Projects Bad Banana Resurrection - 55 Chevy Gasser

Good on you man. It already looks better. Snowman

 

May God Bless you Guthrie Smith.

 

Awesome! Thanks for the update!

I am waiting on a few things and the heat is still brutal here. I did go thru the steering box. I was worried it may have internal damage but all seems good. If the heat backs off I hope to make some headway this weekend.



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My experience with Ray's Champion Spring was not good. The guy is condescending and has an attitude. When I went to talk to him, he didn't even want to walk out onto the parking lot to look at what I wanted. I gave him the option of modifying a used set I had or making new main leaves and using my old shorter leaves. He wouldn't consider shortening the used ones ( I understand that). I left my old bent main to copy and I gave instructions on the u- bolts but he didn't write anything down. I should have walked away then. A week an a half later I get a call my " spring" is done. I said it should be two springs. Guy puts me on hold and comes back and says it is two springs. I ask how much and it's over $400!!! I ask if they built all new springs and it was no, just new mains and we used your other leaves. I asked about the u bolts and was put on hold again. Mike gets on the phone and insisted I never got back to him on the ubolts (wrong.. we finalized the dimensions before I left but he was too busy lighting a cigar to remember.)

I told him forget the ubolts I'll get them elsewhere and he said no he will make them. We went over the dimensions AGAIN and I said I would be there to pick them up before the end of the week. I went today and brought a tape measure and the mains are 2 different lengths! One is a 1/4"+ longer than the other. I pointed that out and he wanted to argue. He measured them himself and when stacked on top of each other its obvious. I was pissed off and just paid the $467 bill and carried them out. This is why shit is made off shore now. Nobody cares about quality. If they were perfect, it's hard to complain about price. But charging premium money and getting shit really pisses me off. $467 for 2 main leaves and 4 ubolts with nuts is pretty damn expensive if you ask me. I only paid about $270 for the two complete springs a few years ago and they were identical to each other... sad...

It ain't a show car and maybe I'm expecting too much. If it would have been cheap, I wouldn't care. But to pay that kind of money and see torched off center bolts and the straps not clamped right, different arches and lengths between them, I just shake my head.. I'll fix them myself and move on.

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Wow...hard to charge premium prices if the quality and service are sub-par. Amazing they stay in business considering at least your experience.

 

Brought some SBC heads to the local speed shop years ago, Competition Engines in Eagan. Nice place, all the cool shit. I had them pull the studs and install screw-in studs. For whatever reason, when I brought them home I lifted them and shook them. I got 3 of the old stud nubs to fall out of the castings. What a f][€king joke! To me, that was no different than a surgeon leaving a tool inside their patient. I had only my desire to carry on, and I did. You, on the other hand, have much more. Sadly, this is the state of our hobby. A select few know right from wrong. The Bad Banana is thrilled you’re the owner.

 

I really hate hearing that! I used to deal with them years ago but hadn't for quite a while. I never had any problems like that. I used Ft. Worth Champion spring the last few years (they were closer to my shop) but they closed their doors about a year ago. Sorry you had problems.

 

I also used Ft. Worth Champion and had great results. I was by there a couple of weeks ago and the building is gone now.
Never anything good about Ray’s

 

Here's a quick update. Starting to come around but still a long way to go.

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Almost all one piece again. Hoping to get it all stuck back together this week then start making it look like it wasn’t pieced back together.

 

May God so Bless you Guthrie Smith for your kindness and hard work.
You are a good man.
Glenn

 

Getting there. Snowman

 

Preach it my brother!!!! I've got my hands in the air and I'm ready to follow ya! It's a lack of pride my friend, all about the all mighty dollar.

 

Friday evening Bad Banana update. There was one thing that I was most worried about replacing on this repair. The hinges that were on the fiberglass front. Right after the wreck, I soon realized they were both gone. Because of where they were, I never really took pictures of them. I knew what they looked like but now that they are missing it was going to be hard to replace them with the same thing based on nothing but my memories. Dad never really told me what they were and where he got them but because I knew what what they looked like, I pretty much figured they came from Piper Aircraft since my dad worked there in the late 60s when he built this car. I dug thru all my pictures and I found two that pretty much showed the profile but you have to zoom the pics and look close to see them and look just past the front of the fuel tank. So I began searching the internet for "Piper hinges" with only these two pics and my memories to go from and not knowing exactly what I was looking for. Also with these being 50ish years old, what were my chances of finding anything? After a few Google searches, I found a guy on Ebay that had one! It was a landing gear door hinge for a Piper aircraft. I recognized them right away!! I figured if I got one, I could copy it to make the other one I needed. So.. I messaged him and told him my story ( he probably thought I'm some kinda kook...lol) but I didn't get a response for several days. Finally, he replies and he tells me he actually has 2!!! He was also willing to discount them as he was intrigued by my story. They arrived today. Its incredible that I actually found these at any price. The Lord works in mysterious ways..

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My experiences with two local spring shops have been less than stellar also. Maybe spring guys all have attitude? One gave me attitude because I tried to show him my drawing of the spring eye to eye measurement, and arc from center up to level with those eyes. He proceeded to talk to me like a 5 year old in a condescending way, and instructed me to measure the springs from spring center bolt to eye, each direction. Since I had no springs to measure, he basically told me he couldn't help me. I told him I thought that might be a good thing that he couldn't. Then told him that I'd have thought someone with "40 years experience" would be able to help figure it out.
Second shop was less condescending, but still not really helpful. But we did get the springs built, and their work was perfect. Took two trips, as I found a friend with springs that were like what I needed, but 2" too long. Took them over and told him to copy them, but make them 2" shorter.
The last two builds I found a main leaf that worked, and used my collection of junk springs to just build up my own sets. Easy, cheap, and no BS from spring shops.

 

Spent 4 hours today fixing the junk overpriced springs. Took them apart and decided to work on one to make it match best I could to the other. I had to re-arch the main and bend the eye (had to make a fixture)and I also swapped the leaves around to make them as close as possible. Took them from over 1/4" different in length down to less than an 1/8" all on the shackle end. Good enough I guess. They at least have the same arch now.

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Finally a little bit to look at.. Still in rough mock up and starting to tack it up and its starting to look familiar again. Need to do lots of welding soon but I don't feel like adding to the Texas heat.

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Had to go to a funeral in Michigan this week so not much got done on the ol' Bad Banana. It cooled down a little the last two days so I did some fab and welding.

The steering box mount was a huge challenge because I wanted to use the original mount so I had to make the twisted frame line up to where I needed it. It would have been way easier to just start with all new stuff. The original 55 frame has compound angles and I had to mock everything to make sure everything will land where I need it. I spend an enormous amount of time just standing there staring at things and measuring. I'm pretty satisfied where it is now. Still lots of welding but I am glad this part is pretty much behind me now. Should start to go a bit faster now. Next is getting the engine back in place and building the mounts.

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Your doing a great job Rusty, keep the faith brother!

 

Took a day off work today. Weather finally broke and it was only in the high 80s today so I set the powertrain back in. Things lined up better than I expected.

The old man helped me some today as I used a transmission jack he made out of 4 screw jacks many years ago. I haven't used it for quite a few years and honestly thought about getting rid of it during a couple of the recent moves but just couldn't bring myself to part with it. Luckily I kept it because it is perfect for moving the engine in small increments. I got the front mounts roughly made and will probably get back on it this weekend.

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Looks good, lot's of progress.

 

Great to see it coming back together.

 

Speaking of coming back together... Front end is all one piece again with all the missing pieces filled in. Hoping to finish up the fiberglass repair on the outside today, then start finish bodywork. I have been dragging my feet on this deal too long and appears the progress mechanically is outpacing me.

 

Big milestone for me today. I finally set it down on 4 wheels and rolled it outside. Mostly to clean up the shop and reorganize for the next phase. Still some more fab work but the to do list is definitely getting shorter.

Also Jeff sent some pics of the fiberglass front today. Wont be long until we will be burning fuel again.

Edit: I didn't see Jeff's update before I posted so there is a couple reruns. Lol



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Getting closer. Most of the time consuming fab work is behind me now. It's time to pull it back apart and paint all the bare metal then final assembly and last few minor fab pieces.

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Looks like great progress

 

When I use to have my shop I used Eaton spring in Michigan. Always had good service ,but had not dealt with them in years. Last year my brother wanted to replace the rear coils in his 62 Impala. Years ago he had did our old 70's trick and put 409 springs in the front and station wagon's in the rear. I mention Eaton and he checked them out. They offer 2 inch over stock and that was about what he wanted because the rear wagon springs had settled over the years. When he order them they said because they where special order they where not refundable. When he got them they where lighter and shorter . He called and texted pictures and after she check her notes she realize that he had requested oversize wagon springs but she had put the hardtop number on the work order. She sent him the right springs at no charge and when he asked about returning the other springs she said to do what ever he wanted with them since it was silly to pay to ship them just to toss them in the scrap bin. So I still think they are good to deal with. Glad to see the Banana coming back together. Hopefully Dad did not get shaken up to bad on impact! Larry

 

One of the reasons this repair has been so time consuming is that I am really trying to save as much of the original stuff I can. I still have not thrown anything away but obviously some of it doesn't make sense to save to put back on the car. The stuff I am saving I really try to hide the previous damage. Here is one example.

This is the right radiator bracket. It is a combination of a piece my dad made and I modified it 10 years ago. Now, I need to straighten it and modify it again. The part I had to cut off, is actually part of the original piece my dad made. My dad was king of making stuff from what was laying around. I actually had that piece of rod that fit inside that square tube and reinforced it so i could just butt weld a new piece back on.

The old man is still around in my mind. I was looking thru my bolt bin the other day and I needed 4 bolts all the same size. I found 3 but was digging thru and didn't see another one. I stopped and actually stepped away but something told me to look one more time. I went back and magically the last one I needed was right on top. I know I just missed it the first time but when it happened it literally took my breath away for a second.

I have always referred to this as my Dad's car, but after this repair, maybe its time to say its Rusty's Bad Banana that my dad used to own...

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That’s cool Rusty. Reading your last post makes the small part I am playing here seem that much more worth the effort. Hope to make a lot of progress this weekend. Can’t wait to see the car back on the track.

 

Remembering why I went to college now...getting too old and fat for bodywork. Getting real close though.