Hey guys , Imnot a regular poster around here but lurk and read quite a bit. Been planning what im going to tackle next on my 55 and figured id share the scoop with yall. I know gassers seem to be the HIP thing right now , im really not following a fad here ha ha ha, just wanted to do one for a long time now and am finally seeing it come together , Still a fairly young fella at 28 but i bought my first 55 at 15 , just didnt have the funds to do an axle back then . Bought the car off ebay last april , she was falling around the frame rails and in perty rough shape . I really dont have a place to work on stuff when it hits 14 degrees here in central il so i do what i can through the warmer months . Bought the car back in april of last year and my first goal was to get the body off the frame and make sure it had a floor in it by the time the snow fell . I splurged on one of those one piece pans because there was nothin left in the bottom of this thing , braces were totally gone as well as the rockers. So after the new floor i por 15 everything underneath so i dont have rust to wory about anymore. I got lucky on some wheels and a rear end , my brother bought a 67 nova and a guy threw in a garage full of parts , i got to pick out a couple of things for helping my brother with some concrete work , so i grabbed a NICE set of Fenton gyro 3.5 x15's for the front and a 69 camaro 12 bolt posi for the back . I really dont think my brother new he was handing me a 1500 dollar rearend lol, he does now. I ran an ad in the local freebie paper lookin for some "WIDE ALUMINUM SLOTS" just what the ad said , got REALLY lucky and the first call was a fella tellin me he had some 15x11 slots , i asked him if they had a name and he said , " Yeah , they say GIE-RO on the back" lol , so needless to say , i have a set of 15 by 11 fenton gyros out back that much the front and he only wanted a c note for em. In my book , it aint a gasser if it doesnt have an axle , and thats what my vision had sooo i drug a 57 truck out of the sticks , litteraly , spent 2 hours with a machette just clearing a path i could walk down to get to the truck , 2 hours later with a bobcat and it was on my trailer , after some speedway phone calls , i had the axle ready to go in , and a fellow hamber i found over in kincaid il had a flip nose for a steal. So , im getting ready to start in this spring with the next steps , im going to try and get the chasis completely done , steering brakes etc , then im gone get after it with the sand paper and get the satin black laid down , then we will start focusing on that big block with the huffer , or maybe injected , cant decide. Here are some pics from along the way. Little vid of my progress so far i put on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqOkCZVBjLE First got it home Floors then Out with the old In with the new The axle donor truck hiding in the timber and my road i built with a machette in 105 degree heat and skeeters ha ha ha Got the axle out of the truck built with new king pins , springs and hangers , and i did go for some saftey so i went with discs up front from speedway. Nose just sitting on it to get a rough idea on stance Radiused the wheel wells one day after work and shoe horned the gyros wrapped in 15x 10w's Underneath the car with the new floors Inside Eliminated the old rear shock mount and used a bar inbetween frame rails , fabbed up this little piece of sheetmetal to cover everything up the only pic i have of it with the gyros on the front . The goofy scoop will be leaving , it will be getting a huffer or an injection poking through that hole. couple more pics to show stance , i might be redoing the front shackles and bring it down an inch or 2 up front , have not decided yet , wont decide till ive got the full weight of an iron headed big block up there.
you are doing a GREAT JOB.......keep us posted with more pictures, I always liked the 55 and your is real cool....................
Hey thanks guys , It has been anywhere from 1 degrees to 15 for the past week or so and somethin snapped and it hit 65 today , it was all i could do to keep from rolling it out and start fabbing up a hinge kit ha ha ha . This place gives quite a bit of inspiration.
......I'll second that ... nicely done .....looking forward to seeing what else you get done in the next little while. I'm also in the middle of redoing my 55 into a 60's pounder. Best of luck with the rest of the build.
Looks great. You are really getting there. Looks like a lot of hard work done already. Keep us updated.
I had the same scoop on a real gas class chevelle in 1971. It was called stormin norman ran it at atco. 55 is looking good. Not all gassers were nose high. Yours looks right the way it is.
I like the cars attitude, nice stance! I'm also building an axle 55' 150, hope to post some pictures as soon as I get my kids to show me how. I just joined and still learning to drive around in this electronic world. Anyway I've been collecting goodies for about 18 months and am getting ready to go in surgery on the car. I traded my original running chassis for a California 57' 210 roller with original paint, and opted for a Jim Meyers straight axle chassis for the 55'. My quarters are mint and I really don't want to cut them although the radiused quarters do lend more to a true gasser. Thanks for posting the pictures, I like the car as is concerning paint, get er' fired and come on out!
MAn , i must be doin somethin right , THanks for the compliments fellas , As far as motor , itll be a big block chevy of some breed , have not decided to do a huffer or injection. I want it to be pretty intimidating yet streetable. I had the stuff to do a clutch flite but again , streetable came into play and if my dad wants to take it out i dont know how well he could handle the c flite. So ive got a muncie under the tool box and a couple stout th400's here and there. Alot of options and a bunch of it is stillup in the air . Cmonnnnnnn Spring time. I went down to this sweet old junk yard the other day that lets you walk around , had a bunch of 55-57 chevys , even the reminance of a factory 70 plum crazy challenger. Everything had been picked pretty hard but i did pick up a couple pieces of windshield stainless .
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