Hot Rods BARN FIND: 1957 Chevy D/Gas. Sitting since 1974. Max Wedge powered.

No car except a Mopar....

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i308/TheGreenspanator/Surprise Package 1957 gasser/IMAG1215.jpg

Love the grill bar

 

Well, its got the four bolt valve covers, so it is likely a early '60 wedge, max or street, as opposed to a later 440. Cool. Very cool.
That at least makes the skin somewhat tolerable.
But '57 chevies are still about the most butt ugly car since, well, '55 or '56 Chevies...

Great find!

 

Very very cool. Don't believe I ever ran across a Mopar powered 57. Seems kinda odd with the availability of mid sized Mopars, darts, cuda's etc. Very nice though...

 

Awesome, in the true sense of the word.

Gotta ask, what happened to the Olds?

 

Gasser huh? Got a straight axle up front?
Interesting car.....I looked at 55 Chevy for sale in the late 60's that had a high block 383 in it.....

 

Just when you think there can't be any more,
ya find one !!!!
Congrats , please run it like it was / is !!!!!

 

Seeing gassers running the local tracks "back in the day" I would bet 99% of them never ran a straight axle.

If your car couldnt fit into stock/super stock the next move was into a gasser class. What class you fell into was decided by the ratio of car weight divided by claimed cubic inches in the engine. I also seem to remember that the gas classes also allowed other mods such as engine setback, swapping rear end housings, some fiberglass here and there, lexan windows, etc.

 

cool beans. great find.
if you would like to save the lettering design just as it is, here's what you do.
overlay the lettering with white paper, like from a roll, tape in place and mark position points like door seams, creases etc. then rub over the paper with mineral spirits, this makes the paper transparent, now trace over lettering and shades with a pencil then lay someplace to dry. when dry roll up, when ready for the lettering give to the signpainter to make pounce patterns from, the lettering will be just like original.

 

Bingo! works for me. Nuthin cooler that a 57 Chevy with that hunk o MoPar drive train. Insane cool!!sololobo~

 

Too cool for school!

 

Love it!!!

 

that thing is wicked

 

when is the day for you? when okie city had the nationals there was no super stock--gas classes were mostly coupes with a few tri fives as i remember a/g was won by that beautiful 3window deuce out of pittsburgh kansas "the invincible olds" with 2hole enderlies on a 471--all those coupes were axle cars except that del blades olds coupe out of wichita---super stock and the gas classes exploded after that---tulsa rules--okie city not so much

 

Wow! I would go as far as saying they're ugly, I am in no way a Chebbie fan, but a 57 chevy has to be the best looking thing GM has ever rolled out with that and probabily a 1st Gen vette. If i was to branch out and get something non-mopar it would be a 57 Chevy/vette or a T-bird

 

This made the Bangshift website!

http://bangshift.com/blog/gasser-ba...-air-dgas-426-max-wedge-mopar-power-epic.html

 

a 57 chevy with a 283 runs d/gas----what does that thing weigh ?

 

Putting it on the scale has not been a priority....

 

Dont change a thing on that car! Wash it off, get her tuned and enjoy! What I wouldnt give to find something like this!

 

426 x 11.0 = 4,686 to run d/gas like it says on the window....

 

and? I don't see what you're getting at here. It may have been local Numidia track rules that put him into a D/Gas class. Check the vintage timeslip out in the photobucket link. I guess vintage 1972 Numidia track officials were in on the conspiracy.

 

My wife and i are very happy to be the new caretakers of this car. I am glad to have had one of my best friends Fast67(Matt)with me on this adventure .
Its was great to meet and get the cars complete history from 1967 to just a few days ago from the Man who built, raced and enjoyed it .

I am happy to call Ed (car's builder) my newest friend, I had a lot of fun spending time hearing the stories about the car and going through old scrapbook pics of the car from back when it was raced.

Like I said we are only the caretakers of this car, it is going to remain in as-raced, as-found condition other than a light mechanical restoration for safety reasons.. brake hoses, fuel lines etc. All that being said I can't wait to take it out, put it up to that 5k converter and launch it.

Glad to read all the positive feedback, nice to see other people sharing our enthusiasm for the car. Will update with progress as I go.

 

Back in the day we put a 392 Hemi in a '57 Chev Sedan Delivery...what the hell were we thinking....

 

so cool to see a real race car back in the day people didn,t care that if it was a chevy body it had to have a chevy motor ford or mopar for that matter enjoy you time with it and run the shit out of it

 

Very cool find!

 

It's sounds like a really cool old race
car and I'm honestly not trying to
piss in your cornflakes, but if it's got
a tunnel ram on it, it's most likely a
standard 413 or 426, rather than an
actual "Max Wedge". (still nothing
at all shabby or slow about even a
regular 413 or 426W, particularly
if it's been built.) The intake ports
in the Max Wedge heads were
substantially bigger and particularly,
about a 1/4 inch or so taller than the
ports in the standard 413/426W heads
and the only intake made for these
heads was the factory cross-ram
or the NASCAR single 4bbl piece.
Because the Max Wedge was a very
limited production, factory race engine
and the two available factory intakes
more than adequately served their
intended purpose, the aftermarket
never bothered to tool up any manifolds
of their own for them 'Back in the day
though, a few enterprising racers did
adapt tunnel rams and other intakes to
fit the Max Wedge port configuration by
building up the top flange portion of the
manifold around the intake ports with
tig welding, to raise the roof of the ports
in the manifold and and still have enough
material to cover and seal the top of the
Max Wedge ports - and then literally
grinding and porting the hell out of the
manifold ports to match up with ports
in the head. Check the manifold flange
around the intake ports to see if it looks
like it's been raised and built up with
weld.Another quick way to check for a
gennie "Max Wedge" head is to look
and see if there is an exhaust heat riser
passage cast into the head, The Max Wedge
heads didn't have the heat riser passage,
while the standard heads did. Max Wedge
or not, you've still got a neat car and a cool
piece of vintage drag race history.

 

Awesome find!!

 

I guarantee 100% its a max wedge. We aren't amateurs. It has max wedge heads as verified by the casting number (2402286) along with max wedge rockers. The block is also a max wedge. It hasn't been pulled apart yet but we did get a bunch of spare max wedge parts with the car as spares. The intake base is a modified RB piece to accept max wedge port sizes. Must I go on?

 

Very cool and unusual beast! The critics can meet up with Mr. Ben Dover up the road a ways!

 

Gongrats on a great find!

Max wedge was is one of the greatest engines built by Chrysler. I would really like to hear that thing running..

Please keep us posted.

 

Congratulations to you and your family for taking on the tall task of bringing a piece of history back to life, for all to see! It means alot to the drag racing community to see these racing relics!!