belly tankers as street cars

All the drama on the belly tanker thread is a shame.
I have always liked belly tankers, but for me I have to be able to street drive a car.
I always thought it would be neat to have a street driver belly tanker STYLE car!
I have onyl seen two that I can think of....
Anyone build a street legal belly tanker?
How did you deal with the lighting?
Other issues?
Pics would be nice!

regards,
DJ

 

I'd be interested to know what you had to do to please the DMV.

 

In NY it would have to be titled as a home built specialty car with use limitations. It's be a tough sell, but I suspect you could pull it off.

 

Excellent topic! I would love to see one going down the street! Not sure I could prepare myself enough for such a site! How on earth do you pull off getting it titled, registered, etc.??

 

I know its not a tanker, but its the lowest street legal vehicle I've driven.
Walker built this very low trike, powered by an 850cc jap motor along the
legal racer theme. It got by alot of the regs by being 3 wheeled but as I remember it the Seattle DMV hassled him into moving the headlight to an "acceptable" height. I think there were 2 mounted off the fenders orginally.

for more

http://www.closeenoughengineering.com/projecty.shtml

s.

 

I'm a collector of drop tank car photos and ideas, I've got a tank I'm gonna be starting on this year. A couple of the Burkland pit crew have offered to keep me going in the right direction on the project. I dont wanna set the world on fire, but I hope to break 200.
Heres a pic from my files of a street legal tanker

 

how COOLl would a set of E&J's look and a street tanker!!

 

I really like his one.
More pics would be great!

 

Heres a pic I got off the HAMB (I'm pretty sure) a couple weeks ago. It shows how tight the confines are inside one of these things... Its like trying to get ten pounds of auto in a five pound sack...........

 

I would think the biggest challenge would be cooling, i.e. where to put a radiator?

But it would be bitchen.

Rich

 

to title it use the vin number from the donor car. If all the numbers match, and it has most of the parts required to be street legal it is. Back in the late sixties I drove a t-bucket that was titled as a 58 chevy. When I did get stopped, the numbers matched, so the discussion ended there. If asked why it didn't look like a 58 chevy, I just said it was highly modified. Most title problems are brought about by trying to educate DMV counter people. It can't be done. Clean titles with the proper signatures are all they care about. And as far as law enforcment goes, if you're not acting/driving like an asshole, and the numbers match, they're pretty cool too.

 

Here's another. I gotta get back to work... Lunchtime is over.........

 

Back to work I guess! You gotta make up for all that vaca at the salt!

in this corner

s.

 

d'ya need help gettin rid o dat junk pile? I can haul it off, free of charge!

 

how about a big v dub motor.....? a buddy and i have talked about this for years.....would be a bitchin ride....seems like we came to the conclusion that it would need to be a little longer than a normal one....as for the dmv......just tell them its a dune buggy .....brandon

 

Check out this one on these threads from 2003:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2974&highlight=belly

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1351&highlight=streetable+belly+tank

Where is it now?


.

 

Don't go there! J/K that actually isn't a bad idea. The engineering would be much simpler. Besides, If you used a titled donor car, you could probably just get away with swapping the plates over.

 

Where do you find a tank? Dosen't somebody make them in "Glaas" now?

 

A company called class glass that makes fiberglass belly tank bodies..



as for a tank based street car, I think this would be the ultimate street legal belly tank.. this photocopy of Howard Johansen's dual tank belly tank is hanging in my shop.. I know nothing of "tech" on the salt.. but I am damn sure this thing wouldnt pass tech today.. and I wouldnt be caught dead in it on the street.. but the idea rocks.. and if I could ever figure out what to do about the rear axle.. I'd build it..



Brjnelson? (i think) photocopied this for me.. few years ago.. THanks again..

 

Here are three of Baron Margo's tanks/ cars all street legal. He cruises all over Los Angeles all the time. He is long time friends with my neighbor across the street so sometimes I see him on the weekends. He builds all kinds of crazy stuff check out his site: www.baronmargo.com

 

This guy has some crazy rides!
Nice!

 

Boy, the 60's were good to him, huh?!

Cool stuff though.

 

Belly tanks for the street are just plain silly.

 

Word...

It's like some stupid shriner/art-car hybrid.

 

I agree as well. When you have been around them and have built/worked on them its really the last place you would want to be in a traffic situation. At least in Los Angeles.

 

Sure are.
Isn't most of what we like just plain silly for the street?
If we wanted to be practical we should all drive cheap Geo Metros....

regards,
Doug

 

What he said.....

 

It's not a matter of practicality, it's a matter of aesthetics and purpose.

 

Get it titled, then yank the VW motor and put in an Olds Tornado/Caddy Eldorado front wheel drive unit (Caddy 472=425hp 475 ft/lbs ballpark).

 

Or get the Buick V6 adapter for the VW transaxle and make it mid engine. Either way, it would certainly be peppy!