Projects 1955 Pontiac gasser build

Thanks Jared, nice talking with you today. I hope everything went well for you guys...

 

Just ran across this photo of a racing poncho, not nose high but from May 68

 

Thats a Canadian car, notice the different shape of the front wheel opening and the shorter wheelbase...

 

Just caught up with this thread a little bit. Diggin' the white firewall and Baby Blue mill! I guess great minds think alike....

 

Thanks guys, here's a pic of the driveshaft to the 8.8 rear. I had to shorten it up a bit. The gm end was 3 5/8 wide with 1 1/8 caps and internal clips, the explorer yolk was too narrow by about a 1/2", but I had an f-150 yolk that was the same width as the gm end with 1 1/16 caps so it made the conversion pretty easy. Napa 355 was the u joint I used. I bolted the mockup back in the car and measured my runout. I ended up with .015 so let it go and welded it up.

Ran a bunch of brakes lines and got the shifter mounted yesterday, hate the cover though will have to do something about that(B & M z gate shifter). Anyone make a cover for these, just plain steel like a 60's series shifter?

 

just came across this thread, cool build. keep it up!

 

Thanks, here's the sister car to "Old Injun" 56 , i'm still thinking about doing the radiused 1/4's.

 

you are doing some great quality work on this build.

 

Bill. I've always wondered what radious'd wheelwells would look like on the 55-56 Pontiacs. I like it better than the stock wheelwell opening. Go for it and stick a tall tire right in the middle of it. Mark L

 

Mark the one thing holding me back is my gear ratio. I only have 3:73's and a taller tire might be fine for cruising, but would kill me at the track. If I radius for a 30" than i'm stuck with a 30" tire at least for lookwise. I know I could always run shorter at the track. I would need at least 4:30"s than in the rear end...

As for now i'm still doing all the small jobs to get it together to get it a running driving car. I still hardly have any floors, so I have alot of interior sheetmetal work to do as well.

 

Yeah I hear you about all the little things. I wished I was that far, heh. I also understand abotu the rear gearing versus the performance. Mark L

 

I made some more progress this weekend. The first pic is real blurry, my camera went from ac to the nice humid garage. I've been trying to find a lower hose arrangment and finally decided to trim off a section of my Hurst mount.



Than the hoses assembled



Than I made a filler piece for below the radiator to help keep the air going thru. The original radiator was junk, so for now I bought an aluminum universal one to mount in. I'll have to add pics later, but basically used the mounting brackets from the stock radiator as a removable frame for the new radiator. So I have to fill in the holes at the top and bottom. Than added in a few holes for the trans cooler .





Nothing really major, but it's getting closer.

 

Looking good.I like the updates on all the little details.
Brandon

 

Is this anything?? Saw this car at the Pismo Car Show and thought it was a perfect gasser canidate. There were more than ten different gassers at the show by my count, just not any Poncho's and that ain't right!!

 

Thanks , I didn't want to bore you guys with all the little stuff. This is my first build, it's alot differant when you have to design everything to go together than just ordering parts from a catalog and put it together. None of my stuff is very fancy, just enough to work and not come apart.

Thats too nice of a 56 even for me to cut up. Mine was pretty rough from the start, even though the add said solid car

 

Here's my latest and last update till it's running. I'll try to get some video for that. Radiator is all done, trans lines, etc. I need to run my wiring and fuel lines than I should have it running. I'm still trying to make it to the Meltdown Drags in Byron on the 23rd of July.

Universal mount radiator from Speedway and a late model F-150 power steering cooler from the junkyard looked alot better sizewise for the dollar than the trans coolers I saw at the parts store.

 

You can do it man...Meltdown is still a good month away....keep Thrashing!!!

 

STOP!! -- 55 gassers can only be Chevy's. b.s., love this build. I hope that Ca. green tu-door getting the 454 doesn't go with a straight axle if it isn't going airborne. It is to cool as is, jus my 2 cents. Rock on tin Indian brothers. ~sololobo~

 

Just to add to everyone elses comments this is one cool build man. The whole theme is just dead on!! Cant wait to see more progress.

 

Took me a bit to get the nerve to radius my wheelwells, but once she was done, I never looked back. DO IT MAN!

 

Here is a 287 and yes in '55 they did have a dual quad performance package at the end of the model year. It was a 317 with tuned heads and dual quads plus a cam and solid lifters. They did run good. I only saw the hydramatic transmissions but I heard they had some T-10 4 speeds too.
Niormbc9

 

It fired right off and I got to break my cam in. Excuse my blurry video , I went from the ac to a 100 degree and humid garage. It was really alot louder in the garage with open headers.

Thanks for all the kind words, i'm really excited to have this at the track in a few weeks. It's only fitting to have the first time driving this down the 1/4 mile track...after a few shakedown runs of course.

 

Spent all day today bangin tin. I got the passenger front and rear floors almost done just needs finished welding and a few small panals. I also used the floor braces from the parts car I had after all the old metal was removed from the other floor . The center section with braces for the seat were also reused from my parts car. The trunk was all put back together over the last few days. It was all removed at one point when the frame rails were moved. Without spare tire wheelwell now ..

I used 1/4" rod and just duct taped it to the floor panal and flipped it over and I had a die with a 1/2" opening and hammered over to form the grooves. I used 18 gauge steel. I also welded them to the front floor braces.

 

Well today was kinda a big day for me. For the first time in 7 years I got to start and drive my car outside. I've been working nonstop on this to make it to the Meltdown drags next saturday. I'll probably be working on it the rest of the week to get some more little stuff done. Hopefully some video going down the track.

 

Looking good!

 

I'm pumped for you. Make sure to post those videos

 

...lookin forward to seein your car at the Meltdown.

 

I got the driver side pan made and installed. Also the underseat heater hole filled in. Probably a good 100 degrees out in the garage today ....

 

Cool It's nice to see something other than a Chevy.