There an ad on the Appleton, Wisconsin Craigslist by guy parting out a '48-52 F-1 truck. He doesn't describe it as a panel truck but his main picture of the chassis shows a panel truck frame with a gas tank.



I don't know the seller. The guy is very proud of his parts, the reason he's been advertising his parts for a month. Maybe you can make a deal with the guy, just don't let on how hard it is to find a decent tank.

https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/pts/6167602024.html

 

I never considered where the the gas tank in a panel truck would be located until now. Has anyone ever adapted one of these to a truck with a bed? Or would that even be possible?

 

I think it should fit. The only problem would be the fill tube. In the panel it goes up between the frame and body. Also, running a dual exhaust system the driver's sides needs to be routed around the tank.

 

Just a shout out of thanks to Bob for the heads up on this one. I bought the tank for my panel, much better than the swiss cheese version I currently had. Also, Mark(guy with the craigslist ad) was great to work with. He deals in used motorcycle stuff, so I think hes just kind of guessing at pricing.

 

Glad I could help. I know the tanks are the third hardest panel truck part to find.

 

What are the first two? The left rear door and the right rear door?

 

I'm betting the passenger seat is in the top three of hard to find panel parts. I was very fortunate to have original seats and both rear doors. I had a gas tank too, but it was too far gone to save. I had someone fabricate a replacement tank for me that looks just like the original. It ended up costing about $300. That seemed like a lot at the time, but looking back, it was really just the start of the major $$ that would be disappearing from my bank account.

Jim

 

Oh, I forgot about the optional foldable passenger seat.

Come on Jim, it's only money! 💰

 

Yeah, I would put the passenger seat as #1, either rear door as #2. A decent body without rear wheel opening rot out is #4. Once the rear opening area is rotted out the entire integrity of the body is gone.

I once got a passenger seat for free. It was solid condition but the upholstery was mostly gone and the springs and frame had surface rust. I eventually bought a panel with both seats so I had the extra one sitting on a shelf in my shop. While moving out of the shop my wife told my sons to take the seat to the dumpster out back. Luckily I was there, I told her the seat was worth a few bucks. Of course she thought it was a useless piece of rust. To prove her wrong I listed it on line and sold it the next day for $125.

Jim I think $300 for a custom tank was a very good price. The on line tank sellers get $200+ for reproduction tanks for a lot more common production cars.

 

Bob, as you know, I was not so fortunate with #3 on your list--rear wheel opening rot. The rot in this area of my truck is well documented in several other threads. Fixing it correctly would have cost a fortune, so I ended up brazing and welding up what I had.

Jim

 

Unfortunately the death of many panels is the deterioration of the rear wheel section. I was fortunate, my panel is very solid. The first one I had was pretty rotted out but this area was in really nice shape.

 

I purchased some rear wheel tubs in pretty good shape from a guy in Colorado. I also have replacement exterior wheel arches that the tubs fasten to. Actually, I should be pretty well set as far as parts go to do a quality, long term repair. The only thing missing is the willingness to spend the money.

Bob, someday when you are retired and have nothing better to do, I'll have to come down, and you can fix my truck the right way with my stashed parts. Hopefully, by then my cash stash will have built back up a little. LOL.

Jim