Brendon what happened when you went for the 10 minute ride. Did the front end bounce up and down real hard?
Brendon's '55 Gasser thread
Hi guys:
Since I'm not too far along yet with this build I figured I'd start a thread here from the beginning. I also have some pics of this on the tri-five forum and Hotrodders.com site.
I bought my '55 a few years back as a stalled race car project. It was nothing more than an empty shell with a rotted floor and a few parts bolted onto it. It sat as I finished up my '67 Firebird project and now that my 'bird is running I have slowly started on this one. My first task was to get the paperwork squared away, and then I tore out the rusty floors. I've since replaced the inner rockers, rebuilt some of the floor supports and reinstalled that. I also added some extensions onto the frame for future roll bar structure. I also replaced the rusty trunk floor, however, I only used smaller patch panels as I didn't see the benefit of paying more $$ for a full trunk floor when I'd be chopping half of it back out to make room for the wheel tubs that came with the car.
The previous owner chopped out the wheel wells with a plasma cutter and took out too much material, so I'll be making some flanges to fill in the gaps (you'll see that in the last pics). That'll be my next task and then onto the passenger side tub.
My goal with this build is to make a rough looking yet wallet friendly build. I spent way too much on my last car so I'd like to keep this one a little more reasonable. It'll be streetable, have a clutch pedal, run on pump gas, and scare prius owners. It'll probably more poser than full on race car. No idea on powerplant yet. The car came with some aftermarket leaf springs and traction bars, and I've located a front axle from a '57 chevy truck so it'll have a good stance, and I've already scored some 200s rims (same as the '55 from 2 lane blacktop).
![Car Vehicle Automotive parking light Motor vehicle Hood]()
![Vehicle Window Hood Motor vehicle Wheel]()
![Car Land vehicle Vehicle Window Automotive lighting]()
![Car Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Hood]()
![Motor vehicle Automotive tire Bumper Automotive exterior Vehicle]()
Since I'm not too far along yet with this build I figured I'd start a thread here from the beginning. I also have some pics of this on the tri-five forum and Hotrodders.com site.
I bought my '55 a few years back as a stalled race car project. It was nothing more than an empty shell with a rotted floor and a few parts bolted onto it. It sat as I finished up my '67 Firebird project and now that my 'bird is running I have slowly started on this one. My first task was to get the paperwork squared away, and then I tore out the rusty floors. I've since replaced the inner rockers, rebuilt some of the floor supports and reinstalled that. I also added some extensions onto the frame for future roll bar structure. I also replaced the rusty trunk floor, however, I only used smaller patch panels as I didn't see the benefit of paying more $$ for a full trunk floor when I'd be chopping half of it back out to make room for the wheel tubs that came with the car.
The previous owner chopped out the wheel wells with a plasma cutter and took out too much material, so I'll be making some flanges to fill in the gaps (you'll see that in the last pics). That'll be my next task and then onto the passenger side tub.
My goal with this build is to make a rough looking yet wallet friendly build. I spent way too much on my last car so I'd like to keep this one a little more reasonable. It'll be streetable, have a clutch pedal, run on pump gas, and scare prius owners. It'll probably more poser than full on race car. No idea on powerplant yet. The car came with some aftermarket leaf springs and traction bars, and I've located a front axle from a '57 chevy truck so it'll have a good stance, and I've already scored some 200s rims (same as the '55 from 2 lane blacktop).
521 - 540 of 589 Posts
some updates:
1- got the car aligned on Friday. Turns out my axle is bent so my camber is not the same on both sides, nor is the caster for that matter. the caster is easy enough to fix with more shimming on one side, but the car seems to drive straight enough to not be worth the fuss, and the camber also isn't affecting the drive, but visually it does bug me a little. I understand there's a shop in LB that specializes in bending axles, so I may look into this at some point. it's not an urgent repair. More importantly, my steering arm seems to be holding up so far. I'm still keeping an eye on it, though. Also of note the car is only .02º from being square, so I did a decent job building this. Makes me very happy.
2- got the windows tinted today. It looks so much better now, imo. I had bought a bunch of vintage stickers for the side window, so I'm not sure yet if I'll sticker bomb them or not. At the least I may play around with mocking it up to see if I like the look or not.
3- tomorrow I'm taking the car in for a tune so they can adjust the FI and timing and get this to run better. It needs it.
Still have some things to fix on it like I'm still leaking some oil from my valve covers, or the hydroboost, but I believe it's my valve cover where I had modified it. either the modification didn't hold, or it never sealed i nthe first place. either way I'll be replacing the valve covers soon with something else that doesn't need modification for clearance. stayt tuned on that.
![Car Wheel Tire Land vehicle Vehicle]()
![Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Motor vehicle]()
![Font Pattern Rectangle Handwriting Number]()
![Motor vehicle Hood Vehicle Automotive tire Automotive exterior]()
![Car Vehicle Motor vehicle Vehicle registration plate Hood]()
![Tire Car Wheel Land vehicle Vehicle]()
![Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Tire Wheel Car Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Motor vehicle Vehicle Car Hood Automotive lighting]()
![Wheel Car Tire Vehicle Window]()
1- got the car aligned on Friday. Turns out my axle is bent so my camber is not the same on both sides, nor is the caster for that matter. the caster is easy enough to fix with more shimming on one side, but the car seems to drive straight enough to not be worth the fuss, and the camber also isn't affecting the drive, but visually it does bug me a little. I understand there's a shop in LB that specializes in bending axles, so I may look into this at some point. it's not an urgent repair. More importantly, my steering arm seems to be holding up so far. I'm still keeping an eye on it, though. Also of note the car is only .02º from being square, so I did a decent job building this. Makes me very happy.
2- got the windows tinted today. It looks so much better now, imo. I had bought a bunch of vintage stickers for the side window, so I'm not sure yet if I'll sticker bomb them or not. At the least I may play around with mocking it up to see if I like the look or not.
3- tomorrow I'm taking the car in for a tune so they can adjust the FI and timing and get this to run better. It needs it.
Still have some things to fix on it like I'm still leaking some oil from my valve covers, or the hydroboost, but I believe it's my valve cover where I had modified it. either the modification didn't hold, or it never sealed i nthe first place. either way I'll be replacing the valve covers soon with something else that doesn't need modification for clearance. stayt tuned on that.
After replacing the valve cover gaskets and using a bit of silicone to seal them, replacing the power steering gearbox adapter fittings, adding silicone to the front four intake bolts (and ultimately drilling 3x ⅛" holes in the thermostat for a small bypass as my water pump doesn't have one), and replacing the lower radiator hose clamp I seem to have a leak free car. for the moment anyway, and I was able to put some miles on it over the weekend. On Thursday I had my friend Rob drive it (I took the Firebird) and we participated in a small car show near the Pike in downtown Long Beach as part of the Thunder Thursday- the beginning event for the Long Beach Grand Prix. The 55 gathered a crowd every time I looked. Families took pics by it, people were checking it out, and I even saw one kid run his toy car along the door. at least the parent quickly put a stop to that. I also took it up to a friends place on Saturday while making brake lines for his '67 Chevy truck, and I did some driving around today as well. Below are pics from Thursday, event. A group of us met up and then cruised to the show.
![Car Wheel Tire Land vehicle Vehicle]()
![Car Vehicle Tire Land vehicle Vehicle registration plate]()
![Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Tire Wheel Jeans Land vehicle Car]()
![Footwear Car Tire Vehicle Infrastructure]()
This is cool- the folks from Gassers West used a pic of my car to advertise their upcoming event over at the Lions Automobilia Foundation Museum. I'm looking forward to going to this
![Tire Wheel Car Motor vehicle Automotive lighting]()
Just some various pics I took of the car today. Even took my wife for her first ride in the car as well as her grand niece and took them to lunch.
![Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Car Wheel Tire Vehicle Land vehicle]()
![Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Hood]()
![Tire Car Wheel Vehicle Automotive tire]()
521 - 540 of 589 Posts
