Projects 1956 Chevy (South East Gasser) "The Vagabond"

I hadn't planned on doing a build thread, but sometimes we surprise ourselves. I know I do all the time! Most people were confused to say the least when I traded my model T "Lil Red" for this 56. On paper it was insanity because I was taking such a financial hit on the deal. Thing was after coming back from the Meltdown Drags in 2012 I knew I had to have a gasser. I just wish I had done it sooner.
I have about 180 hours of work on the car so far so I will catch everybody up to where I am at. It's raw and crude but I think it will still be entertaining to watch
I'm doing about 95% of the work myself so be patient with me if I start to lag in my updates.

First thing I did was blow the car completely apart because it was a shit basket...


Ignore the stickers,"Gasser" wheels etc etc...it won't be staying



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I like it.

 

I decided early on I wanted to run a lot of engine setback. My 56 had a 115" wheelbase and I wanted every bit of the 10% (so 11.5") so I started cutting almost immediately.





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Hadn't used my weights in a long time so I decided I needed too...




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Bought a prefab cross member for the engine but it just didn't look strong enough to me.








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I gotta follow this. Subscribed.

 

So I did this...












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Cut out the floor



And started making a pattern for the firewall....






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I cut and pieced that pattern together for hours to get to this point.






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good to see you made it. I will follow yours so I will know how to do mine later. Subscribed lookin good

 

Welded in the cross member and quickly discovered that I could no longer use just my engine hoist to yank the engine any longer.





I later welded inside of the bolt holes as well.
Now I will freely admit that this next bit is borderline madness but I honestly didn't know what else to do. Hell I still don't for that matter.
I built a box which I then bolted to a floor jack which allows me to pick the engine up and push it forward far enough to clear the firewall and then hook up a hoist. The ass pucker effect is pretty high when you use this thing too because the engine and tranny have to balance on it just right to work otherwise it ends up on the floor or on YOU! ...told you it was crude haha






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Next came the engine plate








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Figuring out how to tie in the firewall was a bit of a mess and more complicated than I expected. Spent a lot of time just figuring out how and where to bolt it in. Got to practice plenty with my "widowmaker" jack during all this because the last thing I wanted to do was weld in my plate and such just to find that the firewall was getting into the distributor or back beyond lip of dash. When it was all done I ended up with 10" of setback instead of 11.5" but I'm still happy with it.
I was going to engine turn the firewall but realized real fast that was going to put me in the nut house so I just ended up using my die grinder to do this finish. It really does look better in person ....but not much! LOL!





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About this time I started getting more serious about this deal and decided to run stack injection. Found some 3" Magnesium Kinslers I couldn't live without and it was Master Card time. Problem was they were fucking HUGE!!! Did not fit under the cowl at all.....hmmm


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...I came this far so I was committed at this point so I decided to hell with it!...I'll just cut the cowl and run the damn things right through the windshield!
There wasn't much left support wise up front so I started welding a bit of 16 gauge square tubing to keep it all together when I started in on the cowl.










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Then out came the die grinder..



...it put a lump in my throat cutting that hole but after it was done I felt like I was on to something.
Ended up making a 2 piece scoop so that I could still get in close enough to use my hoist. The 2 pieces fit together pretty well too! Set the engine back in and was pretty satisfied with it all.










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That's the cliff notes version of what I have done up to this point. The rest of my posts won't be nearly so machine gun like but I just wanted to put it out there.
Something of added note is that I spoke a bit with Quain Stott whom I really admire and decided to go ahead and build the car to his groups specs. So........anybody need a power glide??!


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Nice choice.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

x2!


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Dang Dj look'n good But I kinda like 56 chevys

 

I know you do brother!

 

Looks like you need a shoe horn to get that engine in there, looks really cool also.

 

Man you ain't kidding about that! Yes it's nice and cozy.



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Looks great John! Skittley bop hey! Call me POP!

 

Baaaaahahaha!!! That's cold...but I like it!


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