Gas Tank Stencil

John Murphy did some pretty extensive leg work on trying to determine exactly what the gas tank stampings were. "Long Ternes" is actually the correct name in the middle, which indicates the type of steel.

How many months or weeks were the fuel tank metal

done before the cars assembly date. Guess the date

was put on there by US Steel and then shipped to the

fuel tank manufacturer who made the tanks and sent

them to Ford. Probably months, correct?

/Bo

The fuel tanks were not individually stamped/dated. The sheet steel that the tanks were made from had this stamp. I would guess a reasonably close date to the cars' scheduled build date would be typical.

When was this started and what models were they used on?

This subject has always been interesting to me, and as mentioned in one of the previous posts on this thread, I spent just way too much time researching this subject. The image posted above is obviously a copy of one being sold to the GM guys and is available from many GM parts vendors. It does not represent in any way what was used on a Ford of the era when "K" cars were being produced. I seriously doubt that it is a very accurate copy of what was used on any automotive product of that era. If someone would post an image of a close representation of the logo found on Ford tanks I will send them an image. Also will be glad to share a condensed version of this "branding" as the steel makers call it and a short explaination of what each line on the branding means, if anyone is interested.

There are at least four different fonts and as many sizes used on the real branding and each has a meaning to those in the steel business or the automobile business. If you are interested and want to post an image that Ford may have actually used email me at <[email protected]> and I will send you a good picture to post here. I am just too stupid to figure out how to post images.

The stencil pictured is the one that Inline Tube is selling. It's not really correct at all. There were 2 sizes of USS logo (early and late), font inaccuracies (as John stated), missing "trademark" under the USS logo, etc.

As Charles stated, the steel sheet was stamped as it rolled down the production line. Therefore, the stamp may be anywhere on the tank, if on it at all. I've seen the stamp on different locations of the tank bottom and on tank tops.

This should be researched a little more before it's marketed as "correct" by the seller, IMO.