Does anyone know if they still make the cast aluminum spinner cap also if anyone has one they would like to sell, I would love to have one I think it would make one hell of a gas cap for my frisco sportster tank....... Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
What size tank would look better on a 60's drag race inspired roadster?The 2 Gallon,or the 3 1/2 Gallon?
Like them on drag cars,some great looking ones too,they belong there if used for racefuel, But really looks faky on just street cars never used for real racing,so don't understand why all the fake cans.
Anyone know anything about the very early days of the Moon tank? I have seen pictures of tanks with indented ends and a seam around each end, like some beer kegs, and I've heard that Moon started out simply selling small wartime oil (or something) tanks. These may actually point to the same thing...? Moon certainly did sell lots of surplus wartime filters and shutoffs and such, and some of that like shutoff valves stayed available up til the original company faded. I have now a tank almost exactly the size and general look of a 2 1/2 gallon Moon that is of wartime origin, FWIW... It carries an elaborate Boeing part number tag and a wartime date stamping, so presumably it once carried oil or something on a bomber. Cap is the simple Air Corps style, about like what Moon used before the spinner style...
I think you are right on target I bought one like you are talking about at the Hawkeye Downs swap in Cedar Rapids Iowa about 16 or 17 years ago and had the early moon tag with the dry lakes car on it. Same with the cap like a quarter turn.
I think first Moon catalog was about '55, but tanks had their basic modern form by then...they still used the air corps type caps, stamped 2-ear quarter turn much like a radiator cap...three wing was a bit later, flip top even later. I think flip tops were eventually banned as racing parts. I've never sen a really early one except in a couple of old Magazine pictures. I've found a website of people who dig up WWII crash sites and try to ID the wreckage...they seem to have some knowledge of Boeing part numbers and I hope I can figure out the origin of my very Moon-like Boeing tank...
I think the flip lid was a pricey option that you could order to replace the 3 eared spinner cap. They came with an aluminum adapter to convert them to the male treads that the earlier tanks had.
I think Guffey's scooter up there shows the most convincing evidence of actual use of Moon tanks... They get to strange places, too...I sold a big vertical dry sump tank at Hershey a couple of years ago, and asked the guy what car it was going on as he walked away...it wasn't going on a car at all. He was an artist and planned to use it on a huge "Time Machine" sculpture commissioned as a publicity piece for a revival of "Beavis and Butthead!" I don't think I would have let him have it if I'd known. I only hope it wasn't scrapped after whatever debacle he was working for... I searched online for a while, but never found a picture of this lovely work.
While the subject of Dean Moon equipment is being discussed , does anyone have any insight about the wood rimmed steering wheels Moon sold. I think maybe they were imported from England like the flip lids for the fuel tanks. Maybe Speedwell or Les Leston?
Best use I have seen was on a street rod from Canada: between frame horns,Very carefully cut out bottom, slipped it over a battery, looked like fuel lines, but then I spotted,, Wow! those are battery cables. neatest, will never forget, cause didn't like the phony-ness of the tanks before that. Suddenly it had a purpose on a street rod.. Maybe why moon makes so many..
Here's the one my buddy found at a yard sale for 10$ with the cap and brackets. He was nice enough to sell the whole setup to me for 100$. I was very happy. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
The Jalopy Journal
