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The fuel tanks are getting harder and harder to find. Ford's design used cotton webbing to prevent the tank from chafing on its mounting points, and cotton retains water. Combine this with the fact that the tanks are rather thin to begin with, and that the water which condenses inside is heavier than the fuel and sits on the bottom of the tank, and you've got a near-perfect recipe to rust out a tank in just a few years' time. If the tank you have is not too rusted out and only leaks, you may be able to repair it. (Be extremely careful if trying to weld or solder – a rusty old fuel tank is not worth a life-altering injury or fatality.) JB Weld is good to use, as it is applied cold and is not affected by the gasoline. If you have big patches that are rusted away, though, replacement of the tank is in order. No one (that I know of) is making reproduction tanks. I contacted the folks at Lang's Old Car Parts in Massachusetts (they have a few Fordson parts and just about every part you would need to do a full body-off, from-the-ground-up restoration of Model T automobiles) and asked about Fordson tanks, but they replied that they didn't have them, there was not much call for them and that I should just keep checking the listings on eBay. I disagree about there not being much call for them (the fuel tank is one of the first things to rust out on a Model F), but they run their business they best way they see fit. Maybe one of these days the Chinese will build the stamping equipment necessary to reproduce them, hopefully in stainless steel or a good rust-resistant alloy, and supply us with good, leak-proof tanks. Until then, the search continues. Fordson tanks do pop up on eBay from time to time, and the dual-chamber tanks usually sell for $250 and up. A good single-chamber tank (used in the early 20s) sold in mid-September for a whopping $535; check out eBay item number 7544645557. An even earlier (but rustier) tank with the “Henry Ford & Son” marking (eBay item #7546572336) sold for $179 a week or so later. Shipping a tank is going to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50, so keep that in mind when planning costs. As for carburetors, I am unsure from your posting whether you need just the carburetor or the entire manifold. It is quite common to find a Model F missing its original carburetor and/or manifold. Many farmers used other, supposedly better, carburetors on their tractors (my grandfather used a Model A carburetor on one of his Fordsons). Manifolds tended to crack and sometimes caught fire (that’s why my grandfather finally stopped using his tractor in the mid-70s). Folks cannibalized tractors that hadn’t been used in years, removing needed parts to keep theirs going, and that’s why there are so many tractors without manifolds/carbs/etc. If it’s just the carburetor that you need, check the eBay listings or go to The Fordson House in Escanaba, Michigan. They have a web site with just about every part you need to re-do a tractor. Their stuff is pricey, though. Even as high as the eBay auctions go, The Fordson House buys quite a few items there. (Makes you wonder what their price is when they re-sell it…) If you need the entire manifold, though, be prepared to dig deep again. Good manifolds on eBay sell for around $200 or so when they are even listed (again, they are quite scarce) and have gone as high as$589 for a complete manifold on October 23 (see eBay item # 4584854164). You can also go to the web site of Rosewood Machine & Tool in Rosewood, Ohio. That company’s president, Duane Helman, has an impressive collection of Fordsons. He ran into a lot of difficulties, though, when doing his restorations and, being owner of a machine shop, re-engineered the machinery to manufacture reproduction Fordson parts. All three types of Fordson Model F manifolds (234, 280 & 295) are available as reproductions, as well as often-broken parts such as radiator sides, etc. I think their manifold will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $300, plus shipping. Good luck with your project; let us know if you have any other questions. – Maine Fordson
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