C8 progress in Texas

[David DeWeese]

Hi,
Spent part of the weekend trying to reproduce the fuel tank rails that support the two tanks behind the cab. Both rails had been cut by about 1/3 to mount only one tank under the right side of the truck.
Problem was that the original pieces have curved bends, where modern angle iron stock has sharp 90-degree bends.
Went to my scrap pile and found two Dodge military 1/2 ton WC fuel tank supports that surprisingly had the same gauge metal and curved angles as the C8 used.
Was able to use these to complete my support rails for my fuel tanks.
Now a question on the tanks:
From the photo, is this a left or right side tank?
Spent the rest of the weekend installing a new reproduction rear body on a friend's 1.5 ton Chevrolet. I installed an internally balanced 235 and CCKW five-speed transmission in it last year. No problem keeping up with traffic now he says..
Thanks, David
p.s. notice something odd about the right front tire?

[gordon]

All you really need to know to identify the tank is whether the fuel filler neck sits front or rear, but not got a clue. There must be an image out there somewhere that will tell you?

Gordon

[aj.lec]

Originally Posted by David DeWeese

Hi,
From the photo, is this a left or right side tank?

I would say left side (as you have it mounted in pic 2 )as the fillers are closer to the cab

[Bob Carriere]

Hi David

The gas tank shown in your picture #3 is for the Driver's side...right side.

The passenger side would be a mirror image...... the short filler is usually early cab 11 and the filler fits underneath the tool box cut out notch.

Do you have a close up of picture of the large oval plate on your tank....suitable to read the raised characters/letters... also is the oval plate steel or brass......

Thanks

Boob

[Grant Bowker]

Bob, are you sure?
If it were a normal CMP with the tanks mounted long axis along the truck's frame I would agree that it is the right hand tank. The photos of the C8 show the tank(s) mounted crosswise under the tire carrier. It appears that the tank with the offset that we normally associate with the left side is the right, not left tank on a C8. Unless the tanks and tire carrier are mounted turned 180 degress in the photo, it looks like the offset in the filler neck on the C8 is different as a guide to the tank position compared to most other CMPs.

[David DeWeese]

Thanks for the replies!
Gordon:
I noticed while working on the 1.5 ton Chev that someone "clocked" the tire mold wrong when they made the tire as the tread is not staggered like NDT's should be. The tread lugs are directly across from each other.
Andrew:
Thanks a lot for the photos. They really help and are very much appreciated!
Bob:
Here are a few photos of the tank cast piece after I cleaned it up a bit.
Noticed that it appears to be made of copper? Was tarnished to a deep blue-green on the inside before clean-up and the brass pieces,(arrow), are much yellower than the reddish tinted casting.
There is an "R" stamped into this casting also. Does this mean it's for a right side tank?
There is a notch cut in the front fuel tank support rail even with the fuel outlet in the tank. Is this where the fuel line should be routed?
If this is a left-side tank my brass tank outlet is facing the rear of the truck, and the casting can't be rotated 180 degrees due to the "reserve" feature made into the tank.
Thanks, David

[cletrac (RIP)]

The two drawings are from Mile Kelly. In the side view you can see the hole for the filler is offset to the back of the truck. I can't find any pics showing this hole on the other side but wouldn't both tanks be the same which would make the pass one offset to the front? There'd be no reason to make them different on the 1A2 and that was the only style they made in 1940. In the other two pics you can't really tell but in the assembly shot you can see the fuel lines hooking on to the front and rear which would indicate that the tanks are the same. Andrews pic is a resto so who knows if it's right? Also notice how short the filler necks are.

[Bob Carriere]

The first picture up showed is defenitely a right hand side tank.....driver's side..... with the oval plate... but now I see how they have reversed the tanks from left to right to insure the filler cap is closer to the truck cab and near the outside for access...... at the same time it allowed to centralized the two oval plate for fuel line hook up....... wonder if they did that on purpose to screw up guys like us trying to restored them 65 years later.

Thanks for the oval brass plate close up...... my best two tanks are steel adn there are some marking differences in the letterring and reserve lever shape....... again I have two different type of levers for the reserve... one of which is identical to the 3 way valve.

Have you tried to remove one of the oval plate...? we have been soaking a lesser example with GBS to loosen up rust and will try our hands with a hand held impact screwdriver......

Never ceases to amaze me all that is left to be learn about CMPs....

Boob

[David DeWeese]

Thanks David and Bob for the great information! Lots of food for thought now on the subject of fuel tanks for an 8cwt CMP.
Here's another photo that I thought was interesting...
These tanks are still on their correct sides for a side mounted CMP tank configuration, but just mounted 90-degrees counter-clockwise on the C8 version.
Photo courtesy of Mike Kelly's CD.
Thanks, David