My 54 has a drain plug, my 56 Bird has a drain plug and my 64 Fairlane has a drain plug.  I'm quite sure the 54 and 56 had original tanks.  The 64 has an aftermarket tank.





54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Thanks for all the tips.  I will make sure not to twist the fitting and break the solder connection. Thanks again.

When you try to remove the plug, grasp the nipple it is screwed into with a small pipe wrench or a healthy pair of channel locks.  You don't want to twist that nipple out of the tank, it's only soldered in.  An acquaintance of mine inadvertently put diesel fuel in his '55 Bird (it was cheaper than regular, and he was "frugal")  He tried to take the drain plug out, and twisted the nipple out.  But it had a head on it and wouldn't come completely out.  The fuel came slowly out, but he wasn't going to be able to put gas in anyway.  Called a rollback, and the driver would not take the rig on the road with diesel fuel running out, so he had to sit until it all drained out.  Then he had to replace or have the tank repaired.  Frugal??  That's him!

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

I found the drain plug.  Will attack that next. Sprayed it with penetrating lube.

‘55 T-Birds had drain plugs, but aftermarket/replacement tanks did not. I have a NOS tank with drain waiting ‘in the wings’, but had to pay more. Don’t know about passenger models, but replacement of vented tanks was apparently quite common if your fuel filter clogged frequently.

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA

None of my 55 or 56 Fords had drain plugs (Marwar & Summerville) from the factory, all were early production, before 2/56 , could the drain in the tank have been added later in production?

Never seen anything with a Y block in it that didn't have a drain plug but I'm not familiar with trucks.

I mentioned a drain plug before.  I don't understand why people are discussing other ways.
Most 50's Fords, if not all, had drain plugs.





54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Don't those Birds have a drain plug?

Actually, a ‘turkey baster’ would not have a one-way valve like a bulb siphon/tubing kit. Also, it occurred that (depending on how much liquid is still in the tank), it might be worth the cost to partially fill the tank with gas before siphoning it back out, in order to delute the old residue, since the siphon process might work/start better, and a siphon never removes as much as pulling the drain plug would. You could always use all the recovered/contaminated gas in something less sensitive/valuable (lawnmower, rental car, brush-burning/weed-killing, etc.)?

6 VOLTS/POS. GRD. NW INDIANA