Projects 1957 CHEVY SOUTHEAST GASSERS BUILD

New to the HAMB, my name is Zak Hall, 19, Northeast TN. Starting a gasser build on my 1957 210 post car. Trying to build as period correct as I can afford, and building it to run with the southeast gassers. bbc powered with toploader 4 spd and dana 60 rear. Running a late '55 chevy truck axle.

 

Welcome to the HAMB!
Exactly 30 years ago this summer, I was a 19 year old and dragged home my 210. Dad just shook his head. He called it ''the remains'' of a car.
Now he shakes his head because it's still my obsession. It's great to see younger people in the hobby.
Your car looks to be solid, I see one patch panel on the quarter, how's the floors? Is all the trim with it? Fenders and firewall ok?
Dana 60 rears are stout! Tell us about the paint job you dream of.
The Hollywood Knights is a movie worth watching for anyone who owns a 57 Chevy. There's a lot of famous actors in it, however the real star is the mighty X.

 

The car is solid, it'd sat in a garage all apart like it is now for over 30 years. Floors needed front pan patches, but other than that it's solid. I own hollywood knights and it's one of my favorite movies. The car is going to be white, and say homegrown on the side like my dad's Opel gt drag car he built in 1980. It was a square tube chassis alcohol injected bbc 4 speed car. Ran 9s in the 1/4.

 

I really like reading about these builds,keep us up to date.

 

Got a set of hurst Indy slots and U.S slots for my car. Gonna look great

 

Nice goin kid! Looks like a very cool car, and gasser style fits the 57s so well.

 

The wheels are gonna look great. Mother's polish is your friend! You plan to radius the rear wheelwells?

 

Great car to start with., will follow with great interest. Do you have past history on the car?

 

Thanks y'all. The previous owner got it in 1982 and took it apart to restore it. And it sat inside his garage until I loaded it on a trailer. Yeah we're gonna cut the quarters.

 

Still working on the car, found a toploader 4 speed off a buddy, got a tunnel ram and aluminum heads for my big block, and got the front frame boxed and the front spring hangers bolted on. Working on motor mounts, trans crossmember, header clearance, and the steering drag link. I'm using a stock 57 box, and running rear cross steer.

 

Any updates?

 

Way to go Zak!

 

way cool

 

Is this project still alive son ????

 

any progress pics?

 

Sorry for the page kind of going dead. Been busy working on the car and with college. Just kind of forgot to post pics. Since then I've upgraded from the toploader to a jerico, and we've been working on narrowing mounting the Dana, should have the 42" ladder bars, and floater kit hooked up. We noticed that the springs were slightly different, and a buddy showed us it had a wagon spring on the passenger side for weight transfer. Oh, and the front end is all buttoned up, the motor mounts are done. I'll post some pics for the stance. I sold all the sheet metal and am going to run fiberglass. Next week or so we're gonna start on the cage, and try to get the cage and floor pans done before it gets too cold. Then start assembling the motor and order and mount the fiberglass.

 

Here's a few pics of the stance, and the motor mounts. We used stock location on the motor, and will have to notch the firewall for the big block. We used the stock steering box and just moved it down against the frame to clear the fenderwell headers. We've lowered it a little in the back since too, to give it a slight uphill rake. We hope to have it done by the season opener.

 

I also got a set of Ansen spring 15x4s to match my rears. The 14s didn't cut it. As far as steering goes, we ran cross steer to the short side because of clearances with the 8qt pan. And we used speedway arms to clean up the look of the truck axle. We used traction bar wedges to add caster to the axle, we have 8 degrees total. We are running speedway disc brakes front and rear that use gm metric calipers and rotors. Running the Dana 60 with strange axles, light weight spool, 4.56 gears. Got a 40lb steel flywheel to make the big girl leave hard, too. I also picked up a set of old wheelie bars for it. And I have several ran rod shifters to build a nice one out of.

 

Great progress!

 

Looking like awesome progress! The weather is being kind to us this year supposed to be almost 70 on Christmas Day

 

Keep at it Zak!

 

Keep up the good work Zac, I talked to your dad today about ladder bar location.

 

Yeah Quain, thanks for the help. We mocked it up till the 2x3 ladder bar crossmember is flush with the frame, and the ladder bar in the middle hole on the bracket, it'll put the bar just under 12 inches off the ground.

 

Yee-haa, that's going to be a fun car

 

That should be perfect Zak

 

Today we got the jerico bolted up and in the car and figured out where we're gonna put the driveshaft loop and where the trans crossmember will weld on at. The car looks ugly underneath because it's covered in undercoat from the factory or some time in the late 60s to early 70s. But atleast it protected it against rust. Also we found out that the leaf springs are different, because at some point they put a wagon spring on the passenger side, and left the factory 6cyl spring on the drivers side to add a little preload.

 

Well over the Christmas week, we got the rear end welded up, painted, and bolted under for the final time, I hope. Lol. Also ordered my moon tank, and all the fiberglass parts from unlimited performance products.

 

Looks like a very solid car.
That's a nice shop, I had to build mine outside in the dirt when I was 19.

 

Looks good and nice to see a father son project like a drag car...lol

 

Spend all the time you can with your pops and working on a car while doing it is great.