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dsb's chevy gasser build

75K views 787 replies 17 participants last post by  dsb 
#1 ·
Well, time for me to join the party. My first stint on here I was building a 1949 chevy styleline 2 door gasser. Ran into money problems and went back to HD choppers. Well, sold my bike and decided I was going to go another direction. I started with my running gear first since that is where most of the money is. So, without further ado, here we go!


For the motor- it is a mid 70's 350 bored .040. Camel hump heads with screw in studs, comp cams muthr thumpr, Edelbrock air gap intake, edelbrock carb, new pistons, polished crank etc...

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Transmission is early 80's TH350 with 56000 miles on it. I put a B&M shift kit in and a new pan. Should be in good shape there.....

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Rear end is out of a 1997 Trans Am WS6 with 15x10 wheels on it.

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Front tires are morose drag skinnys

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continued next post....
 
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#220 ·
Well, made it to St. Louis! The car held up just fine with the new set up in front. Took a pounding but held up with the engine in and all. So, I am counting that as good! The house we rented has a 1 stall garage with an area in the back for all my storage so getting the car in for the winter should not be an issue. Next up is to get the seat brackets made and wire it up.
 
#221 ·
OK guys, riddle me this. I jacked the back of the car up as I decided to graft my new tail section on the car. I noticed the rear shackles on the springs were in a weird position. I have drawn a diagram to illistrate. #1 is how the rerar end was looking before the move to pittsburgh. #2 is the way the rear shackles are now. Is that a big deal? It actually lowered the car in the back, but not sure if it is right that way. I am guessing that it started at #1 and took a big bump and switched to #2. Thoughts?

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#224 · (Edited)
I hate

this next phrase but "back in the day" us old farts in order to raise the rear of the vehicle would "reverse the shackles"; ie: jack the car way up so so that the leaf springs were fully extended, put a big ass bar through the shackle and pry on it until the shackle popped down and reversed itself, hence "reversed shackles". Then came the longer shackles that guys would make or buy the kits to raise the rear ends even more; they were really popular on the Mopars. It is very possible that with the rear axle chained down and going over a large enough bump that caused the rear of the car to really jerk upwards could have caused the shackles to reverse themselves back to the original upwards position. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :(
 
#226 ·
I think you're right on the mark Steve! Not a lot of cars used the shackle up system, but those that did were easily reversed. Only issue was once in awhile hitting a big bump could unload the springs and flip the shackle back like Dave's did. I saw it happen and guy's tires rubbing the fenders when it did. Funny stuff back then!
 
#231 ·
Dave

when I saw your latest close up photo posting and remark about how you thought the shackles weren't correct in the upwards position I was going to take photos of the shackles on my 53 and my 69 work truck to show you that they both are in the upwards position. Air shocks are definitely the cheapest and easiest way to go.
 
#232 ·
when I saw your latest close up photo posting and remark about how you thought the shackles weren't correct in the upwards position I was going to take photos of the shackles on my 53 and my 69 work truck to show you that they both are in the upwards position. Air shocks are definitely the cheapest and easiest way to go.
Its funny, I do not remember them being like that when I first took the car apart. Then I looked up an old manual and boom. There they were. Easy peasy.
 
#234 ·
OK fellas, I picked the hottest day to take the motor apart and finish all the little things. Torque the heads and set the rockers. I noticed that when I was doing the very first cylinder, when I backed the nut off, the screw in stud was coming out. Do I need some red loctite on there?
 
#235 ·
You need to torque those studs in Dave. Are they studs with the hex? I used permatex black then torqued them in. They shouldn't come out with rocker nut unscrewing. Are you using Poly locks or just regular nuts?
Rocker Studs (screw-in)Engine Oil50 ft-lbs.
 
#238 ·
I'd toss all of those Dave. The studs with a nut that tightens against the head surface are much stronger. Do your heads not have a machined surface around the threaded hole for a nut to bed against? If they don't then you might have to have them machined, or use those studs with Loctite. Hope they're machined, and you can just swap them out.
 
#240 ·
I was

surprised to see that the studs hadn't been made to accept an allen wrench to install them with. I'm thinking that whoever installed those didn't want to go the expense of having the boss' machined flat. The other thing is that most of the time when you go to the expense of the machine work most guys will also install pushrod guide plates. If you're going to use the ones you have I'd definitely use red loctite as you mentioned. My other thought is that since the bosses weren't machined they were probably drilled and tapped by the dude you got them from. You really want to make sure when you install them that they have a nice tight fit and there's no wobble as you're screwing them in other wise there's a good chance you're going to be pulling a stud out.
 
#241 ·
surprised to see that the studs hadn't been made to accept an allen wrench to install them with. I'm thinking that whoever installed those didn't want to go the expense of having the boss' machined flat. The other thing is that most of the time when you go to the expense of the machine work most guys will also install pushrod guide plates. If you're going to use the ones you have I'd definitely use red loctite as you mentioned. My other thought is that since the bosses weren't machined they were probably drilled and tapped by the dude you got them from. You really want to make sure when you install them that they have a nice tight fit and there's no wobble as you're screwing them in other wise there's a good chance you're going to be pulling a stud out.
Thanks for the tips.
 
#244 ·
Hey Dave sorry I didn’t get back to you today. I was real busy at work and didn’t see your post. I found this typical screw in studs and guide plates. Just a heads up, if you do this setup you need hardened pushrods.

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#248 ·
When you put them back in it should be torqued.

Rocker Studs (screw-in)Engine Oil50 ft-lbs.in)
 
#250 ·
The whole lower end was gone through just before I moved. I got the heads separately. My engine guy looked at them and pronounced them good. Only because the screw in studs were out at the time. The heads came off a running corvette. I am surprised they do not have a way to torque them down. Maybe I will set up a jam nut type situation and torque them.
 
#254 ·
OK, got the motor back together. and then because I had to get it over with, I decided to tackle the rear of the body. While I was in Pittsburgh, I put an ad on Facebook seeing if anyone had a 51/52 body in decent shape. A guy got a hold of me from West Virginia that had a 52 he was gonna scrap out. I got his address and went over there. Guy was super cool, and the rear tail section, while not perfect, was way better than the one I had. He also gave me a pretty decent windshield, some door mirrors and I could grab anything I needed since he was going to scrap it. So I dragged the tail section to St. Louis with me and finally decided to give it a whirl. I measured 40 times and cut once, but also left about 1/4 fudge room. I used the trunk lid striker mount as my main reference since they are in the same exact spot. And, while that was not enough, I decided to gut the trunk floor and fit my replacement pans. I was terrified! Never done anything like this before and actually enjoyed myself as I developed a plan and executed it. Will it be right or perfect? Probably not, but it was fun!

On a side note, I decided to let science do some of my dirty work. Filled up a storage bin with water, added some washing soda to it and wired up my battery charger and removed a bunch of rust! Man does that work awesome!

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#256 ·
Obviously too late now Dave, but normally most people drill out the spot welds along the trunk drip rail, and leave the rail to reference the donor tail panel for fitment. That's what I did when I replaced my tail panel, and it made it much easier. I was able to put it up in place, and "hook" the lip over the trunk gutter. Then clamp it and support it from below, and test the trunk lid fit by closing it down to align the gaps.
Once it's all aligned and tacked in a few places, then the gutter can also be cut out if it's rotted, and replaced. If it's not rotted (which they often aren't) then the lip can get holes drilled every 4"-6" and spot welded to the gutter.
 
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