Putting the fuel tank back in our 1950 Chevy truck - Hagerty Media

Davin spent lots of hours rebuilding the 216-cubic-inch straight-six for the 1950 Chevrolet 3600 pickup, but the fact of the matter is that without a fuel system that engine would just be a pretty hunk of metal. That’s why, on the latest Redline Rebuild Update, he dives into getting the chassis set up to feed the engine its necessary fuel.

The fuel system on a vintage pickup like this Chevy is darn simple—it’s a tank. The original piece is crusty inside, but Davin wants to save it if at all possible. It eliminates the cost of buying a new item, and why replace something that might be solid with just a little elbow grease applied? Well, maybe he should have taken the sending unit’s resistance to exit the old tank as to how crusty the inside might truly be.

“I had high hopes for being able to knock out the rust and use the tank,” Davin says about his plans for reusing the existing parts. “In the long run it saved me some time, so I guess I shouldn’t be too mad it sprung a leak right away.”

That leak was just a pinhole, but further cleaning with milkstone to remove rust was likely going to only increase the number of pinholes. Davin elected to replace the tank at that point, since a replacement tank was readily available. It’s worth a reminder that there are methods for fixing pinholes in tanks if a replacement cannot be sourced. In this instance though, taking the time to braze each pinhole and defect would likely cost just as much as replacing the whole unit—unless your time is worthless.

Once the new tank is in, the rest of the system goes together quickly. Fresh rubber hoses for the fill neck and vent hose, and a shutoff and hardline running along the chassis to feed the mechanical fuel pump mounted on the engine—an engine that is getting awfully close to being reinstalled in the chassis.

If you don’t want to miss the final steps of getting this truck back on the road, be sure to subscribe to the Hagerty YouTube channel to receive notifications with each new update that is posted.