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Hot Rods The dos and don'ts of building a 60s gasser

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by Duellym, Jun 7, 2016.

  1. Please take a look at my avatar. We built this car starting in 1963 and ran it in 1966 until we were drafted in June 1967. No nose high attitude, used stock independent front suspension at first and later replaced it with a tube axle for weight savings. The biggest problem was finding a talented guy (at a reasonable price) to do the aluminum panels inside and out...we did (an ex Shelby employee).
     
  2. hotroddonnie
    Joined: Apr 28, 2011
    Posts: 243

    hotroddonnie
    Member

    I wanted a Gasser but I also wanted it to be street legal. HRD
     
  3. Gassers that fit our era are street legal. The class was called Gas Coupe/Sedan and was a street legal class.
     
  4. JOECOOL
    Joined: Jan 13, 2004
    Posts: 2,771

    JOECOOL
    Member

    Build it like YOU want it ,building a car to make HAMB readers happy is stupid.
     
    henryj1951, Duellym and hotroddonnie like this.
  5. Why Joe I am just appalled. :eek: :p We all build our cars to make everyone else happy. :D :D
     
    henryj1951 and Just Gary like this.
  6. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

    Thanks for the help guys.

    I have another question though, did they run anything other than ladder bars back then? I want to be able to drive the truck on the street occasionally
     
  7. Ladder bars will not keep you from running on the street. I have run them a bunch over the years.

    bars that resembled these got run a lot of street strip cars Most were not adjustable, there was a company called posi trac that made them.

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

    Oh cool I can run a caltracks setup and still have it be right. Thanks
     
  9. Its not a contest but they didn't probably come around until the '70s. if it is any consolation I will be running ladder bars on my A sedan and that are not the sissy ones that they sell for street rods. If you set em up right they work just fine.
     
  10. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

  11. bchctybob
    Joined: Sep 18, 2011
    Posts: 5,190

    bchctybob
    Member

    There were several Gasser Trucks that showed up at Lions when I was a kid. The Pisano Brothers had a '50 Stude PU with a 413 Mopar, there was a black '59 ElCamino that was always there, as well as a '40 ford PU that often ran without the front clip in the altered class, Gene Conway's Willys and Austin PU, Bob Panella, the list goes on. So pickups can be gassers.
    I set up my '50 Stude PU with stock rear leaf springs and ladder bars - I looked for the simplest, least noticeable housing floaters I could find. It was driven on the street fairly regularly with no problems. In the olden days the street/strip set-up was Traction Masters. They were much like what Ol' 'Beaner showed in the photo above. If you're not hitting the rear end with more than 400 hp, they should work OK.
     
  12. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

    SO THERE WERE PICKUPS! That's awesome I'm not doing it wrong. Thanks.

    I would like to build the engine to someday make like 600-650 but by then I'll have figured it out. Mainly right now I'm just gonna do frame and bodywork, mostly frame. There's no point in making power if you can't get it to the ground.
     
  13. squirrel
    Joined: Sep 23, 2004
    Posts: 55,934

    squirrel
    Member

    I made some bars that look like Traction Masters, but work like Caltracs. Depending on how much torque you have on the rearend, you may or may not want to do this...the bars in porknbeaner's pic above would probably work fine, but they do look a bit too "nice" for the typical 60s gasser....but not for the exceptionally clean 60s gasser. I don't know which you're trying to build.

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

    I am going to make it one of those exceptionally clean gassers eventually. I know what colors I want to paint it right now, sort of... I would like it to be like jeep hydro blue and red but the blue, to me would look too modern with the metal flake I would like to shoot it without any metal flake with a flat finish to it. I'm not too worried about the outside of the body as I have a long time before I need to worry about it.

    When I scratch the primer right now I just say oops. If it were painted I'd probably actually die.

    Thanks sir.
     
  15. squirrel
    Joined: Sep 23, 2004
    Posts: 55,934

    squirrel
    Member

    I was thinking about paint and scratches today as I was unloading some jack stands and brake drums out of the back of my 57 Suburban...I did a lot of work sanding and painting to make it nice (I finished it 3 yeas ago), now I treat it like a 3 year old truck. Same with my "race" car. I kind of understand why folks are so scared of scratching the paint on stuff they worked on so hard (or paid someone a lot of money to work on for them)....but not me, I worked on it so I could drive it around and use it.

    back to the main topic.
     
  16. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

    I'm the Same way, that's one reason I don't want shiny paint and chrome just because I'm going to race it, the paint is going to get scratched. That's just how it goes. If I do it racing it's one thing if I do it by being stupid it's another


    So back to the subject. Who else makes good wheels that would look right? Rocket racing makes some nice ones I'm not 100% sure they'd look right. And while I'm on this subject what would be a good rear tire size?

    Thanks for the help.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2016
  17. Cragar S/S, or American Racing. A lot of the 60's Gassers had painted wheels.
     
  18. Duellym
    Joined: Feb 28, 2016
    Posts: 315

    Duellym
    Member

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