1936 Terraplane gas tank

bent metal
bent metal Senior Contributor
in "How To" - Skills, mechanical and other wise
Customer sent me a gas tank to put in his '36 Terraplane.  But he wants it to bolt to the chassis, not the bottom of the trunk floor, as they originally did.  The challenge is the tank halves are not symmetrical from side to side, or from front to back.  Also the chassis is curved in this area.  However, you will be able to see the bottom edge of the tank under the car, when it's all done.  So the bottom needs to be level when you are looking at the car from the rear.  I wanted to attach the tank without drilling any holes or altering the tank in any way.  We decided it should look as though the factory might have made the hangers.  I made the brackets to look like part of the frame, with similar riveted type joints and straps around the bottom of the tank.  Factory'ish, but more heavy duty, and a little more style.  First, flip the chassis upside down.  Set the chassis at ride height, but upside down.  Locate the tank where it will clear the floor.  Then come up with a design that looks right.  Had a water jet guy cut out the shapes to match my cardboard stuff.

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  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    Bend and shape the brackets to fit.  Notice no two brackets are the same.  The original tank strapping is sheet metal about 16ga.  I made these in 3/16" steel.  Because of this design those straps need to be strong.  I am pinching the seam and the brackets fit into a recess stamped in the tank to hold the tank in place.  If anything should go wrong, the tank will still be trapped between the bottom of the trunk floor and those heavy straps, which look way better than the originals anyway.  The attaching bolts are carriage bolts with the heads turned to make them look like rivet heads when viewed from the bottom.  The rivets going into the chassis are the same diameter and height as the original rivets on the frame, in various places.  Hopefully it looks like part of the frame, like the factory might have done.
  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    The frame turned over.  Everything welded in.  Because of the way the tank is made, it's taller on one side than the other, the top is not level.  But the bottom is level and straight.
  • 54coupe
    54coupe Member
    That looks incredible. I think you're going to need to put a glass floor in the trunk so everyone can see this.
  • PaulButler
    PaulButler Administrator
    Beautiful work as always Perry! I like the idea of the glass floor as well :)
  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    Maybe a tinted glass floor, with a light underneath.  So the floor looks black, then you flip the light on and BAMM!! You can see through to the fuel tank.  :)  Haha, probably not going to do that. :)
  • jjbubaboy
    jjbubaboy Senior Contributor
    Amazing as always, and that's a real sweet looking frame too!

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