What are my stock poly fuel tanks worth?

[Ol'Blue]

I have a rear and aux poly tanks off a '77.

The rear tank has a small crack at the top near the vent, but may be repairable?

 

[jckkys]

By simply doing a google search for plastic fuel tank repair svcs. I found most are in Ca. The '77 main tank is unique and valuable. So it is obviously worth repairing. New auxiliary tanks can be purchased new. This may be a toss up.

 

[Broncitis]

77 rear tanks are unique, but really not all that valuable IMO. They can and are often replaced with larger aftermarket tanks.

The part of the 77 rear tank that is more rare and valuable is if you have a rust free skid plate / gas tank retainer which is also unique to the 77 rear poly tank.

I have a pallet full of used tanks that I take to shows and Bronco events to sell. uncracked poly tanks or 66-76 metal rear tanks all sell in the $75 range. This has been pretty much been the price that sells on these for the last 15 years.

 

[jckkys]

I do have a rust free '77 skid plate under my '77 main fuel tank, and I know of no after market replacement tank that will fit in place of the OE tank using the OE skid plate. For anyone doing a '77 Bronco restoration, the after market offers only dissimilar tanks for other model years. The fact that the aftermarket has chosen not to provide accurate reproduction tanks for '77 restorations doesn't mean the originals are of little value. It's just the opposite, the value of quality restorations is increasing because so many owners are encouraged to turn their classic into something else.

 

[56f100bbw]

My 77 tanks had crud from 1986 when the PO parked it so I pitched both

 

[Broncitis]

I do have a rust free '77 skid plate under my '77 main fuel tank, and I know of no after market replacement tank that will fit in place of the OE tank using the OE skid plate. For anyone doing a '77 Bronco restoration, the after market offers only dissimilar tanks for other model years. The fact that the aftermarket has chosen not to provide accurate reproduction tanks for '77 restorations doesn't mean the originals are of little value. It's just the opposite, the value of quality restorations is increasing because so many owners are encouraged to turn their classic into something else.

I'm pretty well versed in original restorations .

You are correct in that there is no reproduciton of the 77 main tank (there is an aftermarket skid plate for the OE tank, not 100% correct, but looks and works well). Sure, to the right guy at the right time they could be worth a preminum, but the market for them is also much smaller.

My point was that most Bronco owners are not doing concourse originals as some of us have done, but would actually prefer a larger capacity tank as an upgrade for extensed range. Therefore, there are plenty of orignal used tanks on the market for the small subset of purists who need one to replace a damaged one on their restoratrion (cracked or?, as these obviously do not rust out and rarely need replaced).

If they were worth all that, I'd have sold out of them long ago, but I often drag them back from major shows with lots of Bronco people attending like the Super Celebration and the Carlisle All-Ford Nationals.

I've placed more 77 main tanks back on the pallet rack after the shows than I have sold, so this is from my personal experiance selling them at $75 for many years. If you know of bunch of guys with cash who are clamoring for them, please send them my way! ;D

 

[Broncitis]

My 77 tanks had crud from 1986 when the PO parked it so I pitched both

Poly tanks are easy to clean out. We just cleaned out some mud looking crap from the aux tank in this 77 we are finishing up.

Remove the tank and drain it, then take a rag and zip tie it to a broom stick or piece of conduit and use it to swab and wipe any residue inside. Add some fresh fuel and slosh around, then drain again. If I have some loose particulate that I can not get to come out when I drain it, I blow it out with air or suck it out with a shop vac once I blow all the fumes out and have it dry.

 

[jckkys]

I agree. The plastic tanks clean out easily. After a couple tankfuls of crud filled gas plugged my pick up, I simply hosed it out and dried it. I've had no problem for 20+ yrs. I also agree a large percentage of EB owners have no concept of what a Bronco was as manufactured. It's much easier to build an Explorer with Bronco badges on the side. There's often posts by recent buyers of EBs who have no idea what the POs did or how to keep it running. This is nothing new. Stingrays and big block muscle cars were almost all modified. The original restorations sell far better now. When there's no good reason, why go aftermarket? The high capacity tanks look bad and reduce ground clearance.