GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

Hi Vic

The new owner has a bum left knee and with the screwed up stiff clutch so he cant drive it

Since it was in the Dec 65' hot rod mag I wanted him to take it to Pomona last yr for that show of featured cars in hot rod mags over the years

That would have been the prefect place to show the car

Found a guy by me that does clutch work and we could have put in light springs for him to drive the car [ no answer ] so I give up on these jerks

I try to help and get kicked in the teeth so the hell with them

G Don

 

All, this is one fun grassroots racing event. If you like old time thrashing, this is it! Rocky is one hell of a promoter and nice guy, he'll treat you good! Looking forward to attending again with my Gasser! Good luck Rocky!!

 

Oops, sorry about the above post - not sure how it got there... But support Rocky & Eagle Field Gasser meet.

 

Probably got here in response to Rocky's post the page before. Lots of fine examples of what gassers were and are at his Eagle Field event! I had more fun there last year than I've had at a drag race in years!

 

Thanks Guys for the kind words, we really do try to make the Eagle Field events as enjoyable as possible! Gassers have their own area for those who want to get involved...................

 

Oh damn I gotta get a way to make it to the show.

 

Lots of my friends from the NW making the trip, hope you can make it!

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I just had to.

 

That's Don!

Scott


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yeah, Don's Chevy is probly my all-time favorite 37...

 

Hi Rusty

These pics are before the resto and what it really looked like

Glad you like the car, kinda my fav too

My goal was to build a nice clean car that was meant for serious business

Don

 

Awesome Don, really love the look of your car! Sure wish the new owner would bring it out, my favorite '37 of all time!
Heading out to Vegas tomorrow morning, give me a call - will have lots of time to talk... Vic

 

"Hi Rusty

These pics are before the resto and what it really looked like"

...yeah, I know that pic is "after" but still love that car; I have the old Hot Rod article in one of my scrapbooks, prominently on the first page of the book!

 

BITCHIN Car Don !!! Chris

 

My favorite thing about that car is the way it looks incredibly stock but ISN'T!

The fiberglass panels on it aren't shitty,wavy,rough approximations of the stock sheet metal,they're real nice replicas that maintain the illusion of a stock car.
The attention to detail on that car was great.And some pretty slick bits of engineering,and finding areas of the rule book that were open to a little "interpretation".
Don managed to build a super competitive car that had a clean enough appearance to be entered in a car show.You would never guess it was so damn fast at first glance.
Just a well built,badass car any way you cut it.

Scott


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I love everything about your '37 Don! It's the kind of car that got my interest as a young guy in the early 60's. I loved gassers in general, but those that looked like they could win a race or a car show were my favorites! Yours was one of the cleanest, fastest cars around.

 

Thanks guys for all the nice praise on my 37'

Just a side note on the glass front end, when Mouse at Cal Auto was making the molds he needed to fill in the louvers in the steel hoods sides

He took masking tape and taped the outside of them shut, then poured Plaster Of Paris on the inside of each hood half

When dry a coat of primer and green stuff putty filled in all the little holes and made the louvers solid

When looking at the car you could not tell it was glass unless you looked from the rear and saw the solid louvers, as that was the give-a-way

When waxing I had to be careful on the headlight buckets as they were made from one layer of 2 oz cloth and would push in pretty easy on the side [ had to make it light ]

I had a body man go over the whole car when he was cutting out the rear fenders, so it was super straight and it shows when seeing that neat front end that Curt & Mouse made at Cal Automotive in 63'

G Don

 

Side note twoooo

When it came to painting time my Friend Sal was going to lay on the color [ 65' Chrysler ], I had put a Olds engine in his 55 Ford truck so the paint was to help me in return

On Sat we did all the jamming etc, then Sun we put the fenders - hoods back on and started to spray and it was not coming out right

So I went over to my other painter friends house and woke him up and said ' HELP '

He pulled the trigger on the gun, went over and put in some more thinner and adjusted the air and just going round the car filling the gun and putting on coats

At the end he put in a little clear and it came out dead flat, not a trace of orange peal

I let it set for a few weeks and each day after work I would hand rub a 2 foot square area using the DuPont 7 compound, never had to color sand it at all just rub & wax

Mike was a painters helper at Tom Carroll Chevy in San Fernando after school each day, and one of the first things he was taught was how to lay down the metallic with no spray patterns or splotch's etc

That blue just came out perfect for a 20 yr old painter putting it on, I had spent a month block sanding the primer so it would be plenty straight

On one of his trips around the car some ash's from his smoke fell on the hood, he just blew them off and kept going and my friend and I get a kick out that deal now and then when we bring it up

Since then in 63' Mike sprayed my 69' Elco - 78' Ranchero and my 81 Eldo

He left us way too early from all the paining stuff etc and sure do miss him as he was a great friend R.I.P. Mike

Sincerely G Don

 

Man I love hearing this stuff.

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Hey CG

Glad you like the printed stuff I remember while building my ride, fun for me thinking about it again too

G Don

 

Side note Threeeee

Be careful buying used speed parts as the few bucks you saved just might come back and bite you at the wrong time

This story is about that kinda deal, I always wanted to build an engine for my friend Oren Prosser since school, we put my Hilborn Injectors on his 55 chev in 65' for a open comp race at the Orange Show speedway in San Berdoo but a cut tire put us back too far

Fast forward 15 yrs and Oren was back driving for Donnie Johnson again in his new BBC camero set up for these open comp races, he talked me into building his 427 alum head engine using all used stuff [ not a good deal ]

On the Traco dyno we picked up 40 Hp - 18 with a tricked up carb and 22 with the dyno pipes over the race car ones and was about 5 down from their 425 AMC for Penskes nascar Matador that had 585 hp in the early 80's

So we were looking pretty good, went out to the 605 1/2 mile paved speedway for a 100 lapper open comp run what you brung deal

Oren was late getting there on Friday nite so no testing time, 2 laps for your speed and he put her on the pole with fast time - won the dash - the heat race and led every lap of the main so it was a good nite for myself and Oren

About 1/2 way in the main it sounded off song, and it turns out a intake rocker stud had backed out - push rod and lifter came out and the oil pressure was down a bit

Sat. I cleaned the parts and the stud held torque , so we were off to a 4 car match race at Saugas speedway

Oren started to get in some hot laps and he looped it out to keep from hitting the wall going into turn 3 as the throttle stuck wide open

I started it up and it had white smoke coming out of the air cleaner - breathers and the pipes all at the same time [ you have got to be kidding right as this cant be happening to me ]

Well the nite before when the stud came out there was a crack in the stud boss we did not see on the alum head, and now there was a one inch hole in the top of the intake port where the stud is sposed to be

Turns out that these used alum heads had been run with way to strong valve springs for a roller cam , and Donnie never told me till after this deal and the ported intakes were too thin

Needless to say that with about 2 minutes less running time a full tilt we would not have won the 100 lapper the nite before

So he really lucked out winning a grand for the open comp race, and a few races later a rod came poking it's head out of the oil pan

So he did not save too much using the used parts at all, and was lucky on the one nite

You never know about used stuff and how much time they have on them, its the only engine I ever built using used parts in 20 yrs but at least Oren and I got our win together and that was pretty cool cleaning every body's clocks that nite at 605

The morel of the story is try to buy new parts , then you what you have and can save you a lot of money and heartacke

Just a little Roundy Round story, G Don

 

Don - Probably the best advice ever about the used parts. Every time a used blower comes up I can't help looking at it. But in order to prevent regret, a complete new setup is going on my car. Cool story about your 'glass front end & headlight buckets.

 

Thanks 57

Glad you liked it as those dudes did a great job, Curt still has a shop in Van Nuys building hot rods 50 yrs later

G Don

 

Don:
That's a great point about the used parts.
A buddy of mine runs an engine shop here in town,and last time I stopped by he had a set of heads to show me.

They were a race ported set of Bowtie aluminum heads that had been run for several seasons in some kind of drag car that must have been in an index class,cause these things were ported to within an inch of their life,and the decks milled over and over til there was nothing left.

They were actually milled so severely,that the intake valves were about an 1/8th of an inch proud of the deck of the head on one side,and the deck was down to less than 1/4 inch thick.I have no idea how these would ever seal,and retain combustion pressure of a running engine.They were paper thin all over.

The point is,this dude comes in to see my buddy bragging about the great deal he scored on these killer heads.As soon as I saw them I just said HOLY SHIT.
But to someone who was a little less aware of what to look for,they looked like a great deal.
If I get time I will swing by there and try to get a few pictures.

Scott


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There is one deal with the Engine from hell on the Traco dyno

The owner had a junk dist he wanted to use and on run in it was ok but starting to pull power it layed down

I always took my trusty Vertex mag to the dyno for a back up, so in she went

Well at 5000 on the first pull it lost about 200 lbs of torque, and I about dyed thinking the bearings turned blue and grabbed the crank on this bunch of junk

We checked every thing and it was Ok drained the oil into a white paint strainer to see if there was any flakes in the oil and ' not a thing '

Started it up and it only had 20 degrees of spark, the mag in a big block wants to back off from harmonics from the oil pump shaft

So we ran my mag as the owner did not have anything else to use, his battery was a cheapo and since it was locked out it would buck a bit when starting

He ragged on me about that, well at the trophy deal when we won the battery was dead and my mag got the car to the finish line and the grand

So I looking over at him when the starter went click - click -click and said its about my mag right and he never said another word about it being hard starting as it saved his arse that nite

G Don

 

I agree on used parts, but I have purchased used engine parts with very good success. The Edelbrock aluminum heads on my BBC came to me used, along with Crower roller rockers, and push rods. They looked like they were almost brand new when I got them from a local engine builder. He said a client came in with a blown 468 and was having trouble getting it to run as well as he thought it should. After pulling the engine down they went with a larger set of rectangle port heads, and I ended up with the oval ports for $900 with rockers and pushrods thrown in. I felt comfortable buying them because they were so new, and came from a reputable business.

 

Hi 71

That makes sence because you had good info to go on, my guy new nothing at all about engines and did not know what to ask either

You lucked out that day

G Don

 

Thanks Don; I really did luck out! I usually don't mind used external engine parts like intakes, or carbs. But have steered clear of hi performance heads or internals, unless the price was cheap enough to plan on going through them. This was just one of those cases where I felt comfortable with used.

 

Hey Guys

What's doing out in Gasser land?

G Don

 

I'm stalled out at the moment Don.

Lost my job yesterday,so I'm putting the brakes on the projects til I can get back to work in a couple of weeks.

Hopefully I will be back to work quick,cause I am getting the itch to get the coupe together!

Scott


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