Hot Rods Teenage Hot Rodder's Cheap Tricks in the 60's

Hello,

Cheap is a word that had bad connotations, so we used "inexpensive, but creative." The responsibilities on my brother’s 58 Impala was to change the rear end gears weekly for the drags. The Impala came with 4:11 gears, but we needed 4:56 gears, so, I was the person responsible for pulling the wheels, axles, million 3rd member bolts and getting the smelly, posi-traction oil out before replacing it with the new 4:56 housing. It was a very difficult and time consuming thing to do every week, but the results at the drags (trophies) and on the street proved that it was worth it.

In the beginning, my brother showed me what had to happen to get everything out. Then after replacing the complete 4:11 3rd member, in went the new 4:56 member. Finally, the reversal of the procedure to make it running again before the weekend was over. Well, at first, it was slide the heavy 4:56 unit over on a bedspread under the jack stands. Then lifting it up and into the empty axle housing. Finally after several ins and outs, I had to think of a way to make it easier.

We all learned to weld better in our high school metal shop and applied those techniques in the auto shop. My brother taught me how to weld in our backyard garage gas welding set up he had made. At first, it was just blobs on steel plates. Then I was able to get at least an inch of blobs. Finally, after a nice row of better looking blobs all in a uniform row, my brother allowed me to practice on bigger steel plates we got from our neighborhood, discount, steel scrap yard just down the street.

His idea was for me to experiment first, then after his approval, work on little stuff around the backyard shop. There were lots of "welding" practices on little stuff, but no way was I ready for welding on an actual car or even a doodlebug or go kart frame.

So, I decided that I needed a movable rack to set up the 4:56 thrid member under the Impala. I took apart our steel skates, welded them onto a flat metal angle iron rack that my brother had made earlier. That allowed me to roll the 3rd member onto the now, strong, rolling flat rack. The problem was the wheels only went forward and back, so I had to align it to the exact track that allowed me to lift it up into the empty rear axle housing. This rolling rack made the installation so much easier and the reverse was the same.

Later on in 1960, we used this rolling, steel, angle iron rack to move our 283, then 292 cu. in. SBC back and forth from the build table to the 40 Willys and back. So, it became a dual purpose home made rolling rack to move heavy things. Move a heavy shop table? Put this roller skate rack on one end and moving was simplicity at its finest. Those 360 degree industrial wheels were too expensive at the time and there were no smaller consumer wheels at our local auto parts store.

After our 348 Impala stock car racing had finished, I only had to change over a few more times. I enjoyed driving around the Impala in our Bixby Knolls cruising grounds with the 4:56 gears. Later, that 4:56 3rd member went into our 40 Willys that had the Chevy rear axle set up for convenience and simplicity. The 4:11 went into the Impala.

Jnaki

You never know who is behind you and wants to show me his racing power at the Cherry Ave. Drags. 4:11 or 4:56? Both set ups always came through in the races, street or strip.

By the time we started to put the 4:56 into the Willys, we used the new, hydraulic floor jack for almost a “no lift” manual insertion. The hydraulic jack put the 3rd member right in front of the open housing. The very strong, roller skate rack was delegated to moving the motor, crank, heads,or other heavy things back and forth.

 

Cold fuel was a cheap teenage trick...the rumor was 30% denser charge = 15 extra horse

 

Your welding story reminds me of one time when I wanted to buy a '47 Crosley station wagon(for off road gravel road racing by a bunch of 19 year old Crosley nuts) from the Simon's Body Shop (home of a blown SBC Metropolitan in the early 60's) in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas. Mr. Simon's teenage son said it had a rear end problem so we pulled the cover off and found the ring gear had sheared about half of the mounting bolts and was
about to come off. We "C" clamped the ring gear back onto the carrier and used their acetylene torch to weld the ring gear to the carrier. It worked fine and I drove the Crosley home. I used a friends torch to cut(butcher) the wagon body off(forgive me of my sins), leaving only the cowl with dash, floor pan and drivers seat. It held together for many weekends of(no seat belt) gravel road racing! The Crosleys other bucket seat later saw service in my C/A.
Still in the shop at 73!

 

1967 Fairlane , my buddies dad had a boat shop . There were 2 old FEs sitting there for years . He gave me one . Went to the dealer bought a 427 solid cam and lifters . 42.00 . Installed the cam and engine in the Fairlane . Ran like a scalded dog . I had no idea that a 427 was available in a boat other than to use for an anchor !

 

After fun with the Chassis Research car, I wanted to go faster still. So I set out to build a "light weight" flexible flyer.
Being 22, and completely unafraid of any danger, I decided to build a new chassis from .031 wall mild steel tailpipe tubing. At least I had the mandatory .125 wall X 1-1/2" roll bar and upright strut! Crazy huh? It was welded up by the infamous A.W. Tackatt in his Oak Cliff welding shop.
Well I like to say that the Vietnam War probably saved my life. I got my draft notice before I could complete my new
"flexible flyer". I joined the Navy for 4 years to satisfy my service obligation. When I returned home we discovered
that my Chassis Research dragster and my new chassis had been stolen from the Bekins Van & Storage warehouse in
Richardson, Texas where we had stored all our personal furniture and items. Somebody has probably seen it.

 

If you had a Ford and wanted the rear bumper in the air you turned the rear spring shackels up side down. Very easy to do with a long pry bar. Or if you wanted to lower the rear just take a cutting torch and heat the rear leaf springs about 6 inches from the eye. This was good for around 4 inch lower.

 

Yep, flipped the shackles down on my wife's '55 Ford. You had to jack up the rear, by the bumper, so the rear wheels were hanging about 4" above the ground. Then you could insert a lever bar into the shackle and flip the spring eye down below the shackle. We then put on a couple of chrome pipes we called "scavengers" (flared on the back end)
and hung below the rear axle. You had to use extra long tailpipe hangers to keep the pipes far enough below the axle.

 

We did this accidentally in 1956. A friend bought a new 56 Fairlane convertible and wanted to put on lowering blocks. He arranged to do it one evening at a gas station where one the guys worked. I arrived as they were letting car down off the jack. It sat higher than when they had started and they couldn't imagine why. One of the guys finally discovered that the had flipped the shackles. I don't know what they were doing that enabled this. Such was life in 1956.

 

Oh, you were supposed to put hangers on those scavenger pipes? HAHA! Back in 63' I had them on my 41' Ford convertible. They hung so low I eventually ground the flares flat on the bottom and the constant banging on the pavement just loosened up the whole exhaust system.

 

Talking about Crosleys, have you guys ever seen a water cooled internal combustion engine made out of sheet metal?
If not here's some pic's of one that I saved. They were the brainstorm of Powell Crosley. He made big money in the
30's designing and selling tube type radios, then refrigerators in the 40's and, with a country wide distribution
network, got to where he always wanted to go, into automobile manufacturing. He designed virtually the first compact car. A tiny car with a horizontally opposed 2 cyl. engine. Later came his unique design of a small 4 cyl.
overhead cam water cooled 37 H.P. engine. Next came his design of a version of the original engine that was
fabricated from stamped sheet metal panels that were copper brazed together. He called it the "Cobra" engine
which was from the "Co (copper) Bra(brazed) process. This engine was also used to power Army generators.
The cast iron version of this engine was more reliable and saw a lot of use in the "Midget" racers in the 40's & 50's.

 

I didn't know that about Crosley. He was big into radio. WLW is still around today. At reduced power though, at one time they would get song requests. From Europe.

"On March 22, 1922, the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation won a commercial license under the calls WLW, operating at 50 watts. During the next six years, the station's broadcast power was increased to 50,000 watts. Crosley's hypothesis in increasing power being that the more powerful the broadcast, the cheaper he could build radios. In 1934, Crosley put a 500,000-watt transmitter on the air (on occasion, the station's power was boosted as high as 700,000 watts) It was the most powerful radio transmitter in the US, and operated with a special license subject to 6-month renewals."

 

Wasn't Powell Crosley it was Lloyd Taylor who had the engine idea. Paul Klotch of Crosley went to see Lloyd about his engines.

 

That would have been "TQ" or 3/4 midgets. The cast iron replacement was used in the cars, then in stationary generators, powering "refers" in trailers, also used in outboards(see Westbend), & in 45" Hydros(race boats). I believe there was a thread a couple of years ago on here?

 

My 1949 Motors Manual has tune up data for early Crosleys. Gives the firing order as: 1, 2
Love it!

 

I think another version of Crosley 4 cyl. outboard engines, mounted vertically, was sold by Homelite.
You're right about the 3/4 Midgets using the Crosley engines. If you look closely at the pic's, of my Crosley Cobra
engine, you can see a modified oil pan (blue), from a Midget racer, that had added oil capacity by 2 valve covers turned
90 degrees and welded to the sides of a stock oil pan. Racers often created their own modification parts "back in the day".

 

Hey 550,
In our efforts to go faster in our A/Stock class against the more powerful 59s and a couple of days against those 60s Chevy cars, we put on some scavengers on our 1958 348-280hp Impala. Now, that would boost some performance, but we were trying to make up 55hp against the 59s and a whopping 70hp against the 60s. So, every little bit helped for us .

In 59, it worked as our car had enough to stay out in front by a 1/2 car length for several weekend wins. At first we used these scavenger pipes. After a few weekends, this guy with a powerful 350hp 60 chevy complained that the pipes were not stock and that they were open exhausts. The funny thing was, we weren't the only ones with them. But, the ruling was... off they come and put the caps back on the outlets.

That was the final straw against the more powerful motors with so much more horsepower. It was an impossible mission in late 59. So, why fight it any longer? We were finished with the stock class and started our thoughts of a 40 Willys for the "no limits," Gas Coupe and Sedan class. B/Gas here we come...

Jnaki
We kept those long chrome scavenger pipes in our backyard garage "Rumpus Room" rafters until we sold our house in 1998. The new owners probably thought they were heating pipes...

Scavenger exhaust outlets at 3:43.

 

In the 60's, had the brain storm to weld spider gears to make a locked rear end as posi units were rare (junkyard was my parts house) worked for a very short time and failed when turning a corner as it chirped tires big time. Got a posi unit w/4:11, big $$ at time. Had to have dual exhaust, glass packs with downturns for Max HP, put twist in spacers in front coils for chassis attitude, home made traction bars, looked at the Pic's in Hot Rod magazine, made my own in HS machine shop, took 15" Chevy wheels, drilled rivets out, reversed them, added recap street slicks, had a 348 tri-carb, bought a solid lifter cam/kit, and it ran pretty good. I couldn't afford a 4 speed yet and the old Chevy 3 speeds, the shifter fork ring on syncro drum would pop off when trying to shift hard/fast so after 2x got idea to weld it back on, turn up in lathe, worked great, now shifter fork would break,( probably did 10/15 of these for fellow street racers) had Hurst shifter w/ stops. I had a ton of FUN doing these things as my Carnut Gene was in full bloom at 16, didn't know much other than reading Hot Rod magazine, books and learned quickly that the local expert so quick to give you advice was usually full of BS, the guys that had knowledge were not as giving w/ info unless you spent some $$$ with them at their shop, ( then they would help you out and answer my 100 silly questions) I've had the good fortune to meet many good people in my life car wise and other wise, just as spending time here as a senior is fun for me. Everyone have a Great Day !

 

On my black 58 Impala 280 HP three speed we installed plumbing nipples for exhaust cut outs.

 

I never thought scavenger pipes would increase power, but all I was running in that 41' was a humble 49' Merc flathead. so I never would have known the difference anyway! And thanks for the video. Really liked it.

Art

 

I agree with you Art. I always thought they were "scavengers" in name only. They mainly just looked cool!

 

Hey Guys,

We thought that same thing, but the speed shop had some long chrome scavengers and said that they would fit the length of our 58 Impala. We needed every advantage to make up for horsepower we did not have against the bigger, newer cars. They were essentially straight exhaust pipes.

The ones we had started with two bolt cut outs at one end and were long, dual, chromed pipes running the length of the car until they stopped just past the rear axle. Two chromed pipes on each side made for a very cool look. It was supposed to look like they came from a set of custom header pipes. They were chromed, heavy and sounded very cool.

The main purpose was that they "scavenge" the exhaust out with as few restrictions as possible. Some had a bend in the cutout end, others had the slight bend coming out of the down pipe from the stock headers. In the stock class, the stock exhaust manifold shot the exhaust down below the motor. From there, our muffler guy put in a couple of 2 hole exhaust tips with caps at a slight angle back. The angle fit the scavengers perfectly and all that was needed were two bolts each.

Our dual pipe unit (like the ones under the green Chevy coupe) was heavy. So, two rear chrome straps were also bolted on for rigidity. The way our muffler shop guy made the angle of the down pipe cut out, these long chrome pipes were pretty close to the bottom of the car and there were only a few driveways that we could not enter, unless at an angle without scraping. From 1959-1998, the exhaust tips were immaculately round. (We left them sitting in the rafters of our backyard garage when we sold the house.)

Jnaki

Remember, the stock unit had a ton of restrictions in exhaust flow before the mufflers and afterwards. Custom headers were to get rid of the stock flow out of the motor. (stock class did not allow custom headers) These long (longer than 4 feet, more like 8.5 feet) straight, scavenger pipes were to do the same without restrictions of a muffler or radical bends.

They gave off a clean sounding rapp, rapp, but were definitely louder than the stock muffler set up. Since everyone still had on their stock muffler piping and set up, a few simple nuts and bolts and it was back to silent stock running.

Should they be allowed in a “stock” racing class? Yes, as long as the stock set up is still on the car to keep it street legal. But, the wise, “tech inspection” guys at the drag strips banned the scavengers from all stock classes. They were essentially useless on other classes since you could make your own custom headers for real scavenging and better flow.

 

Good discussion jnaki! Possibly picked up 2 H.P. ? Every little bit counts! Cool pic of the '52(?) Chevy.

 

Hey BR,
During the heyday of scavenger pipes, we used to also carry the flat cover plates(2) for the newly installed exhaust cut out openings. When we drove around the cruising grounds with the scavenger pipes in place, we always had to make sure that we could at anytime, disconnect the scavengers and put on the cutout cover caps. Those that did have scavengers knew that they were frowned upon by the local police and were immediate ticket material.

Later on, when the scavenger pipe phenomenon died down, we still had the exhaust cutout outlets underneath, so we made a slit on one side to lift up the cover plate and tighten one screw. That way, we could run open exhaust and when necessary, just flip down the cover plate. The slit allowed the cover to slide into the other bolt and with the wingnut, make it silent again, pleasing the police cruisers. A process under the car of 3 minutes or less. No fix it tickets for us...ha!

Jnaki
Yes, every bit counts. With the runs we were able to make with the scavengers at the dragstrip, it did improve our times, minimal at times. Something about the open, free flowing exhaust theory helped make lower E.T. and faster speeds in the quarter mile.

 

Mid 60's, my buddy's brother-in-law had a black 1960 Impala with a bored/stroked 409 (468?). He had the gas cap cut-outs. The first time I rode in it, he downshifted and floored it and the caps blew right off! Mightily impressed this 16 year old!

 

I always loved the look of a solid black '58 Impala like yours! Boss lookin' car! Here's a story you'll like.
One morning in 1961, before classes at high school, a friend showed up with a beautiful '58 Impala. It
was the bronze and cream version that his dad had just got and let him take it to school that day. It had
a 348 with 3-2's and a Turbo Hydramatic (?) transmission. He picked me and a buddy up to take us and
show how it ran. About a block away from school, on a larger secondary road going downhill, he floored
it to kick in the outer carbs. After it up-shifted, we were hooking ass down that hill. He let off the gas as
the bottom of the hill was approaching fast. He yelled " THE GAS PEDAL'S STUCK!" He stomped on
it a couple of times...no luck. I reached over and shut off the ignition switch which was to the right of the
steering column along the bottom edge of the dash. We coasted over to the curb on the brakes pretty hard.
We got out and popped the hood. Me, being the grease monkey, started to check out what happened. I
found the bell crank on the center carb was jammed on the underside of the aftermarket air cleaner! Whew!
My friend felt he needed to alert his dad to that issue, but would have to reveal that he had "floored it".
So I suggested that maybe he could ask his dad to take him to a safe area and "show me what it will do".
Well that worked and, once again, the throttle linkage hung up. His dad nearly panicked and he cooly
reached over and shut it off. His dad was beyond impressed at his son's calm reaction. And was further
astonished when he "found" the problem with the linkage. His dad thought he was a genius and it remained
our secret ;>)

 

Great recollections, Blackrat! If I didn't know better, I'd say you used to be in our 'crew'! (Calif. Outlaw punk rodders)

The 'scavenger' craze hit here in about '58, some guys called 'em "cheaters". (muffler shop guys started the name, made for easier than 'over the rear axle bends' for tailpipes!)
A guy was pointing under a Chevy at the drags, said "Look at the cheaters" to his young friend. I took advantage of the perfect chance to be a smart ass, and said "The tires are 'cheaters', slicks with some grooves cut to make them 'legal'. The pipes are really called "wieners"!
His older friend gave me a dirty look.

I always liked 'em, my faaaast '56 Ford convert ('58-'60 in San Jose) had a pair of 2-1/4", hung level with the ground. (Car's rake made the scavengers look Sooo Cool! They came 12" past the 3rd member...14" close together)
My present '55 F100 has a long tapered pair (30", taper out to 3-1/2", reverse bell and slightly bologna-cut)
They would look better if my 9" pumpkin wasn't 'off-center'...Lots of kids look under there, "Look at those PIPES!"
Couple of times, I was coming out of the store to hear a kid saying "Bet it's Fast..." so I said, "How fast do you think it is?" One kid said, "Hundred miles an hour..." I said, "Come here..." and opened the drivers door.
My dash cluster is filled with four 2-1/16" Stewatr Warner gauges, around the center Speedo...a S/W 160 MPH job.
They just went, "Hot Dog! Wait'll I tell my DAD!"
I quickly said, "Er, yer Dad's not a cop, is he?" Much laughter...they were maybe 12, and they got it.

 

Cool times Mike! Nobody can take those memories away (...or match them!) We were young in a charmed time.
Here's my '56 Fairlane in '62 (in Dallas). 3 speed floor shift from J.C. Whitney! I was running a Storm-Vulcan
Block Master milling machine in an engine shop at the time.

 

It is ironic that I wrote about the same thing with a 58 Chev Impala with the 348 and 3x2s. My buddy went to a mechanical progressive linkage to solve the problem.

 

This is all absolute gold fellas. I'm a kid around here at 46, so my teenage tricks involved late 60's old wrecks. These stories are great additions to my memory bank of stories from my dad and his pals. Thanks guys

 

Route your fuel line thru a can filled with ice. This would cool the fuel before going into the carb. Only logical when drag racing. Use a wish bone from a straght axle ford to build a tow bar..Make a custom grill by using the wire that you install behind bathroom tile. Drawer pulls worked well for a custom look. Screw a key above the door light switch mounted on the door pillar. just slide down and the interior lights would stay out while necking. More later when my old mind can recall them.. Bobby