Fuel Delivery Tanks.

Hi Bparo,

That would be good.

Geoff.

OK, the guy I need to speak to is in the USA at the moment picking up a steam toy. I have left a message via Facebook to see if it sold when he advertised it a while back.

Bparo,

Thak you for doing that.

Geoff.

he still has it and is back next week. I will get a photo and price then send you his contact details if you are interested.

Hi Bparo,

Look forward to that, Thank you.

Geoff.

Over the years I have left a card and a photo of the type of fuel delivery tanks I am collecting for with lots of businesses and individuals. Last week I received a call from the local scrap man telling me someone had brought in a tank like I was looking for.

I had a look at it and his price was quite reasonable so I now have another one literally saved by inches from the jaws of death.

Hi Geoff,
Can I ask how much a rusted tank should cost and how do you load/unload them?
I've found one locally (Adelaide), but its been sat in a pine forest for 20 years and the top cowling will need completely replaced as well as a ''few'' holes elsewhere.
Just trying to work out if its going to be cost effective to collect and then refurbish, as it will probably need a small crane to pick it out of its storage rack amongst the trees just to get it home on a trailer.
Cheers,
Bob

Beaver. You said that you worked for AMOCO in the seventies. Was that at Banksmeadow in Sydney. My brother Bob Dyson carted fuel out of there for years for Wollongong agent R.J. Young. I spent a lot of time sitting in the truck whilst loading. I didn,t mind as I had an excellant view of all the trucks going past. I recall AMOCO having De Soto 4x2 trucks an R190 with Bogie trailer, then 8x4 LS 1418 Mercedes Benzes and a very early Scania that I think belonged to Yellow Express.

Hi Bob.

I now have 8 of these tanks. The first tank I got in 2010 cost me a carton of beer. The Amoco one was bought for $30.00 at a clearing sale. The other six cost me $100.00 each by private sales. None of them have required any rust repairs. All of them were within a few kilometres of Dubbo. If they are too far away the cost of getting them home could be more than they are worth.

I have seen at least ten sold at clearing sales and none have gone for more than $100.00.

As for handling them, fortunately there has been a forklift available where I bought each of them and we have a forklift to unload them at home.

As with all restorations, the initial purchase price ends up being just a fraction of the total cost. It costs about $300.00 to get them sandblasted, paint and decals probably another $100/$200.

I don't expect to ever recover the cost because I think the market for them would be very limited. They are too big for the average suburban petroliana collector to handle, store or display. Probably the only people who would be interested in them would be those with restored trucks who wanted to display them at truck shows.

My advice would be, don't pay very much for a tank that needs repairs, just be patient and a better one will turn up. When I started looking for them, there didn't seem to be many about, now I have seen and photographed about 40 of them.

I hope this helps you.

Geoff.

What a great read . . .
I really enjoy going back through some of these old posts as I learn so much more and it jogs my memory some. The results of your work is not only fabulous, but also inspiring.
Early in this posting there were quite a few comments about licence acquisitions which reminded me of a friends mum who had a semi licence and had never driven anything bigger than a Holden, and also about my bus licence gained in an aboriginal community: The local gendarme got me to back the bus up and around the side of the police depot after the obligatory drive. While doing this I spotted one of the mangy local dogs laying asleep where I was intending to go and asked if I would get extra points for running it over - he laughed and said, "No worries pal, the licence is yours!"