1937 Plymouth Gasser Build Thread

[plumbid]

I get a lot of inspiration from this web site, so I thought I could return the favor. A little history.....
My first car was a 57 Oval VW in 1989. Years earlier, my neighbor had a Baja bug that I helped with as often as I could. Later I got into lifted 4x4's and then 2wd chevy trucks. I did a full frame-off on a 65 C-10 shortbox in my 21x21 garage, allowing my wifes daily driver to park inside 90% of the time. I have limited time, space, tools and ofcourse money. I love the flowing lines of mid-thirties cars, big fat tires, loud engines, and sky-high suspensions. Gassers are like all of my past influences rolled into one. I bought this car in 2008, and have even tried to sell it twice! Family comes first.

[plumbid]

I'm still new to the whole build thread thing, so I may make mistakes.......
Anyways, you can see I don't even own a trailer! I took a few photos that day, and some others along the way that are now lost in space? We had a few laptop computers bite the dust over the years. So fellas, figure out how to save your pix today! The car came with a body, a bent frame, worthless axles, and yummy ice sickles. The doors were full of a frozen mud/rotting leaf mixture. After cleaning, they are in awesome shape. I made this wooden thing to support the body while I started to prep for major surgery......It allows me to remove the body from the frame by myself. Unbolt body from frame, jack it up, build wooden thing, lower frame, pull frame out. You can see a chunk of the rear frame on the floor, I narrowed that and reattached it to the front portion, after straightening the bent frame horns.

[Rebe7cca]

I narrowed that and reattached it to the front portion, after straightening the bent frame horns.

[plumbid]

I removed the bent front crossmember and stripped the frame of all factory stuff. I made a giant "pickle fork" out of a piece of 6x2 rectangle thick wall tube, about 5 feet long and proceeded to "park" my wife's 2005 SUV on top of the plymouth frame. With my borrowed oxy/acetelyne torch, my floor jack, and my new pickle fork I "persuaded" the frame horns until they were plumb, level, and square.

[plumbid]

Rolling steering stopping, that's how I prioritize my builds. But since I suffer from an gasoline addiction, ocasionally I'll buy an engine or two or five? Yes, five! I first bought a 331 extended Hemi, but remember that I mentioned I have limited money/time? So, SBC it is! I love the SBC. I know I just lost some interest from the "purists", but I'm not building this car for anybody but myself. Yes it's getting/got a 350, but it does have a 4spd manual - and it's got a Ford axle(s). So here is the avatar picture, I'll cover the suspension soon....

[fenian65]

im so excited im gonna need a cold shower!

[sawbuck]

thats a cool looking coupe ...keep us updated

[stevorunner]

nice build, love the gasser style!
sorry to hear about the sbc
but hey at the end of the day its your ride and if it gets it out the door sooner....

[plumbid]

Thanks for the kind words, I hope I'm doing this right? Here's a shot I took today, CHEAP rustoleum rusty metal primer. I'm doing this build thread now because I feel that I can have it on the road this summer, but most likely the summer of 2013. There is alot of assembly/disassembly when you tackle something like this and when you start priming/painting, things are getting closer! I will "back-up" and talk suspension and axles here soon.....

[Ghost28]

Very nice. I have seen your avitar before and wondered about the car.

[plumbid]

I like the classic chevy truck rear trailing arm suspension, so I built my own version. 3/4 inch chromoly heim joints at the front, QA1 coilovers, double sided brackets for all mounts, except the panhard bar. It's beefy, and YES it articulates. I'm not against people posting comments / sugestions, but please lets not turn my build thread into a "Do trailing arm suspensions need arms that flex?" I make/cut all my brackets with a 4.5inch angle grinder with a thin cut-off wheel. I rough cut them individually, then I stack them and clamp them together with some vise grips and final hand grind them so when they are done, they are all the exact same size/shape. I drill them all at once too, poor man's CNC! Wear leather gloves and have a cool down bucket of water close by. I do this mostly outside behind my garage and occasionally my neighbors see me with a respirator, safety glasses, welding hat, and hearing protection - they must think I'm odd. Are we?

[plumbid]

Check out that weld right at the top/to the right of the big attach bolt - wow, I do nice work!

[ChefMike]

looks good should be a blast to drive when done

[Pat Pryor]

cool

[gassercrazy41]

Looks great man

[ChevyMikey]

Looks good ! Always loved gasser!

[1971BB427]

Looks great so far! Looking forward to more pics as you progress! Mid 30's cars of all makes (especially coupes!!!) have great looking lines.

[madmak95]

Gona be a sweet ride!

[n847]

Good looking build! Subscribed!

[plumbid]

The rear axle is a Ford 8.8 out of an Explorer. I put one in my 65 C-10 with great results. This one I took a step further and narrowed it myself. It has disc brakes, 3.73 gears, 31 spline axles and factory trac-lok posi. These rear ends have a "long" and a "short " axle. I cut the long axle tube off, right at the center housing. I then proceeded to hand taper the tube, so it just would fit into the housing about an inch at most. They go in approx. 3 inches total. Ofcourse I had to remove the chunk that was left inside first. I then bear-hugged the housing and basically dropped it on the concrete floor / onto a scrap of plywood, so it wouldn't mess up the housing or my floor. Using gravity to force the tube back into the housing worked great, I had the tube marked at the point to stop so it matched the other side. Now it uses 2 factory short axles, axles are about $25 at the junk yard, the entire rear end is about $120! This process also centers the pumpkin. I welded the tubes to the housing as well, everything spins just as smooth as it did before I messed with it. The front axle is a speedway unit with discs/ford spindles. You can see the front spring attach points are tall - street freaky. I drilled them and welded tubes inside them and cut angles on them all in an effort to make them look like they aren't just big boring blocks. I made a new front crossmember too, which attaches to square tubing that was inserted up into the factory frame horns. Those square tubes go in about 11 inches inside the factory boxed frame horns. I did all this work about 2-3 years ago......