Technical Building a Gasser 51 Desoto coupe

I'm building my first Gasser on a small budget. The car I'm using is a 1951 DeSoto S15 coupe with 250 Chevy l6 with th350 and needing some help and pointers. Also what must you have for it to be considered a Gasser? So far

 

Where is that new button?
Please.
How about a big homemade freakin' scoop on the left side of the hood?

 

What do you mean new button

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/how-about-an-unlike-button.1080759/page-2#post-12250851

 

first thing you need is a big, badass engine. Second thing is a car that might have been a contender in the Gas Class, which mostly rules out a Desoto.

If you just want a nice cruiser, forget you ever heard the term "gasser".

 

Ok thanks

 

Not every old car has to be called a Gasser for crying out loud. We are getting so saturated with people who have no clue what a real gasser is or was.
Can't you just build an old car and call it an old car or a street rod or street cruiser ?
A Desoto with a 250 inline 6 will be called a daily driver. You need to put in a big Mopar V-8 , straight axle . Radius the rear wheel wells , put a roll bar in it . Make it safe and fast .
Summit sells a great book with over a hundred pictures of old Gassers. Go to all the nostalgic events in your area and look at the cars and talk to the owners ,who will be more than happy to tell you all about their car.

 

I think what you want to do is just add a few sandbags to the trunk and be done with it.

 

.....sounds like you're working up something for the SLOW race at a truck show,,,,,

 

I guess ALL hot rods are "gassers" or r.r.'s now....

 

Isn't a "Gasser" something you emit when you eat too many beans.

 

Try to learn what a "gasser" is before trying to build one. If you want the car to be taken serious, you really need a better candidate. A straight axle, phony Moon tank, and bolt on 10 spokes is not a gasser, just a poser.

 

I'm gonna build an '82 Plymouth Reliant Gasser

 

Honda Civic gasser...

 

Just needs some fake spindle mounts!

 

What's that smell..............smells like a dead horse to me!

 

Not really , Denny. We've still got a lot of work to do here. This is gasser stuff is still spinning out of control.

 

Maybe you guys should have tried educating the guy instead of being assholes! I agree that the term Gasser and period correct Gasser are way overused...but to say it has to have an axle or a huge engine is just as stupid. There were plenty of oddball combinations, many of them four doors or odd manufacturers. Dave Koffels flintstone flyer Packard four door is as odd as it gets...still it was a competitive car. Who knows why he used that body, maybe the weight bias was good...here's a few pics off odd cars that ran in the gas class, and there were classes for six cylinder and flat head engines too.


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Here's a good place to start learning about the glory days of drag racing...

http://www.georgeklass.net/index.html


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Take off the front bumper. Oh, you've already done that. It's already finished

 

Yes, you are correct of course. Many different body styles were used for Gassers.
I'm not going to speak for others here, or try to parse their words.
My comment was directed at the fact that our young friend here wanted to build a gasser, yet he really didn't even know what they were. ..which tells me he got caught up in the gasser fad..Maybe through the media, the magazines..Who knows?
Someone said that all new builds of old cars don't have to be gassers, and to that, I would agree.
My comment about the left side hood scoop was said half in jest, but there was some truth to it.
So far, I have not seen any four or six cylinder "axle " car being built. F/Gassers or H/Gassers, or whatever.
Not really a terrible idea, but it would be hard to pull it off, especially for someone new at this.
It would need a thumping cam, multiple carbs on a homemade manifold, a STICK SHIFT, plus all the rest of the period correct stuff.
So, I would have to say NO, not a got idea, still. Maybe that lumps me in with the a-holes, but I'm sure it won't be the first time.

 

I am too old to have to apologize for my comments on this thread. I raced against the Flint stone flyer back in the day and it was a tough to beat race car.However it did not have a 6 cylinder automatic in it.
Nobody laughed at Cotton Perry's 6 cylinder Nova or the Makin Bacon Karmen Ghia either.
They were real race cars and not a poser. I am just sick of the wannna be gasser group .
You can build anything you want without putting a label on it. I would be more than happy to lend the guy a hand with his Desoto if he was going spend the money on that 6 cylinder to make it badass.
Not just dress it up to look fast and then embarrass himself when his mom out runs him with her mini van.

 

I'd rather encourage you than knock you down, but a 4500 lb car powered by an 80 hp inliner with an automatic is going to be incredibly lame. If you're going through all the work of swapping the driveline out, at least put something with a little balls in it. And if you're going to call it a gasser, put something with a huge set of hairy balls in it. And if you're going to come to the Hamb and call it a gasser, it will need a huge set of period correct hairy balls in it.

 

First off no one has to apologise for their comments I'm not some stupid snowflake that gets hurt by words. The reason I even thinking about building it into a Gasser is because I've had probably 15 to 20 people have told me to build it into a Gasser and that's when I decided to try and see if it was even a realistic goal.

 

I think the car could be a cool gasser........not with a six cylinder. As sort of alluded to, if you were capable of building a competitive 6 cylinder gasser, you wouldn't need to ask.

Anyway, I wish I had a nickle every time I've read hardtops weren't gassers.

 

THATS BULLSHIT!!!! HELL, LET THE GUY GET IN THE DOOR, WILL YA...GEEZ!

 

One thing you must have is enough motor to pull an old sick woman off a bed pan.

If you are racing it what it has to have to be considered a "Gasser" is what the organization that you are racing under requires. If you want it to be a period correct gas class car find some old rules and follow 'em. Pre '64 Gas Coupe/sedan was a street legal class so all it really needs to be is a fast streeter. Which brings me to my first statement.

 

Nobody goes by thsess rules because mostly what is being built is "Newstalgia" but here are the '64 NHRA rules. You'll have to try and figure it out as you go because I am probably not posting them iin the correct order but you can do it if you try.








If you want to build a genuine traditional gasser within the confines of this site this would be the most modern set of "gasser" rules that you are going to use.

By the way I was harassing you when I mentioned enough motor to pull it. With your 6 you probably would land in F/Gas. That would have been a 14-18 second car back then.

 

@II FUNNY you forgot the Flinstone Flyer, probably the most famous of all the whale gassers.

 

It's your car build as you want and call it what you want.
Not the car I would build......but if we were all the same we would be married to the same gal.