Considering moving my fuel filler from the side to the bed floor of the truck. I'm assuming I'll need a different tank with the opening in the center rather than on the side.
Has anyone done this and what tank/sender will work for a 1979 dentside?

 

A stock tank would be the most logical choice. if you still have a filler door.

 

This guy does a great job with his F100 work. Don't know if it is applicable to your needs/wants...but if nothing else, can get a sense of what he runs into with the project. I'm not sure this is the correct link...he's got a bunch of them. John

 

I guess it would be a just OK idea for a truck never to be used, not even for a tailgate pic-nic.

 

I guess with a plasma cutter and welder, anything is possible!

 

I figured that the stock tank w/ the left sided filler location might have a very acute angle for the tubing if I wanted to put the filler in the bed. I'll be pulling the rotten bed out at some time so I can see just how much room I have to work with under the underside of the bed.

 

Oh, so you have a Dent-side Flare-side and have a rotted floor? That's gonna be easy to just replace the fuel fill hose if needed then when all the wood is out of the way. But I get it, you want to smooth the fender. Before putting it in the bed, have you considered putting it behind the bumper, maybe build a bumper with flip down tag mount in center to access the fill?

 

I'll consider that location as well. I kinda like the look of the bed floor filler.
yes, I have a flare side dent side. Looking at the door tag it was originally a style side. a PO must have replaced it at some point w/ the incorrect 80's and later flare fenders. I'll start looking into how I can remove the bed and get it down to the frame where I can figure out what's necessary for such a conversion. I will also need to smooth the fender where the fuel door is.

 

If it's gonna be strictly a show truck, race truck, or just a "cruise in" truck, trick mod. You could even leave the bed floor bare of wood.

My thought was if it's to be a truck to move trash to the dumpsters, haul tree parts like limbs or trunks, brush, recycling stuff, etc ... if needing fuel it's not gonna be so cool trying to access it under a load, plus then you have dirt, debris right there at the cap. If ever the truck might be sold, any potential buyer is gonna consider it too.

Somewhere I saw an article or post about putting a Flare-side's fuel filler up in the rear fender like high and to the rear of the tire but out of sight.

I might ruffle feathers here, but I actually like the '80s up style flared fenders on anything newer from the Bump sides up, but the old big rounded ones better on '66s and back. I just thought long ago, even back when they were selling those Bumps new that Ford was needing to update those fenders. Then the Flare-sides were usually destined for the farm or industrial uses. They look OK on a Dent, but I just like the newer '80s up look better, more linear. I'm not a "purist" in the purest sense.

 

thanks for those comments. I'll need to think it through a bit more. might be more trouble than it's worth.
While I do like the flare side, it eliminates the possibility for a two toned paint job. I might do the top/back of the cab a different color than the rest to give it a vintage two toned look. that's years down the road however.

 

The 1980 and later rear fenders actually lend them selves better to a two tone paint job on a '73-'79 truck.

Look at the poster "FuzzFace2" on here, he has a red & white '81 Flare-side. It shows how close the lines of the Dents are remembered in the '80 up trucks. Whether two tone or not, those later fenders look at home on a Dent. I think that if a fellow was really handy, he could even make the '73-'79 race-trac trim and top wide trim work into it, but I wouldn't go that far if mine.



There are no lines remembered in those round fenders.

 

Last night I had a nice post then we got hit with a storm that knocked the power out before I could save it

2 tone isnot hard on the 80 - 86 flare sides as shown on mine with factory colors.
The only thing I did not do is add back the decal stripes where the 2 colors meet up as no one makes them and to use NOS if you could find any the glue would be no good. I like the way it turned out and no one knows other wise.

As for trim it was never used on the 80's flare sides.
Cab would be easy just use the style side moldings.
Now if you are good you might be able to use style side bed moldings and bend to fit but something to know the 80's style sides used I think 3 different moldings and where they went on the body.

Now on to the filler the 80's flare side only came with a 16 gallon front / side tank, rear tank was never an option.
Style side short bed trucks you could get with a rear 19 gallon only, front / side only16 gallon or dual 16 f / 19 r tanks.
I felt the 16 gallon was not enough so I added a 19 gallon rear tank with the 16 gallon so I have dual tanks on my flare side.
I used all the parts from my style side parts truck from dash switch to wiring to fuel lines & switch valve to the rear tank.

Because a rear tank was never offered I had to get a 2nd flare side filler door, style side is different, and glassed it into the rear of the fender.
Between parts from the 2nd filler door / box & neck and the parts truck I was able to get it hooked up and working like factory.
The filler fits between bed & frame for both fillers

The 2 filler doors that look factory

The only issues the 80's trucks have is when filling the pump keeps kicking off because the vent has fallen inside the filler tube and will not vent.
In rebuilding the tank systems I made sure this vent tube was in place ans would not fall out. I can refill both tanks as fast as I want with no kick back.

Wood bed floor, note the 80's beds had 2 different ways this was done.
80 to 83 IIRC use boards that most know of with metal strips between them.
84 to 86 used ply wood, 2 sheets is needed to make the floor. 1 sheet to do each side and the other for the center.
If you do a search in the 80 - 86 area for ply wood bed floor the sizes are listed how to cut them.
IIRC 2 of the 5 metal strips go between the 3 parts of wood and the other just lay on top to look like boards.
Metal strips between the 2 types of wood used are also different, think all you can get are the later strips?

Me I cheated as they wanted $1000 just for the sills & cross braces, to much money for this build, so I used the parts truck style side metal ribbed floor.
Cut the sides off, made it shorter as it was a long bed and grafted what was left of the rear sill onto the floor.
Fixed the bed sides lip where it bolts to the floor and bolted everything together like a factory flare side.
The way I did it I could unbolt the sides replace the floor with wood and bolt the sides back on.


In the 2nd picture you can see I use the truck weekly to haul the trash to the dump so mounting a filler in the bed is out of the question for me but that me.
As you can see there is more to the 80's flare side bed than meets the eye when it comes to rebuilding them but they are not hard once you know.
Hope the information helps
Dave ----

 

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.cd03270d...pid=ImgRaw&r=0 Tail lamps would be pretty cool too.