Projects Bad Banana Resurrection - 55 Chevy Gasser

Damn this is one mean looking Chevy!

 

I saw your car at Rockingham yesterday for the Pinks all Out. I didn't get a chance to talk with you, but I really enjoyed seeing your car.

My son sent me a text with a picture of it Wednesday, he told me he thought I would enjoy seeing it and he was right.

I didn't get a cahnce to see it run Thursday. Have you had a chance to run yet?

I hope to get back Saturday. I will come by again.

 

It rained out today. We are supposed to run tomorrow. If i don't get picked I am heading home. Please stop by. Be glad to talk.

 

I will stop by. I plan to get there about 11. Are you in the 10.00 to10.99 group or the 8.00 to9.99 group?

 

I have neglected this thread lately. It’s about time I post an update. Ran the car some in June and July but hurt it bad at the end of July. The original 40 year old traction bars started tearing off the axle tube and it bound up the rear suspension and ended up jamming the driveshaft into the back of the trans. Damage to the trans and even the clutch. It’s all fixable but I am pretty much done for 2015. I learned a lot about the clutch this year and what it likes and doesn’t like. It put some serious wear in it in the process but it will be like new for next year and now I know where I am at with it.

The plan now is to fix it and get the car 100% ready and Southeast Gasser legal for 2016. My plan for this thread will include the HAMB friendly repairs and detailed updates. I won’t be including non-HAMB friendly repairs (i.e. clutch detail or transmission) but I will share a few of the suspension “secrets” that I have not shared on this thread before. I also will share a few of the chassis set up tricks that I have learned in my long racing career. I have a lot of experience in “homebrew” chassis set up and I originally left a lot of that detail out on this build thread for a couple reasons. One was because my dad didn’t always agree with what I wanted to do to the car. I was afraid he may read this thread and see what I was doing and get upset at me. He is gone now so that isn’t an issue any longer. Secondly, I was initially leery of posting some of it in case the car didn’t work very well. I have proven to myself that this car works better than I ever imagined so I am now ready to share some of the track proven tricks that I hid from the thread previously.

Quain Stott and the SEG have done what I have wanted to do since I started putting this car back together over 5 years ago. I had been trying to figure out a way to really race these old cars with other like built cars and make them competitive with each other. Quain has done that. I believe in what he is doing so much that I am willing to tow to as many of his races as I can possibly afford. My hopes and dreams are that he and the SEG will spark a drag racing movement and not only will he have a full field of “A” gassers but full fields of “B” and “C” and maybe even more classes. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a “National” event somewhere with full fields of these cars from all over the country again like it was 50 years ago? I believe by strictly limiting the suspensions and maybe even going to a “spec” rear tire you can keep the guys from spending money on engines and dominating. No amount of engine will win if you can’t hook it to the track. Tires and suspensions are way easier to police than engines are. Cubic inch checks are easy. Suffice it to say that Quain has it figured out and I am 100% behind him and his rules as they stand today. So that is where I am headed with this car.

The Bad Banana is heavy. It is very close to 8 lbs per cubic inch as it sits with the current 427 CI small block. So, according to current SEG rules I could technically run the car in C/G. However, my goal is to show up at Quain’s races and attempt to qualify for A/G. If I don’t make the cut then I will drop back and run whatever is left. Just being there with these cars will be awesome in itself. In theory, this thing will probably be 600-800 lbs too heavy to be a real A/G contender. In order for me to take that much weight out it would not be the same car. I am not willing to chop up the car that much. It wouldn’t really be the Bad Banana anymore and to me that isn’t an option. For now, I am hoping to maybe be able to qualify for A/G and possibly sneak in a round win or two against a lighter car. I will say this right now. I will only run C/G at one of the SEG events if I am at legal C/G weight. I have already gone well under with this car where Quain has set the E.T. break for weight check. However, if I am trying to run A/G, I will likely have all the weight I can get off the car to help as much as possible.

I have some off topic stuff to finish up then I will get the car back in the shop and post some pics. Should be an interesting winter.

 

Standing by for the "Top Secret" tricks to be reviled.

 

I agree with you on the SEG ,I have ran 2 with them and plan on making Greer. It's just so much more fun running with cars that look like they belong in a gasser race. It's 1000 miles one way for me so can't make that many but it was worth it even though my car didn't perform as well as it can.

 

So... I have been wanting to bring the Bad Banana back to the way it used to look in the 60s. One of the things that was missing was the original lettering and pinstriping. I was lucky enough to find a guy here in Michigan who could duplicate what was on the car from the old pictures. I think he captured the style and I am very pleased with the results. He also donated a vintage beer can to replace the "late model" one I have been using for a radiator overflow. Stay tuned. More to come.

 

That looks great !! Wish I could find my dads gasser. He had a 55 2 dr hardtop coral and gray. model a front axle and engine set back 10%. Ended up around SE Michigan / Detroit area around 1969-1970. He traded it as a roller for a wrecked 68 Camaro. Keep on the lookout !!

 

Going thru some old pictures I haven't looked at in many years and found this one. Written on the back says it was taken on April 27, 1968 at York US30 Dragway. I don't know who took it and I don't think I have seen it before. Not one I have posted here.

 

Your pops is looking down on this and smiling.

 

The pic of the bad banana at york us 30 is fantastic. I went there alot as a kid. The track was closed around the time I got my drivers license at 16 years old. The car looks great!

 

Ok.. time for a little update. I have the car all apart and have been inspecting and cleaning up broken and damaged junk. Took these pics before I took it apart. From the beginning of this thread some folks have commented that the rear suspension looks like it won't work because the traction bars and leaf springs are on a different arc. I was told it will bind and probably break something. That was right and I knew that, but one of the secrets I never let out was that I had hidden some spring/housing floaters in plain sight. My dad didn't even notice them and he looked right at them. I have had several people over the last couple years also look at the suspension and scratch their heads thinking it won't work but they just saw it run and it was fast ???

Below are pics of my homemade housing floater I have had on this car since I put it together back in 2010. The flat plate on top of the spring is welded to the spring perch and is essentually part of the housing. The spacers beside the spring are about .030" taller than the spring pack. The bottom shock plate is a stock '55 Chevy piece and I opened the center hole up in both the top plate and the bottom shock mount plate. You will notice the never seize everywhere and that is to allow the spring to move easily between the plates. there is also about .020-.030" between the spring and the spacers on the side of the spring. I just tighten the u-bolt nuts up and the housing will float on the springs. The traction bars are and shocks are in full control of the axle and the springs do nothing but carry the weight. The style of traction bars that are on it keep the axle located side to side and fore and aft. The traction bars failed because they weren't heavy enough where they mounted to the axle tube. I am about to fix that. Should show some of that in the next update.






That's how I did it and maintained the "period correct" look of the rear suspension. Not one person that I am aware of ever saw it and caught on. The cat is out of the bag now. Hope to see more like this in some of the other upcoming SEG builds.

 

Glad to see the Bad Banana will be running in the southeast gassers, that car will definitely be awesome to watch run against other the others, especially because my dad and I have been following the car on the web for quite some time. Gotta love the the tri-fives, Dad's got a 57 and I've got a 56, both being gassers.

 

Bad Banana, you made an excellent choice of stripers. Very talented individual. I saw a couple of his postings on FB while the work was underway.

 

Sneaky little devil aren't you.

 

Some progress being made. Below are the original traction bars that were made out of 1/8" plate and thin walled square tubing that was welded to the axle tube. It started to tear off the tube and folded the plates which in turn allowed the pinion of the axle to jam forward in the car. That bound the transmission and broke 3rd gear and created other damage.

So I removed everything from the axle tubes but the spring perches and built all new from scratch. Everything is now .250" wall and hand drilled and cut in my little modest shop. Here is what I started with.



A few days later I had this.


The adjustable bars are long at this point but it is way easier to shorten them than it is to lengthen them. I mocked everything up under the car and spent a lot of time making sure all was level and square. I left a lot of steps out but you get the idea.



Once I got it all roughed in I cut the adjuster bars to final length.



Below is where it is at today. The nuts that are welded to the adjustment bar I added so I can make adjustments without using a pair of channel locks if I am in a hurry. Pretty much ready to go back under the car for final fitment. Gotta cut the bolts to proper length and I am going to make a minor change to my spring floaters then take it all back out and blow on some paint. I don't spend much time on "prettiness" on this car. I ain't building it for a beauty pageant..

 

Those bars work good like that Rusty, I did Gene Cromers that way and several have copied them since then and they all do good.

 

Brought this one over from the vintage photos thread for you.

 

That's one of my pictures from earlier in this thread.

 

Happy New Year everyone! Time for a little update. I finished up the rear suspension and it is back on all 4 wheels again. Can't finish the final set up until I have the car all back in one piece again. For now, I decided to take on the headrest project. SEG rules won't allow high back bucket seats. I agree with this as this car originally had a low back bucket with a headrest built into the original roll bar. That is long gone but I figured I could cut the seats I have down into low backs and build my own headrests. I don't have much experience with interior repair or fabrication but I did have some materials my dad had left over that I thought I could use to make them. He had some foam padding, I found some black vinyl at a local fabric store and I had some wood, some 1/8" plate and a section of tubing I figured I could use.

I talked the wife into modifying the existing seat covers to fit the cut down seats. She is working on them and will probably have them done in a few days. Below are some of the highlights of the headrest build.



Above are the basic components I used. Finished part on the right and the other one in pieces on the left.



This pic shows a hard wrinkle but I had a clamp on it and just took it off. It expanded back out after a few minutes.



Mounting these was harder than it looked. The tubing from the down bar to the plate is a compound angle on each end to put the headrest where I wanted it. It took me a while to figure out how to get them where I wanted them, hold them while I welded, and make sure they were even side to side so they looked right.





I think they came out pretty good. I got the thumbs up from Quain so that is one more item off the list.

Tomorrow afternoon I will be running the engine on the dyno to get it set up on gasoline. I am excited about that. Hope to take some video of it during a pull. This will be the first time I have ever run an engine I owned on a dyno. The power results WON"T be posted so don't ask... LOL. You wanna know how much steam it has, you will need to line up in the other lane..

 

Never tip your hand!!

 

Insert evil laugh here... he he he ..

 

we need numbers

 

It was around a hundred. ..

 

lmao i do think i will call bull crap on that

 

He's not going to tell us. We already know he's a sneaky dude from the hidden floaters.

 

One more piece to make it look more authentic. Stumbled on this and just couldn't resist. Now to build the pipe bumper and the rear of the car will be pretty complete.