Sounds like you're having great fun! These old radiators are a pain AND pretty expensive to repair. A core cost almost as much as a new aluminum one off of eBay. Good luck on the repairs.

 

Well, I found a place that repairs radiators and gas tanks only 15 minutes from my house. So, Friday I took them both out. Possibly good news and bad news.
He looked at the radiator and thought it seemed in good shape. He said he would get to it by the end of the week.
The gas tank is a different story. There was some debris in it and I shook out some fine red powder. Listening to what he heard inside when I shook it, he wasn't confident in a good repair. He said he could boil the tank for about $60, but he thought he might have to coat the tank at around $200. Well that adds up to more than a new tank. I decided not to gamble with the boiling and I'm looking at getting a new tank.

I will get the sending unit off and see if I can peak in the tank and get a better look before I buy the new one. I really want to use as many of the original parts as possible, but a gas tank is not something to mess around with. I don't want to take a chance of any debris coming loose and clogging the fuel system.

I'm not going to be able to get to the garage next weekend so I will just put together some parts lists while I can.

 

If you shook it with the sending unit in it, that may be what you heard. It probably wasn't doing the sending unit any good either...

 

I ran on the same thing near O'Fallon. I've got a shop that is sort of Ma and Pop. It is cheaper to buy an aluminum radiator than to re-core our old ones and my guy said unless I couldn't get a new Tank it would be cheaper to buy new than to boil & seal my old tank. The guy is in business to fix radiators so you gotta appreciate him being straight up with ya.

 

Hey Joe,

I ended up going with a new stock tank as well. I originally re-sealed mine with a POR-15 kit which is a really good product. The soldered in flange for the gas-gauge sending unit cracked at the solder joint after I re-sealed the tank. Re-soldering would have destroyed the coating inside the tank in that area, so I threw in the towel and bought a new tank. The first one that I ordered from Mac's was a good deal at around $200 with free shipping. The Mac's part had a gas gauge mount with a dual pattern...so both 5 and 6 bolt rings for both the original sending unit and the newer style common to most of the new 12v gauge sets.

After no word, I called Mac's who said the tank was back-ordered for 6 weeks, so I cancelled the order. I ordered another from Speedway with free 2 day shipping....that came in 2 days...and so did the tank from Mac's. I refused delivery on the Mac's tank and used the Speedway tank. The tank from Speedway had the original style sending unit mounting flange, but they do sell an adapter.

The new tank is clean, and appears to have a coating similar to the POR material. So far...no problems.

Dan

 

Good Grief! This is another one of these instances where my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders. Well when I get it out we will see what it's like.

BJ, it was refreshing to have him be so up front with me. He was a pretty young kid. It was lunch when I took it over and he had to leave pretty quickly. I spoke with another kid that worked there and he had a 1961 Ranchero that is his dad's and he was fixing some things on it so his dad could drive it back to Pennsylvania. The kid though his dad was a little crazy for wanting to drive it that far. Of course I had to tell of Bob's drive to Truckstock.

Thanks Dan, I need to do some shopping.

 

Joe,

I saw your trucks (twin) sister Saturday...



Not to far from your daughter....

 

Nice lookin Truck! Wonder if CrazyWheel knows where this is too?

 

Oh man, that would look great in my driveway.
Elizabeth could put her car in the bed and drive them both home with her.
Although at 89 pounds she might not be able to get the brake pedal to the floor.

 

Well it's been a quiet month in the garage.
I took the sending unit off the tank. That was a pain, I broke two of the screws. That was not what was rattling around. It was very stiff and the float was rotted through. Looking in it, the sides didn't look too bad....but I'm still going to most likely get another tank. I just need to save up the money for that.

I did get my radiator back and I have it back in place. My daughter is home from college so I need to take her for a ride and test out the repaired radiator. I asked about a recore and his estimate was as much or more than a new radiator. It will be a long time before I need to worry about that.

 

Same here Joe. My radiator guy told me to look for a new aluminum one. He said he couldn't compare with the Chinese prices. He did say it would be much harder to repair but he said I probably would get tired of the truck before I ran into problems with a new aluminum radiator.

 

Well I finally saved up enough pennies to buy a new gas tank. It was exciting to have the UPS truck pull up.
This was my first large purchase, (my large is peanuts so some of you guys). I started getting everything put in place, but I won't be able to work on it this weekend. Bummer
Here are my shiny new parts. The part in bubble wrap are the gas tank straps. I will probably send them back. On my original ones, one of the bolts broke. So today I drilled out the rivets and got new bolts and small bolts to put it back together. I just painted them or I would have pictures of that for you. We will see how it works before I decide to send the new ones back. Notice the tootsie rolls. My 9 year old finished them off in no time.


Now to tell on myself. Notice how the original line and the new one are different? Well those two tabs say "Straighten Between Tags". That was very hard to read since it was in half. I was about to email Mid Fifty, but I thought I would get a part number off it and that's when I determined the tags were English.


Here are the original and new laid in place. I was a little surprised that the line went past the fuel pump several inches. But the original did the same.


Do I want to put something on the threads? I know Teflon is bad here. I sure don't want leaky gas lines though.

Oh, I ordered the drain plug, but the new tank comes with one....
This is the first progress in a while. I wouldn't mind some alone time in the garage....maybe next weekend.

 

Hey Joe,
That's a nice gas tank set up. Is that a bronco tank? You are going to like having it back there.

Ben in Austin
1950 F1

 

Ben, that's a stock tank. It's sitting on the running board brackets. I'm excited about getting it hooked up.

I just went out to look for the original sending unit and I can't seem to find it. Grrr....I want to cover that hole until it's time to get a functioning sending unit. Man what did I do with it. I was sure I set it next to the door because it didn't smell too good.......

 

Slap some duct tape on it and call it a day.