Just hauled this home Saturday. It was last tagged in 65. Last oil change on the door sticker is 1960. Built as a drag car ometime in the 60's. (old AHRA Pit Pass under the seat). Put 4 tires on it and pulled it on the trailer. Still rolled easy. 322 1955 1956 4 BBl Engine. Clear solid core spark plug wires with Rajah Clips. The headers bolt together on the left bank to go around the steering column. Old Wizard Voltage Regulator and a Voltage Drop for the Instrument Panel. 3 Speed Pontiac Trans with a old Foxcraft Shifter. Pontiac Rear End. What look to be Traction Master Traction bars. A pretty nice job when it was built. 3rd picture and engine picture are after $20 and two hours of scrubbing at the car wash. Soaking the cylinders and will try to turn it over in a few days. Oil looks ok and no water in the radiator so block might be ok. Now what to do with it? Jack the front end with two pieces of I beam and go gasser? Paint?
Brakes, suspension and steering to start with. Future plans as the body doesn't look too bad at all? It would be a good start if the motor is free and turns over by hand. Does it retain the OEM push pull box with bellcrank steering?
Original steering, not moved. Already have brakes, wheel cylinder kits and master cyl kit in my parts warehouse so bringing those back to original should be straightforward. Will know on the motor in a few days. If it does not turn over out it comes for a rebuild.
It doesn't have to be jacked up to be a "gasser" It is a period correct gas class car in the time frame it was originally built. That was probably late 50's and pre the Ramchargers sky high Mopar that started the jacked up look. g
Like I said we think it was built some time in the early 60's. Old timer remembers the car. The guy who owned it owned a garage and tow service in the area in the 60's. Have a friend who is 90 who was a long time Buick Mechanic in the area so will talk to him and see if we can track down more history. He put nailheads in everything back then. Still has quite a few of them around. I like the nose up. Not too high, maybe 3-4 inches. See the American as an example.
That works and is a mid 60's look. I didn't check to see the date Ramchargers started racing the 49 Plymouth but when that showed up in the magazines you started seeing jacked up cars around this area. Things went from a "California rake" to jacked up in the front in about a 3 month period of time, You couldn't find a set of tri 5 station wagon front springs in a wrecking yard because they were all under 55 two doors.
oh well - might as well do it right & take it all apart and do it up to the level that you are happy with and hit the road - once done will not be another belly button '53
Buick use to have a export kit, it had a more radical solid lifter cam ,adjustable rockers. The only problem was the lifters were hollow and thin wall and you bent a pushrod and kicked the side out of the lifter, but Iskenderun had a fix. For steering clearance you had to move the sylnaoid on the starter over drilling new holes and build a dog leg linkage for ingagement. If you did not when you turned tight the drag link would engage the starter. The front suspension was used thru the 62 year in Corvettes but was upgraded steering knuckle and all. Parts will interchange. The front crossmember bolts in, a popular way to raise them up was to build a bolt in spacer between the xmember and frame. On the rear the tie bolts are not centered in the spring so you need to use a plate to relocate the rear end. I ran a 322 then a 401 witha LaSalle box in my 50 Chevy business Coupe on the streets for years and had a lot of fun with 55 thru 57 Chevy groupe with their 283 bored out to 301 . We called them the 4 inchers. Love what you are doing with this, you will like the torque. Frank
Dadburn mud dauber mud wasp. now you gotta tear down the mill and remove all the nest. Just as well pull it out and freshen it up.
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