Projects 51 Studebaker business coupe to South East Gasser rules.

Jeff one detail make sure your mounting point for the top bar is about 1" in front of the centerline of the wheel. If not it will bend the aluminum plate up right in front of the wheel, if you get it to far forward it will bend the plate down right in front of the wheel. I wish I could draw on a pic on here this would make more since. Call me if you need too.

 

Great info on the bars! What is the wheel exactly? Should I make a midnight run to the grocery store and cut a couple of wheels of the shopping cart?

 

Quain,
I believe it was on one of the other Southeast Gasser style build threads that you said there were about 8 build threads going on here for race cars now.
Do you have the links for those?
If so could you post them on here?
I know of about 4 or 5 I think.
Thanks

 

Great work!!!

 

Tony I'm struggling to find the right wheels. They need to be a max diameter of 3 1/2". 3 " to 3 1/4" is best for the old school look. They need to be small or real big. Anything bigger than 3 1/2" starts to get the modern look even if it's made right. I bought a box of used wheels about a year ago but had to turn them down to the right size, I'm now out of them. Don't use colored wheels that would ruin any effort at making them look old school. Remember the wrong style wheelie bar will kill the looks of an old school gasser about as bad as a set of weld wheels.

 

What do you think of these?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-of-4-Sw...630?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5ae95100f6

 

It don't say if they have bearings or not, but might get by with out them. Just by looking at the pic they look OK. They look rounded off instead of flat like an old caster. Here's a couple of pic's, the first is an old caster on my engine stand, the second is a 3 1/2 wheel that I turned down to 3 1/4 to give it that flat look. But nobody say's that all casters were flat back then so they will be fine.

 

If any of you have a buddy in the elevator business check out the rollers they use for escalator steps or ctw. guide rollers. They have ball bearing and most are black. Many of them are close to 3-3.5" diameter.

 

Enloe here's the SouthEast Gasser builds that I know of right now. the first one (border Bandits) is 5 cars in one thread. there are 3 or 4 others on here but they are done finished.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...builds-to-the-southeast-gassers-rules.950342/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/dodge-this-1939-dodge-southeast-gasser-build.938352/

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/63-falcon-gasser-south-east-gassers.965872/

 

cool I was already subscribed to these builds. I was hoping there was some more.

 

Great thread and nice work. I have a '50 business coupe that I hope to build one day. Mostly complete, but I could use some front fenders as rust has gotten to mine.

 

Quain
Can you post a few more pictures of those wheelie bars. I like your design and the resemblance to old leaf spring wheelie bars. I was planning on making the rigid wheelie bars that come down from the rear of the frame but don't like the idea of not being able to take then off for loading on a trailer or flat bed.


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Tom I'm not sure if david owns the molds for the front fenders or if the guy that made them owns it. I will try and remember to ask, if you don't hear back from me give me a reminder.

 

I had the frame mounted bars on my willys when i first built it and there was a problem with unloading the suspension so I changed to the ones like I making for this build. My car is only 101" wheelbase so I decided to try them again on the Pale Rider 55 that I built a few years ago since it was 115" wheelbase same problem so we had to change it.
We have these mounted on the car now so I'll post some pics of the finished bars for you in just a day or two when I get a chance.

 

fast30coupe, Here's some pics with them mounted on the car. be sure to keep the top bar mounting point about 1" ahead of the wheel center line or the aluminum plate will bend.

 

Thanks Quain I'll be building a set soon


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Does anything here look like it would work?: http://www.mcmaster.com/#caster-wheels/=wd622a

 

A plastic master looks bad out of place on any old school gasser so I always make my signature hand hammered master cylinder cover to hid them. Some don't believe they are hammered out so I'm going to do step by step pics. I start with .040 3003 aluminum unless it has to have a bunch of shape then I use .050. this small shape is going to be .040. Sorry about the pic being dark I didn't know it until I downloaded them, to late to take any more.

 

Then a pattern of the size I need, then mark it on the aluminum.

 

Then start hammering. I use a shot bad underneath, if you don't have a shot bag a pile of sand will work just fine. I don't anneal the aluminum like some do unless it has to have a lot of working because it won't hold up good in the future.

 

The next tools I will use are home made dollies. You old timers might recognize the one as and old shoe maker's shoe repair stand. It works good for a lot of things I do around here .

 

The other tool is and old sheet metal slapper, can't use a hammer any more because I'm trying to get rid of the hammer marks.

 

Slapper and dolly and a little time in the English wheel, the wheel will only do the very top. (this can be done with a dolly but the wheel is a little faster). Starting to look like something now.

 

now for a mark on the top side so I can start getting the shape right.

 

Believe it or not it don't take long to get to this point but now the finishing takes a while. Just a lot of gentle taps with the slapper.

 

Getting close but still a little adjusting and still have to roll the sides up flat. I'll use the Little round dolly pictured earlier and work from the back side to do this.

 

Gently sanded so I could see bad places and low spots.

 

The sides trimmed and checked for fit in the car. Still needs a few little touch ups
but it's close.

 

Hey Quain, what master cylinder do you use? What is your gas pedal ratio? From the pics of your Willys I have...it looks like 1 1/2-1

 

My willys is screwed up don't go by it. I had injectors with a crazy ratio linkage when I first built it so I made the petal work with it instead of fixing the injectors. Now I have to have a screwed up mess on anything I put on it. Anyway 1 to 1 is what you want. Most carburetors take 2 1/2" to wide open. 2 1/2" is about the right pedal movement. If your injector have more or less travel fix them so if you ever put carbs on it things will be right. Another thing I do is I now always use a carb to set the petal up and it usual works out close for any injectors.