I thought I'd post this up, because my friends have told me I've never put pics of my gasser project on the HAMB. I just finished fabricating a Two Lane Blacktop aluminum hood scoop for a story in Hot Rod Deluxe. Here it is set on the hood of the Widow Wagon to size it up. The dimensions were passed on to me by Neon Bender here on the HAMB, and were taken off the real TLB car by members of the two lane blacktop website. The fenders and hood on the wagon are 'glass, as are the doors. It's got a 12-point cage with engine bay bars, and a fully adjustable leaf link rear suspension. No, it doesn't have a straight axle. I'll learn to race the car and set up the suspension with the 400hp stroker 283 I built for Hot Rod Deluxe earlier this year. Until I get a handle on the suspension tuning, I don't need more engine. The trans is an old Mopar Super Stock slick-shifted Hemi 4speed built by Liberty Gear a million years ago, and has a Hurst vertical-gate shifter. Should be fairly violent, even with only 400 hp! A poorly done patch panel on the passenger side put the fender lip way into the pie crust, so I'm trying to figure out what do do there. With the stock wheel openings, it's a bear to get the tires angled up in there and over the long wheel studs anyway. Makes it easy to see why everyone radiused the wheel wells back then! -Brad
'61 Corvair wagon daily driver '62 Suburban daily driver '73 Duster rotisserie restoration '54 Buick '56 Chevy Widow Wagon. That's only 6. And two of them actually run and drive, so I'm not sure you can really count those! -Brad
Sometimes. And if at all possible, it's at the same time! I had to fix one in a parking lot, drive home and then fix the other on a country road that same afternoon. They've run like sewing machines ever since though! -Brad
I can't wait to see the front end on that thing bouncing up and down the track when you bang the gears. Is the engine under that hood scoop??
No. After abusing it on Lamar's dyno, we're going to open it back up and check the bearings. We've also got to put some new valves in it--we dinged a few and put a new margin on them to get through the stories. The contact was juuuuust enough to ding them, but the pistons are still perfect. Something about shedding a timing chain coming down from 3,000rpm that makes things a little noisy. -Brad
Man if you are having troubles getting the rear tires on make a pattern you like out of plywood and get the plasma cutter out and radius it. Another trick to try is to let the air out of the tire first and then try to slip it up in there. Worked for me the other day on a 55 Pontiac. I like the looks of the scoop.
Chance are it'll get radiused or enlarged somehow. I've got a set of street tires on Torque Thursts, these pie-crusts, and I'll probably get a set of wrinkle-walls too. I also have dreams of doing a story comparing 60-foot times with all the pie-crusts, cheaters and recaps currently being sold. I'd want to beat my brains in with a breaker bar if I had to swap out 8 sets of tires the way it is now. This is why I started that thread last week asking for pics of '57s with radiused rear wheel openings. -Brad
Brad,what axle do you have under it? I don't have any problem with mine, BUT its a stock width 57 Olds axle and 15x8, 0 offset Ansen Sprints. It also has the springs (pocket kitted) under the frame rails too. I don't have the super long studs,but can't you cut them down some and still pass tech?
I've got a Mopar 8 3/4 rear that's been narrowed a bit to fit. It's centered between the frame rails properly. The problem is that poorly done patch on the passenger side. It's tucked in too far, and hits the tire. They didn't keep the contour correct when they did the repair. It hits the tire. Bad. My tire is taller than yours, and the leading edge goes in behind the forward edge of the wheel opening, behind where the rocker panel ends. On your car shown above, there's a good bit of room. On mine, the metal digs into the tire for an inch. On the other side of the car, it clears. My biggest concern is going to be when I get into it, finding where the bondo stops and the rust begins. The body is a turd. The rest of the car is great, but the body is a can of worms I'm dreading. So at that point, I'm trying to decide if I should just cut, radius and re-bondo, or open up the can and start repairing with real metal, redoing the tear-drop shape but opening it up a bit like Project X. That could quickly get out of control though! Brad
I've got a Mopar 8 3/4 rear that's been narrowed a bit to fit. It's centered between the frame rails properly. The problem is that poorly done patch on the passenger side. It's tucked in too far, and hits the tire. They didn't keep the contour correct when they did the repair. It hits the tire. Bad. My tire is taller than yours, and the leading edge goes in behind the forward edge of the wheel opening, behind where the rocker panel ends. On your car shown above, there's a good bit of room. On mine, the metal digs into the tire for an inch. On the other side of the car, it clears. My biggest concern is going to be when I get into it, finding where the bondo stops and the rust begins. The body is a turd. The rest of the car is great, but the body is a can of worms I'm dreading. So at that point, I'm trying to decide if I should just cut, radius and re-bondo, or open up the can and start repairing with real metal, redoing the tear-drop shape but opening it up a bit like Project X. That could quickly get out of control though! Brad
I have moved the rear back 1" on all my 57's that front lip is always a prob with fat tires. And it centers the wheel in the wheel well. Just drill a hole in the spring saddle 1" foward to move the rear back. Pat
I can make some room that way, but it's got a fully-fabricated Leaf Link adjustable rear suspension... brackets welded to the housing straddle the leaf spring, and there's a bracket bolted to the spring that the housing brackets bolt to. Hard to describe in under 1,400 words. But there IS some movement there. I'll have to investigate that. I'd much rather move the rear axle. Thanks for the tip! -Brad
any old buicks in the boneyards down your way? i always thought that using the rear wheelwells from mid 50's buicks made perfect wheel openings in tri-5 chevys.
I'm with ya on the can-o-worms deal. I drug mine out of really dead storage for a 90 day thrash for Hamb Drags 06. It really went well right up till the 11th hr. when I split the trans case playing in the driveway before loading it up.... Loaded the Hudson instead and still had a great time. I did decide to chase the tin worm after I got back, and really I have too, its my first car,i've had it since I was 15 like 35 yrs ago. I've got lots of new sheetmetal now and also too many other projects.... Anyway see those patch panels leaning against the door in the pic? I'm thinking in your situation I'd be using them to stretch that wheelwell opening forward to get away from the tire and repair the poor patch that it has now. I think you'd be able blend the patch panel lip at the top of the wheel opening to where nobody would have a clue that the opening is moved forward. Looking forward to seeing yours come together and bangin gears again with mine someday.
Actually, I had that exact same thought! I've got a friend with a BUNCH of dead '54 Buicks on his farm. All donors. The problem is the Buick doesn't have a wheel lip--the chrome trim was the lip, so the wheel opening is just flat to the quarter panel. This stupid thing has already gone out of control once... it was 3 weeks from being driveable, until I decided to put 1.6 roller rockers on the running small block that was in it. Shit snow-balled, and now it's got a cage, a racing suspension, a lot of fiberglass bits... I'm afraid if I start cutting sheetmetal, I'll never stop. -Brad
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