head rests before recovering the seats because I didn't feel that the headrests went with the truck.

 

Hey SirTalos,
As you can see from Doraville's pics that's a very nice example of a bench
set up with a foldable center console. What's hard to tell from pics is how
tight our cabs are vs. the modern truck. We've got a straight bench seat in our '50 ...
there is no real room for a third person in the cab. I just didn't want to see you go
through a lot of work trying to get a 3 person seat into a 2 seat cab.

We've got a center seat belt set up in our '50 but it would only work for a very small child (IMO) .

Good luck over there in South Dakota... beautiful state.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Do you have any hints for mounting the seat? I have a 1990 ranger bench available.

 

 

Doraville,
When you got the seat from the 2005 Dakota, did you also get the mounting slides?

Some more details on your install would help as I am considering the same seat for my 48 F1.

Philip