Customs 57 FORD GASSER BUILD

I know i know. But honestly for now im going to run one. My work has a Quick Fuel 750 that was traded in 'deffective' they're going to give me. I don't want to bother with 2 carbs on a street car for the time being. Cost is a bit prohibitive as well, I'd be close to 2000.00 for a pair of carbs and all the linkage to make it work. Canada isn't cheap for anything.

Had to set it on the engine, obviously. Lol.

 

you are making some serious progress on this build. Great job.

 

So I did a little digging and investigation cuts. Not surprised at what I found. The original floor is under the SEVERAL stacks of what would appear to be old appliance sheet metal. There are 3 layers of this stuff riveted, screwed, and "welded" down. The body mounts on the frame themselves are good. Very little left of at least 3 of them in the floor side. The passenger side is better with more of the original floor actually still being used. The inner and outer rockers are very soft in a few places. Replacement is necessary. The floor that is under the rear seat is actually quite good. Toe boards look good further up the firewall. Level with the floor and below have been patched. The lower a pillar has issues for sure, more so on the drivers side than passenger. The tunnel has been cut for a 4 speed shifter before and patched with fiberglass then cut again! So that will require some attention but not total replacement. I've got some work ahead of me for sure but i'm excited to dig in. Here's some photos of the rust and curiosity cuts I made.

 

Looks like originally it used to be Cumberland green. Don't see to many that colour.
I like those oem CJ rocker covers.

 

Those will be staying I really love them as well. Im going to have all the aluminum on the engine bead blasted. I like that raw textured aluminum look.

 

The 429/460 is a good combination for a tunnel ram, some of the best running street tunnel rams I've seen have been the big Ford or 440 mopar.

 

Should make good use of the long runners and big open plenum. Im really hoping that keeping the carb cfm lower will help with low rpm driveability. I know the big Ford will have a ton of torque down low anyway so it should work out ok.

 

It was a very subtle hint on the covers on whether you were going to keep them or not.
A couple 600 cfm Holleys would make a nice choice, and the great thing about them is
their cheap and easy to find.

 

Well believe it or not your Rust isn't all that uncommon and not the worst I've ever seen by a long ways. You my friend have some work in front of ya. I think it's a good thing your doing a Race Car instead of a Restoration project. For this project Rules of correctness don't apply. Before going any further I would do a serious Frame inspection and make sure it's good and solid. If it is deemed sound my advice would be to do a weld in Roll Cage, not Roll Bar and use it for structural support of the Body. This was brought up earlier and now I believe it's your best move. Reason for that statement is once the Body mount braces are as Rotten as yours are, getting everything rebuilt and able to bolt back as stock is a huge job. So, I wouldn't even think about fixing the body mounts. I'd weld stand off's on the outboard side of the Frame and weld the 6 point cage in. Then mount A post B post as well as rear most Body panel to the Cage. Now the inner rockers are no longer needed as structural or for body mounts. The new floor pans will only need a 90 degree section on them to mount the outer rockers on and you can do anything you want to mount the floor pans.

 

That is what I was talking about. With the cage in place, you make the tabs to pick up the striker plate and hinges. Can also catch the trunk hinge points to hold up the rear of the body.
I'm going to get to do this on my brother in laws 57 custom, so I'll be watching your progress.

 

Im still wanting to keep this on the street. Back seats and all, the most roll bar I would want to put in it is a hoop over the front seats and maybe door bars. I don't really like the idea of the body being perminently attached to the frame. It still needs to be road legal and I don't think the inspectors would care for no inner rockers or not using the body mounts.
I'll need to figure out another way to fix this rust up.
Would a 1x4 tube frame under the floor suffice as body mount attachment? It would appear to be the right thickness and would be plenty strong

 

A well built Roll Cage does not need to eliminate any of the seats. Ease of access may change a bit but still usable. I have no idea what inspectors have to say as to "HOW" a Body is mounted but it should be pretty permanent weather it's bolted or welded. You can use just about anything to build parts out of, some material is more user friendly than other. Some people seem to enjoy the struggle. Your skills and tools on hand seem to have a lot to do with that kind of decision. At this point I say go lay under the car and study those Body mount parts going from the inner rockers up and over the Frame welded to the bottom of the Floor pans. Those are the most involved parts of your needed repairs. To the best of my knowledge none of the reproductions of them out there are anything but something to start fixing. I mean fixing them, the actual replacement part. They sorta look the same but not. These parts are very involved in both what they do and how they fit. The floor pan is not 90 degrees to the inner rocker. Don't get discouraged, I've gone at this Rust thing from many different angles. Understand I'm over 70 and started learning from day one. My Dad was one of those that Fixed everything. I tried to learn the best I could but got hung up on Old Cars. I ended up doing this Hot Rod, Kustom Car stuff for a living. Now it's just a Hobby. The 1" X 4" isn't anything I would start with for floor repairs but then I have access to a full sheet metal shop. I would never say you shouldn't use that material. A lot of guys think Heavy makes sturdy. Not always the case or necessary and more isn't always a good answer either.

 

Ill definitely do that, study the floor pans and brace design and draw it out to scale so I know what I'm dealing with. I think I've come with a decent plan for doing the job. I'm going to brace everything solid first off. I'm having new outer rockers bent up now and ill be replacing those first if all goes well.

 

Lee, I know if you ask 5 different guys how to you'll get 5 different answers. I'll tell ya how I'd go at it and I already know we'll get some input. That's okay. Take all that input and extract what works for you, then get after your project. For me the outer Rocker is the Cap that covers everything once done. In other words the Last piece to go on, not the first. Maybe not all the under body braces are Rotted away. I would decide what ones are past life and if any can stay. That's decision one. Now how and when to replace them. First is go back to Door Fit and Gap. That's what you need when done so get it now and keep it. That is going to mean supporting the body on the Frame while the under braces are being rebuilt. Once you decide how to do that I'd go to the A pillar and get started. That brace like the others is like a Stare case upside down. I'd build that out of sheet metal in 3 pieces as close to the stock one before age set in. You have to determine how much it has changed. It fits the seam of the Floor and Toe board angles and to vertical at the inner rocker. Make that piece, install a new rubber mount and bolt it in place. Now repair all of the A post to that part making sure there is space for a new inner to fit in place when it's time. Next is the B post repairs, same method. Through all of this the Door would stay mounted and I would have checked fit a time or two to make sure the Body has stayed in place on the Crutches welded to the Body somewhere and the Frame. Once the B post is solid and brace is built I'd replace the total inner rocker. I,ckk I have been assuming you know what Cleko's are and have plenty. You must have something to hold things in place and be able to remove and replace back to the Exact point multiple times. They are the trick. Once the inner is done then do the other 2 braces. When all that is good then you might start plug welding this together if you want. For me I'd continue on the to the floors on just that side. Toe board section after the floor pan with a flange down to clamp and weld things together. Once happy then I would fit up the Outter Rocker. Door Fit, door fit door fit. I use Cleko's to fully hold it all together and once the complete project is done then prep for assembly removing the Cleko's as I plug weld checking the door fit constantly. Spot welds don't pull, to large of a plug weld can. 3/16 is plenty as long as you use enough of them. Don't get all weld happy and make a bunch of heat in the parts. This may sound difficult but it's not all that bad and much easier than trying to adjust for a repair gone bad. By now I'm sure there are some saying I'm making it way to difficult. That's the difference between different people. I'll say this much about it. When a Customer brings a project to a Shop they don't want close enough or excuses. They want as good as it was when new. I don't want to go back in a redo anything to make a Customer happy and to date have not needed to. My way isn't the only way but so far so good.

 

Beauty, I appreciate having somewhere to start. Ill take a good hard look at everything and see what sort of shape I need to rebuild my lower A pillar and work backwards from there. Would it be ok to cut a strip of the floor away from the inside of the door jamb in to the center of the floor say.... 5 or 6 inches? All the way from the front toe boards to the rear seat pan? Just to have a full view of the whole inner?

 

I would say once the Home Work is done and you know how far the repair is going to go, you have your Cowell and B posts well supported I would remove all that rotted floor section on one side leaving the inner rocker to build out from. You should have a nice protractor to determine angles and a few good strait edges of different lengths. Personally I'd build all new body mounts if I had all the floor pan out of the Car. Nothing is worse than trying to weld new metal to Old Soft rusty tin. That said I'm sure you know that rust burns when trying to weld to it. Make everything you weld to clean and bright on both sides before welding.

 

You do understand I'm talking about doing just one side of the Driveshaft tunnel at a time while having the Total Cowell and both B posts fastened to the Chassis while doing the First side, right?

 

Sure do, that's perfect, exactly what I wanted to be sure of.
Definitely going to build new mounts while I'm under there.
Just wanted to make sure that I can cut away the floor while working on the rocker part of the job.

 

So I should build a temporary body mount from the frame up to the existing pillars after they've been repaired. Sounds like a reasonable plan to me!

 

Think of a Crutch. From the frame up past the broken bone to a solid support point like the Arm Pit. You also need to be able to work around it.

 

P.S. I really make a Piss Pour instructor.

 

Perfect. that's exactly what I was thinking of.

 

No way, I really appreciate all the help you've been giving!

 

Well due to a stupid snowmobile injury-stitches in my knee cap and bad bruising- I haven't been able to work on the car for a few days. I did however receive my wheels for the rear of the car today. 15x10 black steelies. Also got my new Borgeson manual Vega box, and a front motorplate for the 429.
The motorplate might not be super correct but i've had them on cars before and my god it makes everything so easy I don't think I could go back to mounts.

 

Sorry to hear that you got banged up. The wheels look terrific and I like the motor plate idea. This is a great build thread.

 

Appreciate the kind words!

 

This photo was taken around 1970 of my Coupe. I think your good with the Motor Plate.

 

Sweet. I like it, where those mounts made by Hurst? I seem to recall reading something that said Hurst mount somewhere.

 

Not Hurst, both front and mid are Home made.

 

But the Hurst mount is a thing though, and I'm not crazy and remembering things that never happened?