A couple week winter project turned my grandpa's
old fuel delivery tank into a neat item to
display at shows and parades. It was originally
mounted on a horse drawn wooden spoke wagon frame
but I had nothing left but a couple rotted boards
and the tank to start with. On the back of the wagon, some pictures I found show a wooden box to carry oil and grease in. I came up with some old metal gas cans to mount there for a neat display item. My dad and grandpa
both wanted to restore it but never got to it
before they passed. If anyone has any history or
memories of these in the country side please
share stories. They were from the early 1900's as
far as what little I have read on internet.
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You might want to wash the tank out good if you're not putting fuel in it. Some one might get all uppity about that having been an old fuel tank. I know if it is considered washed and purged it is no longer considered to be a hazmat item. I know I hauled some fuel tankers for a county road department one time. They had to be the washed and purged to be nonhazmat.
Looks good otherwise.
 
There were still a few of those around in the 40's. Some of the farmers mounted the tank on an old truck chassis to haul fuel to the field, especially those that had crawler tractors.

Our first fuel tank for the back of a pickup was a 50 gallon barrel with a hand crack rotary pump. The next tank was medium size factory tank with a hand operated diaphram pump. Last was a large fuel tank with an electric pump.
 
Tank is made of mild steel. It was a rainy night when I brought the tank in so it is just wet and rusty in the picture. What's neat is the tank is made with three compartments and it is all riveted together. Hundreds of rivets. I would have hated to be the little man that was inside the tank holding the head of those rivets during assembly. By my calculations each compartment is about 150 gallons.
 
Haven't decided yet but I am going to have a large magnetic sign made stating restored in memory of my brother, dad and grandpa that have passed.
 
I used to fill some that were sit on poles and were used for fuel oil storage with the oil being piped into homes.
 
I see you have plugs in the bottom. There would have been spigots there that fuel would be drawn into 5 gallon delivery cans to be dumped into customer tanks. That is how they measured it back then.
 

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