Had a 55 and a 57 Chevy. Dont recall a hidden gas filler. Had a Mercury convertible with the filler behind the license plate. All I remember about the Mercury was that nothing worked right except the engine.
55 Chevy was on left fender 57 Chevy was hidden behind the left tail ight, the reason I know is one bil had a 55 for yearās and just sold it a couple of yearās ago my other bil still has a 57 Chevy.
Still donāt recall a hidden gas filler. Maybe not on all the models. Maybe memory problem. I traded in my 1951 Ford to buy the new 55 Cheve with the V8 engine. Car and engine was so problematic I traded it in on a new 57 with the 6 engine they had been making for 30 years. Again, car and engine was so problematic I decided to try an import and bought a new 59 Fiat 1200 sedan. Nothing ever went wrong with it and I sold it after 4 years because it was so boring. It even refused to rust out like all the other cars around Cleveland.
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Not only this; Iām too young to remember these setups, but the filler being in the trunk lid must have involved some kind of filler pipe disconnecting from the gas tank when the trunk was opened. Imagine the gasoline vapors that were probably escaping when this connection was broken.
I donāt think this setup would fly in 2021 for the environmental impact for than the safety impact (which could likely be mitigated through strategic tank placement).
You misinterpreted things. The fillers were not in the trunk lid!
Some were located in a recess of the rear bumper, behind the license plate; or below the bumper and behind the license plate; others were located in more conventional location in a rear fender; and someāas we discussed in this threadāwere concealed behind a tail light or a decorative piece of chrome.
None were located āin the trunk lidā.
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A close friend of my momās family in Detroit was a high level executive with GMās Fisher Body division for many years. As such he was provided a new Caddy to drive every year and at times was asked to use a prototype GM car for everyday use for awhile.
At one point in the 1950s he was testing two variations of electric car prototypes for normal everyday use for several months. Superficially they looked like a Caddy and a Buick. He had a bit of fun pulling into gas stations that had given rude and substandard service to his wife, asking for a full fill up. When the pump jockeys and even a station owner couldnāt find any gas filler opening and were baffled by no traditional engine with dipstick to check oil, he would loudly say for other customers to hear that heād take his business elsewhere where the help werenāt too lazy to give proper service. Then heād drive away with the silent electric motor.
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I think there was an underground publication,āGasoline Siphoners Gazetteā that gave the location of the gasoline cap location on every car made.
My '65 Mustang had the gas cap above the bumper, easy to fill. But look in the trunk and youād see a rubber hose clamped to the gas tank (which served as the floor of the trunk) and the filler assembly. Look forward, and youād see the filling of the back seat. Not hard to imagine what would happen if you were rear-ended - gallons of gas spraying into the trunk, lit, with the fire moving quickly into the passenger compartment.
It did make for an easy gas tank swap when my brother tore a hole in the bottom of the tankā¦
what is the strangest car from this point of view?
Strangest car from what point of view ? What are you asking in reference to ? Location of fuel fill pipe ?
That is what I am wondering about also. Whatever might constitute āstrangeā is in the mind of the beholder, I guess.
The old VW beetles had the fuel filler in the trunk, which was in the front of the car.
In the event of a collision, the weak structure of the VW would easily allow the gas tank to be ruptured, and it would likely spray fuel all over the placeāincluding the passenger compartment.
My memory may be failing me here, but I seem to recall a rear-engine vehicle from the '50s or '60s that had the fuel filler in the engine compartment. Perhaps the Renault Dauphine? Does anyone else recall a fuel filler in the engine compartment?
Yeah, there were a few others like that IIRC.
But, I think I recall a rear engine car that had the filler (not just the filler tube) in the engine compartment. Does anyone else recall such a risky bit of design?
At least the Duster filler was steel, and exited the trunk floor to the separate gas tank outside the car body, if I remember my '72 Duster correctly. Being on the side made it less subject to rear end collisions.
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not sure the bold was necessary, but like i said, iām too young to remember theseā¦i was barely alive when carburetors were still a thing, haha