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i have a 56 pu, mid fifties tank, bed mounted, top filler. i am getting too old hopping on the bumper to reach down to fill the tank. its a PIA. my question is
has anyone put a fuel door in the rear fender OR any other way and connect it up with the top fill?
i know randy jack did his thing( which i totally was in awe) but his was on a side fill. i dont want to buy another new tank. its a funds issue. anyone with ideas? all ideas are welcomed thanks alot
P.S. i do not have the skills randy has. lol
Thanks for the compliments. I looked at a lot of ways to get a tank filler into my truck. Grafting a door into the fender and finding a side-fill tank was just one of them. I'm not familiar with which Mid Fifty tank you are using or what the filler neck geometry looks like. Pictures (like in a gallery???) would help us help you. Without that, here's a couple of shots in the dark:
The solution depends on the aesthetics you need. It seems to me that it would be easy to rig a tube and cap that runs from the existing filler up and over to a rear bed corner. That would look pretty funky (unless you have a tonneau), but it would be very convenient and easy to do.
A prettier, but harder install would be to install a 90 degree neck on the tank and run the fill to either behind the license or over to the bedside. There is enough space between the rear of the fender and the rear of the bed to install a flat door, if you don't want to mess with the fender.
I'm notorious for being a tightwad, my solution was to use a marine style filler neck in the right rear fender of my truck. I am using a mid 80's GM full sized Blazer tank in my 49. I had considered adding a fuel door into my fender like Randy did (beautiful job!) but it just didn't lay out very well for me. I stumbled upon the marine style fuel neck on the discount rack at the marina, I think I paid $20 for it.
Someone here recently used one of those fancy chrome pop up filler necks that they use on custom motorcycle tanks. That makes for a very clean and flush filler neck.
Here's a pic of mine, its not the best pic but you can kind of get the idea.
Using John Nilon's procedure is how I installed the tank in my 52, then I went to Home Depot and got some rubber elbows, some exhaust pipe and ran the fill out the side, then up to the top of the DS rear fender. Got a marine fill fitting off of Ebay, and it worked out good for me.
I used hardware store parts for my fuel filler lines also. I used a combination of the stock rubber hoses from the Blazer and soem parts form the electrical section of the harware store, I used a 1 1/2" 90 degree electrical sweep to make the transition from horizontal to vertical.
I did drill and tap my marine filler so I could add a fitting for the 3/4" overflow hose