Hot Rods Pix of '55-'57 Ford Gassers - the "other" Tri-Fives

great pictures thanks!

 

Its coming along very slowly. Trying to finish a few changes to my '40 pickup first before I get back to the Fairlane.

I do plan to do something of a build thread on the gasser later. Here is a couple pictures of it now, unfortunately not much to get excited about at this point:

 

I talked to some older "in the know" peeps and they tell me allot of gassers back then didnt have straight axles. Made me feel better as my 58 is not going to be axled, just sprung

 

Kick Ass!!!!!!!!!!

 

I seem to remember that one trick was to install tall springs and spacer blocks between the spindle and ball joints. Haven't seen that in years.

 

ball joint spacers,problem was they used to snap.........

 

Such a great thread!

 

Probably why I haven't seen 'em in years. lol

 

That is actually the route I am going with our Fairlane, taller springs and balljoints spacers as apposed to a straight axle.

Part of the reason is I am building this car for my wife and the kids are going to be in it a bunch, plus this car is going to be driven A LOT and see a lot of highway miles roadtripping to shows, so we needed a car that would drive and stop well and predictably in real world, every-day driving, but still have the attitude we were after.

I'll go into this further if I do a build thread, but I clipped it with a '74 Z 28 Camaro front end because suspension and brakes where great, cheap, and easy to get parts for anywhere.

As far as the balljoint spacers go, I'm not using the old "C" shaped type that used to be so problematic. The Camaro suspension allows me to use a solid spacer that a guy makes and sells on Ebay. I tried using the taller springs without them, and that was a non-starter; couldn't even get them in between the A arms.

I don't have the front suspension set up yet, so the pictures don't show the car sitting like it should.

More to come . . .

 

This '55, which belongs to a fellow Hamber who posted some earlier on this thread, just about nails the stance I am looking to obtain with my car.

This car is an authentic survivor from back in the day - note: no straight axle, but it looks bitchen!

 

Same car, but now with a straight axle. Looks great. I would love to own this car.

 

That's an interesting alternative, not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper I'm sure. I look forward to seeing how it comes out. Just one thing though, don't you lose horsepower if you use Chevrolet parts on a Ford? I heard it takes about a second off the e.t., could be wrong...
Just kidding. When I built the 429 for my F-100 I had to use big block Chevy rocker arm studs to make the roller rockers work. Never admitted it to my hard core Chevy buddies 'cause I knew I'd catch a lot of crap. lol

 

no way Id put my kids (if I had any) in a car with a lift kit,however Ive got a 55 truck axle under my 56 chevy and would drive it anywhere and it handles great

 

Speedy, Looks to be a great start to the Blue Oval Tri 5 thread ! Love the '57 with the wheels about three inches off the ground !

 

That's cool. I won't claim for a second to be an expert on suspensions in general or gassers in particular, and I am in no way meaning to knock gassers with straight axles. To the contrary, I'm obsessed with them . . . proof should be in this thread I've put more than a few hours into creating.

The car isn't going to have much in the way of a lift kit. Just big block springs and ball joint spacers. I see plenty of trucks around on the road with similar suspensions (most of which I am sure are driven primarily on pavement) and they seem to be doing ok.

Glad your '56 drives so well. I'd love to build a straight axle car later on, and hopefully it will drive well, too.

 

Yeah, exactly why I am more than a little hesitant to do a build thread, but oh well.



Hey, at least I'm running an all-Ford drive train, including a built 312 y block and a 9 inch out of a '57.

That should count for something.

 

That's the main thing, especially the Y-block. What are your cam specs if you don't mind my asking? I love the way those motors sound with headers & glass packs.

 

Some really awesome gassers here on this thread. They would all make Henry proud.

 

Coming from a Chevy guy that's quite a compliment. Maybe we can bring you over from the Dark Side?

 

It's only plastic...but I couldn't resist:

 

Cool . . . use it as inspiration to build the real thing!

 

IF this is samecar it was parked in front of some apts on Glenoaks when a interested rodder was looking at it /crawling around/he saw id marks on the 4spd that id'd it as his ,called cops >cops found acouple stolen engines ect during search..........the car turned out to be a 6cly car stolen from a couple in monrovia???
reason i know about it[if it's same car]is that when i called asking if i could buy car if it came up for auction is that 4 cop cars showed up at my house within minutes of my call to do a search thinking i was a friend of the guys.....funny thing i had a 57 ranchero with 8 carbs on a 510cuin lincoln&str axle .......one cop gave me info on the arrests made on guy that lived on glenoaks....big theft ring

 

Its an Isky...Ill have to get back to ya on the exact specs though

I bought it because a friend of mine had one in his y block and he loved it, said it was a lot like a Duntov 30 30 Chev grind

 

That was a good cam. Buddy of mine had one in his '69 Z-28 Camaro w/ a 302. From 3000 rpm up it was "Holy Shit hold on!" Wonder if anyone still uses them?
If your Isky has similar specs I think you're going to like it, and that Y-block will sound Saweet!

 

Does anyone know what E.T. this car was running? Drivetrain?

 

Shane's car has a Tunnel Ram equipped 351C with an automatic (talks about putting a 4spd in), ran hard at Eagle Field (no clocks), Id guess it's an 11 second car anyway.

 

"The Whale". John and Timmy Carroll built this many years ago. Not sure where it wound up after Timmy passed away.

 

Back to the top for the weekend . . . anybody have some cool pix to share? Stories? Whatever?

 

I'd like to take this


And build this, with a blown 427 SOHC, toploader & nine inch, streetable but barely.
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I can just see all the resto/custom guys crying already . . .