Gasser Era Questions

I'm finally getting started on building my Henry J gasser. I have a few questions to ask so I wanted to start a discussion about building it Era correct.
My Henry J will have a 289 with 2 fours with a 5 speed so that I can cruise with it as well. I'm going to make the front end tilt & will be out of all metal to save me money.
My questions are this.
What size rear wheel & tires would a car in the early 60's have & what size rear wheel & tire combo would a mid to late 60's car have in this class?
What class would this car be in?
What would the difference be in the interior between an early 60's car & a mid to late 60's car?
What other differences would there be to a car like this from the early 60's to a mid to late 60's car?
I'm trying to figure out what era I want to build this car for & that's why I'm asking all these questions.

 

Here's some food for thought...........

 

Most Henry J's I've seen from the era had rear tires that extended beyond the wheel wells. I'm thinking a 12' tire would have been the norm, or there abouts. Wheel combo's ran the gamut from high buck magnesium wheels to plain steelie's on the rear, depending on the owner's budget. As the decade wore on, safety required equipment advanced quite a bit. An early 60's car may have only had a hoop for a roll bar whereas later 60's cars would have had at least a nominal cage. I'd think a normally aspirated small block car would probably run in c or maybe d gas, depending on the curb weight.

 

I know these cars came from the factory around 2350 lbs. So that should be about what my car would weigh.

 

I'd suggest running down a rule book from the era you're wanting to build to, especially if you want to try to make it authentic. If you're planning on racing it, obviously you'll have to build it to the sanctioning organization's current rules, even if it's just vintage racing. One note about the car above, due to the engine setback, pretty sure it would have to run in the altered class instead of the gasser class. I don't recall the maximum set back rules from the day.

 

I'd recommend reading these posts first.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177256
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=314733
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=442688

 

Here's my idea of close to era correct 60's. I turned some aluminum for my dash and used the old style deluxe stewart warner gauges in the dash. Moon tach on top. Diamond tuck on the seats and door panels. The gutted 8 track hides my new stereo inside. Moon wheel and pedals. Hurst shift matic truck shifter has a longer arm so it looks more like a 4 speed. I ditched the plastic cover that came with it and cut off the mounting tabs and made a vinyl boot. Since mine is a street car I wanted a full interior.
If you are going with the race look then it's pretty basic.

For the carbs I didn't want any shiny stuff so I went with new Edelbrock 750 marine carbs. They are the only ones that Edelbrock offers with the gold dichromate finish.

I know it's not a Henry J but I tried to make it look like i coulda went to the speed shop in the 60's and bought all aftermarket stuff and built a straight axle car. I have a build thread buried here somewhere called 64 Pontiac GTO Gasser or something like that.

 

It will be a street car that I will take to the track every so often.
Hope that helps!

 

It doesn't matter if it only sees a track once or it's built as a race car. It still has to follow the rulebook and pass tech before it hits a track.

 

One thing I've NEVER done is take any of my race cars to the track without ALL the proper safety equipment that met the tracks rules.
I know that I've lined up against more than one car though that didn't even come close to passing tech. With that being said the tracks down here don't even have tech inspection or inspectors. SAD!
Not being a smart a.. here but that's not really what I'm talking about. I'll meet the tech requirements. I just want the car to look the part of an era car.

 

As I remember them, most were small blocks of different makes. They either had 2x4" or fuel injection with a 10% engine set back. Rear tires were 10x15's or 12x15's. the wheels
Were mostly steel but some had slots like mine. Fronts were the same but 14's. The interiors were either Alum. Or tuck&roll like mine or diamond. Henry J's weren't plentiful like the Willys or Anglia's. They were the ugly step sister,that's why I love them. In the early 60's I never saw a AA/gas blown Hemi one like mine, mostly C or D gas. Most had there wheel wells cut out. Sheet metal scoops on the hood. Some had stock front suspension and some had straight axles. Also 4pt roll bars. Just my memories !

 

That is sad! If I know there's a car that I'm going against that isn't safe or didn't pass tech I won't run against it.

It's bad enough when that the idiot in the other lane doesn't give a damn about their own safety but when they don't give a damn about anybody elses well............

 

Setback of engine could not exceed 10% of total wheelbase as measured from the frontmost sparkplug to centerline of front axle for a gasser, 25% for an altered. I was a NHRA Tech Advisor 1970-72.

 

It is & that's the scary part about racing now a days. I remember when I used to go to the track & wasn't allowed on it till my car passed.
I got out of it for a number of years & remember when the first time I went back & was shocked when there wasn't anybody there to look at the car!

 

I plan on going with the ET Gasser wheel for the front & have thought about slots or Torque thrust for the rear.
I'm going to cut out the wheelwells & go with a straight axle.
I hadn't really thought about a roll cage because I wanted the boys to be able to ride in the back seat, so I guess I need to think about that.
As far as interior I was thinking about tuck & roll.

So would a small block like mine have had 15x10 on the rear no matter the era of the 60's?

What class would my car have been in?

Hemi J, from all the pictures I've seen it looks like the Henry J's were more of the lower end cars because most if not all the pictures I have from back then they had steel wheels. Sometimes all the way around.

 

That gold Henry J is 10%, the spindle on a Henry J is a lot further back than you would think.

For 64 Tbolt try and find some 60's car magazines and see what they actually ran back in the day. I have stacks of old mags for reference, nothing like authentic photos and write ups to get details correct.

 

I think you boys would fit in with a 4pt gage, I don't have one in my car since I'm 6'2"
And 265. My fire wall is pushed back about 4" so the Hemi and the headers fit in. My car is strictly a street gasser!

 

2350 / 289 puts you a 8.1 lb/ci which would put you in the "old" A/Gas category (5.00-8.99 lb/ci).

Corvair or Econoline van seats for an early 60s car. Later it would have had fiberglass buckets.

Tons of period photos out there. That's where I would start if you are looking to keep it to a particular part of history.

 

I did the cubic inch to weight designation for my Henry J too, using a 327 as the cubic inch since I was looking at a 65 rule book. It also came out as A/G but there is no way I'm putting that on there. If you look at the times that A/G were running back then my car isn't even close to that and I don't want to pretend that it can be.
This particular 39 chev is a survivor with still the same owner, 70 plus years old and was last years grand champion of Nostalgia Gas with it in the GRS. It is labeled as D/G at one point he was running a Hilborn injected 265 in it, then progressed up to 327 cubic inches.

 

I was kind of thinking about some old Mustang seats so I believe with what your saying there I would fit right in.

 

Get yourself a copy of "Supercharged Gas Coupes".
It'll answer all your questions.
HAMBer Don Montgomery (Rockerhead on the HAMB) is the author.

$39.95 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Supercharged-Gas-Coupes-Remembering-Sixties/dp/0962645435

 

I wouldn't use those wheels unless you plan to ditch the front brakes.

 

I'm going to use the one's in Speedways catalog that I can use disc brakes.

 

Get the final weight and decide on an era and that will tell you what class. For instance 1966
A/Gas 5.00-6.99 lbs per Cu In.
B/Gas 7.00-8.99 lbs per Cu In.
C/Gas 9.00-10.99 lbs per Cu In.
D/Gas 11.00-12.99 lbs per Cu In. ETC.

By 1971 it had changed to
A/Gas 5.00-6.49
B/Gas 6.50-7.99
C/Gas 8.00-9.49
D/Gas 9.50-10.59

Blown bumped the car up one classification. In your case if it weighs 2350 with a 289 you'd be either B/Gas in the early days or C/Gas by 71
In the case of my car, we had to add weight to get it into B/Gas to run competitively with a Chevy motor

 

What does that car weigh?

 

If you end up running in the 12's you don't need a roll bar (maybe you already know that).

 

So if you are asking about how gassers looked back in the day, why are you using wheels that werent available back in the day. Basically, theres two paths you can follow, and they really have very little in common. You can build a "gasser" they way all the "gasser" guys do it nowadays and be one of the guys, or you can take the high road, and try to build it how it would have looked at the time. There really isnt much cross-over between the two.

 

The same as a Henway

 

that 39 might have been a race car at one time,but it is not a" survivor" ....

 

Well the owner (Skip) told me the paint was like 40 years old. I don't know either 'cause it sure looks damn near flawless.