Getting a vintage engine and have always dreamed about making a old-school racer out of a drop tank.

Big skinny tires with pieplate wheels


Just need the tank, ascot, and leather helmet

We share the same dream!  Flat head Ford in a salt flats racer.

Plan on  hitting hitting Bonneville?

That's the engine I have

Sadly no plans yet to go to the flats, would just build it up and when the boy is older then go

belly tank

I like your style!

If you want to eventually go to Bonneville, get a rule book and read up on the requirements.  You will end up with a huge roll cage sticking up out of the tank.

There is a reason nobody builds lakesters out of tanks anymore, except for nostalgia.

Some inspiration and neat old 40's Hot Rod cut away drawings.

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Go drive a commercial boat around the gulf of Mexico. I've seen a few floating and almost hit one at night, in the dark. Fkn things.

Purple sage trading post          
look on Pinterest also  
I went to bonneville last year  watch a lady ride a bike to about 150    Turbine car crashed at 400 ish

IM sent

Here ya go, OP.  A C-130 1000 gallon drop tank.  You could probably put a nitro-burning Hemi inside with nothing sticking out.  A lot bigger than an F-4 600 gallon belly tank.

C-130 wing tank:


Old style F-4 belly tank:

My uncle made a pontoon boat out of a couple of drop tanks , I'm not sure what they were from though, I think they were from a Hercules.
He got them for free because he was the head of the maintenance shop at RCAF Cold Lake.

It was a pretty cool boat !

A


Find a MIG-21 drop tank.

Is this you, OP?

I know where a couple of F-105 ferry tanks are, but they’re nowhere near you.

I can tell you for a fact that Holloman AFB will be unloading about 14-600 gallon F-4 centerline tanks, 16 or so 370 gallon F-4 wing tanks and 3 travel pods.

I've heard over the years that the travel pods were converted napalm tanks from Vietnam, I don't know if that is true or not.

 I like it!
What a sense of humor!

But those would be the "new style" centerline tanks, which are like F-15 centerline tanks.  3-piece construction, nose cap, straight tube body and tail cap.  Very different compared to the old-style oval shaped, 2-piece (front half, back half) tanks that bolted together in the middle.

The 2-piece design would fail at the seam and I saw one F-4 have a tank split in two while taxiing.  One big shit show when 600 gallons of JP-4 splooshed onto the ramp.  In flight the old tank was only good for 4 Gs when full.  The F-15 tank was good for as many Gs as the F-4 could handle.

The AF F-4 world converted to the "High-G Centerline Fuel Tank" aka: the  "F-15 tank" in the early 1980s.  Externally it was the same tank as the F-15 but internally (plumbing, electrical) they were totally incompatible if you thought about interchanging them.

For building a belly tank roadster I think, the 2-piece tank would be preferable.  You could slice the sections along the mid-point and have a 4-piece body that would allow work on the car by only removing the top sections and, with the engine cover section having quick-release fasteners and the other 3 sections being screwed into place.

As far as those travel pods go, yes the first ones were unused napalm canisters.  As the supply of parts went away the fabrication shops simply rolled their own. The first ones were napalm canister kits with a door panel cut into one side and a hinged-mounted door panel installed.  The post Viet Nam examples were copies built out of sheet metal in under a day.

The MIG-21 would burn off all of the fuel in the centerline tank as it idled out of the revetments, rolled out onto the runway, and got airborne. The aircraft would also shed its wing ordnance above 6Gs.

@Clarinath

I wish I had a p-38

The one I want to do has taller and Skinnier tires
Even if I don't make it to the flats it would be a fun project with my boy
And the flats are just a dream, they want way too much safety gear that I don't want to install for a shits and giggles vehicle

i think the salvage yard in great falls, MT still has a couple of 600gal f-15 centerline tanks for sale.

edit: there's a gigantic surplus store/yard in idaho falls that might also bear checking.

Couldn't drop an external on the Herk.

I mean you could, on the ground, in the stands and shit..but not in flight...and, iirc, it was close to 1300 ga's

How skinny is OP? 

https://colemans.com/shop/militaria/ordnance/bomb-leaflet-propaganda/

Anybody happen to have the dimensions for the different sections of the three piece tanks?

Yes, keep an eye on ads Barnstormers.com

They are not so cheap anymore but are out there.

Did you figure anything out OP?

This is part of the reason the country is in the shitter.
Fucking rule books for running a car on a salt flat.
Fucking people have to have rules for everything.

Not yet, have a few leads from friends on some.
It's been put on the side burner as I may be moving and still dealing with radiation treatments

How can they really stop you? I mean, it's a salt flat. Just drive 10 miles down the flat from where they are and do whatever you want.

Kharn

Yep, I want it more for the cool factor as well as a project with my son, there would be other things I'd want to take out to the flats besides this project