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Brendon's '55 Gasser build

111K views 546 replies 55 participants last post by  Tuske427 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi Everyone:

Although I haven't posted much on this board yet, I've been reading a bunch of threads here and gathering info and inspiration for my car- a '55 2 door post. And guess what- I want to build a gasser with it. Now, I'm just wrapping up a 5.5 year build on another car of mine- a '67 Firebird and I'm still working the bugs out of that one, so I'm not really itching to get into this too heavy just yet (and the funds need to replenish, too) but I figured I may as well start a build thread here. It may keep me motivated to keep going on it.

The plan is for a rough n dirty low budget build. Nothing pretty. Sparce interior, etc. yet drivable. I'm partly inspired from everybody's favorite gasser from 2lbt so it may look something like this. If it scares prius drivers I'll grin from ear to ear.

The car I bought is rough and it was cheap. It was a stalled race car project. The floor is gone, and there was some caked dirt underneath. However, it came with glass doors, front clip and trunk a la 2lbt, so I'm happy that I have these already. The car came with wheel tubs, a 9" housing and an aftermarket leaf spring set up, as well as chrome-moly tubular control arms for the front. I sold those arms and sourced a front axle from a '57 Chevy truck as well as some 200s rims from another member on this board. I also have a few boxes of loose various parts for the car which will help.

Today I started cutting the floor out. Although I do have replacement pans it looks like I'll need some seat bracing and inner rockers, too. I'll have more time between Christmas and the new year so hopefully I'll get more of the old floor removed.

I'll keep adding to this as I go along. The choice of engine is not finalized yet. Nor is the trans, though I do know it'll have a clutch pedal whatever I end up with.
 

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#222 ·
Still alive, just been busy with traveling for work amongst other things. I have done a few small tasks previously, but they weren't worth posting alone, so there they are:

- engine/ trans back in
- trimmed back the old rear engine mounts on the frame
- roughed out a design for removable trans tunnel/ firewall for drivetrain access
- completed the firewall section of this

I'll have a little time tomorrow to mock up the trans tunnel portion, but I doubt I'll get it finished.
 

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#223 ·
more pics. re: previous post- I had to get the mill out to make straight holes. I did one freehand previously, but it looked like a drunk did it, ha ha. holes were all over the place, despite my best efforts. Right now I have some stainless button head allen head bolts in there, but I need to research what would have been sed back in the day. I may want to swap these out for something more era correct, if such a thing exists. Last thing I want is something sill out of place like this. Yeah, I know the T56 is not era correct, but whatever
 

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#224 ·
Brendon, I wouldn't get too caught up on "period correct" if something modern makes a cleaner installation, or works better. Sometimes it's things like the T56 that make a car more driveable, even if it wasn't available in the gasser era. Doubt anyone will look at screw heads and say they weren't correct for a gasser.
I did a removable trans tunnel also, and used nutserts in the pan to attach my tunnel with machine screws. I covered the tunnel and floors with sound deadener, so had to dig them out once when I was pulling the transmission. But it wasn't too bad since I had covered the tunnel separately, I only had to peel the edge back to get at the screws.

Very nice work on the '55! I like the removable tunnel a lot!
 
#225 ·
That's a good point, thank you for sharing that. There is a practical side to those button heads- they don't take up too much space and with the round heads wouldn't hurt as bad if, say a finger got jammed onto one versus a shaper edge of a hex head bolt (don't ask, stupider things do happen, ha ha)

Nutserts are a great thing! I'm using them here, too
 
#226 ·
Today's progress. In the last pic the cleckos still shown will be where bolts go. I need to add material back on the floor pan to make attachment points for the rear of the removable tunnel, and, make the upper removable section still. I did get more done today than I thought I would.
 

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#229 ·
another month has gone by, and so little done. The rest of this summer will be the same way. too much work travel this year to get a lot done, but I'll do what I can when I can.. speaking of which- I was able to finish up the removable trans tunnel this weekend. The other week I added back some metal to finish up the attachment for the main piece, and yesterday I was able to make the last section and throw some spray paint on it to prevent rust. The interior floor will get a final coat of thermal paint when I'm all done with the interior mods.
 

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#231 ·
It is perfect and it not only a transmission cover , it's also a structural strength component too isn't it : ) And how nice is that tiny little hole the Tremec requires as opposed to that gaping hole the Muncie or similar always needs . Said it before or words to the effect , superlative work , were I capable of that I would have been a proud man , but never was and never will be , Ha !!
 
#234 ·
Still alive, folks. Just been traveling 3 out of these past 4 weekends, so no time to work on this. But I was home this weekend and managed to get a little work done. I threw on the steering arms, a cross rod, and I made some additional supports for my roll bar. I have them angled back for more seat room (still planning on door bars, too)

Next week I'll hit my local LKQ junkyard to look for a steering box. Also need to look for a few other parts for this car like pulleys/ brackets for all the engine accessories, and I'll see about a few other things, too.
 

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#237 ·
Small update due to little progress due to limited time to work on this. Even my next two weekends I'll be traveling for work. So I have just a small update here:

I was going to install the rotors on my front end, and decided to enlarge the wheel studs as I didn't like the puny 7/16-20 that came with them. I had some leftover 1/2-20 from my Firebird and thought that I could use those instead. It took me two weekends to do it, as I didn't have, nor could I locate locally, the right size drill bit for those studs. When it arrived I drilled out the holes and pressed in the studs only to ruin the rotors. I must have pressed the stud in crooked. It was a first for me, but I did this on both rotors, so I'm also wondering about the quality of the rotors themselves. I also worked on locating my steering box and roughed out the linkage for it. I do need add some spacers to get the bar truly level, and I recycled an unused engine mount adapter plate and the original old 1957 chevy truck steering rod by turning some of it into spacers for mounting my box. Right now it's only tacked into place, and I want to get everything hooked up and test it before welding this in place. I'll be adding some frame reinforcing as well. Also, if I raise my steering box much higher then I won't have room for the radiator I have. It's amazing for such a big car that has no inner sheet metal and an engine that's moved back how quickly I'm running out of room inside.
 

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#238 ·
It must be quiet on this board... So let me add more pics

I was able to weld up my steering box mount, and added a plate inside my frame rail for reinforcement, trim my drag link to fit, added my front rotors, installed my wheels, and mocked up the rest of the steering to see if it works, which it does. I don't have a rag joint on there, and may consider adding one. I'm also thinking about making a panhard bar for the front, too.

I'm just glad to see wheels on this, it could be a roller now, if I had tires, ha ha.
 

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#240 ·
Very, very nice work, heck of a job. I don't understand the concept behind having a panhard bar on the front end though, in my experience with parallel leaf spring straight axles, there is very little side to side movement unless there are issues with spring shackles. What are you hoping to gain ?
 
#242 ·
Thanks, Vall!

I'm not sure which holes you're referring to, so hopefully you mean one of the following:

- I drilled 5x holes on the driver side exterior frame rail to help weld a plate w/ gusset inside the frame rail itself for more strength behind the steering box. I welded those 5 holes first, then went underneath as much as I could reach on the inside.

- I drilled 3x holes into my steering box mounting plate so I could plug weld them when final welding the plate. They're not perfectly filled in, but they will be hidden behind the steering box itself so I won't worry about it.

Hopefully you were referring to one of these?
 
#248 ·
LOL, far from over. this is a record year for me for work related travel. Mind you, I'm not complaining, it's always a lot of fun, but I still have a lot of work related travel this year including 2 international trips so I'll keep building while I have the time. Speaking of which, this was my progress this weekend:

- painted the engine accessory brackets
- made the steel plates for the top of my front leaf springs. I didn't install these as I'm still waiting (on backorder) for the 2 degree shims for my front axle to set the proper caster angle. Current ETA is now mid September. I figure I'll finish all that up at one time.
- installed the rag joint and modified my steering shaft to accommodate. But I didn't like it. The rag joint will need support and bracing, and it created fitment issues, too. I could fix them, but decided to abort. So while looking for a replacement DD shaft, I saw that Speedway sells a collapsible shaft which I like and will fit perfectly in my car, so I'm going with that.
- Located where my radiator will fit. I got lucky with this one. It just fits. Height, width, everything. At the moment I have some brackets welded in for the bottom, and will need some top supports that I'll get to in the near future.
- Fabricated and installed my hoop supports. I'll use these to help support the radiator, and make cables or something for holding the cowl.

It feels like it was a productive weekend. Now I'm tired, ha ha.
 

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#250 ·
Thanks, guys!

Yeah, I had this weekend home, too, so I made a core support, and the support rods to mount the radiator to the car. It's suspended with rubber bushings both underneath and between the support rods to avoid any work hardening and ultimately cracking of the aluminum radiator. I flattened the rod ends down to make the flange areas with a hammer and the help of a map gas torch. I also made the core support removable as well which will make life easier when removing the engine again, or just working on the car. And, I made some braces to support the lower grill areas which will keep them from smashing into the core support itself.
 

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#254 ·
Minor update on the '55 from today- I made cable straps for supporting the cowl. I ended up turning my own bungs that I welded onto my hoop supports using leftover material from the original 1957 truck axle drag link that's under my car. That must have been made with some hard material because I had a difficult time tapping it to create threads to bolt into. I felt like I was going to break my tap, so I had to go really slow and make very small passes and constantly oil it. I added some eye hooks to help keep the cables in control when the cowl is down, and they see to work well. They barely deflect the cable when the cowl is up, so very little tension is on them.

If I have time tomorrow to work on this more, I'll post more progress.
 

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#255 ·
Simple effective use of the cable holds I like the way you used the eyelet as a guide. Maybe just use some clear tygon hose of some sort to sheath the loose closed position cable to keep from clapping against paint when that BEAST is pushing through the wind.

Definitely going to use your radiator protection for future builds.
Looking awesome!
 
#257 ·
Good idea, thanks! I still have a little while before I'll be ready for that.

I'm glad you'll use the radiator protection- it's something I had learned not too long ago when I was in Dallas helping the Gas Monkey Garage team work on the Hi-Po Hauler. Aaron had me add cardboard to the radiator like this when I was working on mounts for that, which worked well. The gift that keeps on giving, ha ha
 
#258 ·
I chose the location where I mounted the cable as I thought that was the strongest area to attach and put force onto. It's where the cross bar is welded, and is near a point of attachment to the cowl itself with the fiberglass. Where the eyelet is- it's like a floating unsupported corner. If I had put the cable mount there, I would imagine that area becomes the pivot point for the stress and bears the weight of the hood at that point. Granted, I'm not an engineer and do not have the ability to actually calculate this, it's just what I envision. though I do like the idea of having plastic coated cables. I can always make new ones, these were pretty cheap and simple to do.
 
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