Greetings Fellow Hambers, JT here,I've been a fng for a couple of years, and have to say this website is by far the best and largest commonwealth of information/photos/tech there is. Thanks to all who add to its wealth, special Thanks to Ryan and the mods for keeping after it. I thought I would share my build with you all, perhaps it may inspire or help someone with a project of their own, I'll quit yapping now and post some photo's JT
first 3 were the day we went to pick her up, next set we emptied er out and put in an s-10 rear with 8.5 x 15 Torq thrusts ...not quite what I had in mind....
then a 9" Ford bronco rear with the axles redrilled for chevy.. aw we had to relieve the fenderwells he he .lookin better....
now we are getting somewhere... (forgive the rear centerline wheels in upcoming pics, they are just holding the tires while we build, the 10"Torq-Thrusts are in the box waiting, now for the "ugly" of i there are the body mounts I fabbed and the new "outrigger" type frame mounts
Look great to me, except your rear spring plates are on backwards, shock eye to inside...lol What rear springs did you use ?
Here, we have the inner rockers and the mid rockers done and have fitted the outer shells, then we did the floor bracing/body mounts we have door gaps and it doesn't shiver quite so bad ha ha
finished the body mounts , put in a reinforcement plate with the nut welded to it, welded the outriggers in , DAMN the firewall fell off (kinda helped it) he he and laid out our pans for rolling the beads ....
After marking out the pans, had to "engineer" the bead roller 'cause I couldn't crank it from 50" away, that wasted a day, then went to roll and found I still didn't have enough hands, so we re"engineered" and put helping hands on roller stand now back to work...rollin
now we are cookin' the roller worked finished the pans. lets weld... not so fast, my vice grips won't clear the rockers or the frame rails..... ok back to the drawing board VOILA giant vice grips that will work yup they clear the rockers and the frame rails NOW lets weld.....
The fire wall is taking shape.. I'm lovin it I was just going to trim around the engine leaving some of the original fire wall but another fellows post about a Nova fire wall/ drive shaft tunnel , inspired me to JUST DO IT . Thanks, this is much cleaner.
Here we go... fire wall is almost finished, we added modified original legs off of the original mounts, made a frame mount and added reinforcement plates to the inner cowl, we are finally seeing something
Well now , I was on e Bay lookin' at driveshafts, asked a fellow about 58-62 vette piece 34" hmmm nice price should I? HELL lets boom the engine in for a tunnel trim and we will know for sure....
well shaft would have been too short , but the headers I bought on c list (for a toyota land cruiser with a chevy v8 conversion) fit like a charm, (bought them from 2 photo's they just looked right,) score 1 for the home team, also trimmed the floor for the transmission starting to look like it might run this year (maybe)
Well that brings us up to date, I patterned out the tunnel, now I have to take the pieces to a bud at a fab shop to have them rolled to fit the patterns, I'll pre cut the tin to save a $ and just have about a 1/2 hr labor to do the rolling, .... Thanks to all who have inspired this, or contributed by sharing your builds/photo's and critique, to every out there you can do it if you think it out first,and use this great site for ideas,The HAMB rocks , Till later ,I'll revive as there is more to share Regards JT
Hi Swade, Thanks, followed your build looks great, I know about the plates , its just mocked for fender trim and rough install,I HAD to radius the wheelwells,(needed the visual stimulation) still have more to trim, and trial fit of the ladder bars, have a 37/38 chev straight axle with 49 truck spindles with .015 over kingpins to do as soon as funds permit, I got laid off and had purchased the tin earlier, so I figured I'd do all the labor I could with out spending a lot , sure is plenty to do (but you already know that lol) Thanks Brother for the read jT
Looks great so far. Can't wait to see it done. What power plant is going in it? It makes me want to finish mine.
Thanks Hardy she's getting a belly button (built 350 Chevy) hoping for low 12's high 11's ,(street legal) all the metal work was done in the last 3 months, I just got hired by another co. so work will slow ...but $$ will flow, don't know what you are building, (coupe in your avatar ? looks sweet) my 1st car was a 31 model A coupe always have a sweet spot for an A , Thanks for the look, best on your build, Regards JT
Wow guys thanks for the kind words, I will update this in a week or two (hopefully) tunnel should be done , then on to the front tilt nose ...JT
Great build pictures really help to see how it's done. I'm building one also not gasser style. The HAMB sure is a great place to learn and share builds. Looking for more updates keep at it. Jim
Wow again , Thanks , to all for the encouragement,... I've wanted one of these nasty things since I was a kid, saw my first gassers at Raceway Park , Englishtown N.J.in the 60's I was hooked,.... Blue , Thats a real nice job your doing, looks killer..love to see more,.. I just trimmed out my dash today, finished welding the upper portion of the firewall ( about 10 plugs from outside and 1"1/2 line welds inside) and trimmed the upper sides almost identical to yours, (following the trimmed back door posts,) ...after the cage is in, I'm bringing the dash back about 4-6 inches, JT
any more updates on your great build? What are you using for steering box etc. I picked up a Vega box and cut the steering shaft to mate to it. Not close to installing it yet.
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