I have a 1940 Ford pickup with a 650 HP small block Chevy, 700r4, 9 Ford chunk. Its time to begin playing with this fun truck... a couple of weeks ago at a car show in New Smyrna Beach, FL (Aug 2019), the best car shown was a wild, blown 1955 Chevy Bel Air 2dr sedan with a 671 jimmy blower on top of a Big Block 454 … it was awesome... nice car, well done! The 40 is getting old and tired... and I want to convert it to the gasser look. Can anybody give me a To Do list to make this conversion... ?? I'm not a purist; what I like is what I have and I want to play some more before I leave this earth. At 82, I'm set in my ways and just looking for some help. So I'm crazy, that that is what makes the world go around... Dan Carnac [email protected]
I was at The Billetproof eruption drags yesterday where it got proven times over that having a jacked up "gasser" didn't make your car faster than a properly set up car that sat down at close to what might be a "normal ride height". Great if you just pee all over you shoes for the look but not faster by a long shot. Don't get me wrong, they were hell for fun to watch, fun to take photos of but just as often as not you see them behind the other car in my photos I took from just past the finish line. In answer to your question, a lot of cutting to get the Fatman out and a lot of fitting and welding to put a straight axle back under it. It might actually be better and a lot simpler to buy another 41 frame and build a new chassis and switch your body over when it is done. Then you have a compete rolling chassis to sell to someone else when you are done plus you don't have a half cut apart truck sitting in the garage while you play the "what the hell do I do now", game.
Stay set, Dan... Just disassemble the front end by 'floor jacking' under the passenger side coil spring, with a car stand placed under the driver side rear frame, or bumper. Long as they're diagonal, that will attempt to lift the 'whole car', rather than it 'see-sawing' over the rear axle, NOT compressing the spring. Remove the lower ball joint, then spring. Ditto with the other side, 'diagonal' with the car stand, safe spring compression. Next, just disassemble everything that will unbolt, make plans for clean shave off frame rails. Tack weld some black pipe (3/4", this is strong and cheap. Go from left to right, top and bottom of rails. Nice and solid, before you cut that fat man member out. '40 Ford front cross member with transverse spring? Or semi-elliptics, one under each rail? Good luck, and hope you bought that Harbor Freight electric 'moto-tool', and some 3" diamond cutting discs... they make short work of Mustang II foreskin removal...
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