For sometime now we have been occasionally doing a story on what Team Members are working on in their garages. Most of the time it is one of the Aero cars featured on this site. However, there is the random off brand at times. This is one of those times. Although Katrina and I love our Ford and Mercury Aero cars we have no problem showing a little affection to some of the other brands out there. We do have some Chevys and even a couple of MOPARS. Some folks have a strong brand loyalty to the cars they collect. Some prefer only muscle cars while others prefer to collect early 1900s brass cars. There is no limit to the specific limits a collector might put on his collection. We on the other hand like anything with an engine and at least 4 wheels.
In general are taste goes to anything that goes fast and looks sporty. We like to drive our cars more than work on them or show them but we do all three. If we had to define our general automobile interests the words rare and unusual will likely show up somewhere. Our newest Project Car is not a car and it doesn’t fit most of our collectability criteria. If you exclude a 1959 El Camino we had for years this is our first real collector truck. Some of you may even question if even this truck is a collectable. It falls into a rather strange subcategory of any definition of a collection.
A few weeks ago we discovered a 1954 GMC Texaco Fuel Tanker truck at an online (not eBay) auction and for some stupid reason felt we needed it for our collection. Since we were in our car doing a 700 mile road trip following the auction online with our cell phones and tablet was no problem. Katrina and I agreed on the most we wanted to pay for such an un-necessary purchase. We were high bidder right up to the last minute. On this auction if there was a higher bid in the last 5 minutes of the auction the deadline is extended for an additional 5 minutes and this continues as long as there are at least two bidders.
We raised our bid and again at the last minute we were outbid. This repeated a couple of times and we reached our agreed to limit but the high bid was just a few dollars more. We agreed we would exceed our limit with one more bid with an additional $50. The clock kept ticking and the bidding ended. WE WON! As soon as Katrina and I realized what we had done the first words out of both of our mouths were; “What the heck are we going to do with that?”
We returned from our trip and then had to find a way to get this monster home, it took a flat bed 18 wheeler to accomplish that task. It is now in our big storage building and is our newest project. The Fuel Tanker truck is all original with lots of patina and is really cool and all that, but what do you do with one of these? Do you restore it? Rat Rod? Hot Rod? Make some kind of car hauler out of it? Fill it full of beer and have a party?
First things first, it does not move under its own power. We were told it runs and shifts but have not yet confirmed that. There are no brakes, we have confirmed that! I looked for the master cylinder and it is missing. The Tanker is 25 feet long and appears to weigh approximately 8 tons. It is a six cylinder with manual transmission and an estimated top speed of 45mph. (I don’t think aerodynamics will come into play on this ride.) All of the pumps and gizmo’s to make it a tanker appear to still be there. There is very little rust on the Tanker and it is as solid as a tank, pun intended. There are 4 individual fuel tanks for carrying different fuels. I found a California inspection sticker on the truck from around 1978. It may have been used at one of the airports in CA but have no knowledge of where, when or for how long.
Our first efforts will be to repair the brakes, see if we can make it run and move. If that is possible then we will give it a lube and grease job, check all the fluids and see for how long it might move and if it is at all safe to drive. Depending on what all that tells us will give us a basis on which to build our more long term plans.
What do you think? Did we waste our money or did we find the beginning of a new fad? If you had this in your garage (it better be a big one) what would you do with it? Leave us comments below or send an email to: rfleener@comcast.net.
Here is the other thing, just a small item; we don’t know squat about big commercial trucks like this. Have no idea where to get parts or anything else. If you do, help us out…..PLEASE!
We will keep you posted on our progress on this Texaco Tanker’s rebirth. Details will be provided more often on our sister site. www.LegendaryCollectorCars.com.
