Holy crap:LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by pat mccarthy
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Holy crap:LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by pat mccarthy
Question:
On the ladder bar pics that Don put up, the top picture with the wheelie bars has the straight bar on the bottom, the other picture has the straight bar on top.... As a general rule on round tube ladder bars the bottom tube is straight and parallel with the ground and the top bar is angled with the adjustable link.... Does the car care which bar is straight and parallel with the ground??? Going to have to plot out some IC's and see where they come out.... Not so much a question as just thinking out loud I guess....
Usually these were more lift bars and as such had no upper bar/lower bar adjustment, only a rod end at the front to true them up to the chassis. The purpose of these was two fold: Keep the rear from winding up on the springs, and to transfer lift to the chassis to get the front end up under accelleration. They weren't as effective as later developments, but they sure look cool hanging down under there. :D
Don
(any progress yet, Dave? We're waiting............... :LOL:)
Yeah, just thinking I can use the old design with new technology to get the right look and perhaps improve on their performance.... Got to have the long bars, for sure!!!! A modern 4 bar would certainly work better, but it'd be like putting a dress on a pig---it'd still look like a pig!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by Itoldyouso
I really like the set in your picture with the wheelie bars built into the same bracketry, think I'll probably end up with something quite similar---THANKS!!!
Wow Dave, what a response you have had with this project.;)Can I add my 2 cents worth please? Okay I can then, first, I think the steel tilt front with the separate opening bonnet is the way to go.. I also like the idea of the EFI fuel system looking like the early Hilborn injection as one can't bet 8 pipes sticking through a bonnet. The rest I think all the others have nailed for you.:) Oh one last thing Dave, Pepper looks like one mean guard dog and as Don said... the odd picture of him and or guard cat will keep us happy while following your build thread.:3dSMILE:
Cheers Whiplash...
Thanks Whiplash! Yeah, that dog of mine is one vicious beast,:rolleyes: sometimes he even barks if he doesn't get a treat when he thinks he should!:LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiplash23T
Hey Dave-I think the rear end of the period was a old Olds.What you thinking for the rear end??.
olds but the GMC truck rear end was used as well
Would like either the Olds or Pontiac that was used so much back then, but then I've already got a couple of 9" Fords around....
Worked on the Plymouth all day yesterday and today too, but I did call my favorite sandblaster dude to let him know there was going to be a frame and a body coming his way once I had time and room to blow the car apart!!!!!
This car is too cool! I am so Jealous. Now I need a gasser............. Awesome car! Don Jr.:D:D:D
Thanks Don! With all the good help on here, should be able to come up with enough facts, specs, and pics to do the car justice!!!
Happy to hear you're going that route... I don't have too much to add not being around at the time gassers ruled but looking forward to following the project
-Chris
Gm building only one yr of this 57 model was a again one of GM's major screw-ups.Bottom line,the 57's are just sexy.
Not unusual! The "Chrome boom" was starting. ...more of everything! Everyone had four headlights... 4-6 tailights.... more scoops... and more chrome on the drawing board for '58!Quote:
Originally Posted by 1gary
The '57 Ford was a good looking car too... only to be replaced by the '58! The Corvette suffered, as did the T-bird... which also gained a back seat!
That short magic time never came back.
Hadn't thought about it much before, but '57 was sort of the end for a styling era.... I think that whatever marque you care to talk about '57 was really the end of the "simplicity and functional" era, wasn't it???? So many way kewl things on the '57's, Chevy had the dual four 283, Ford had a supercharged 312, Olds had the J-2, and of course Chrysler was just beginning to tap the performance potential of the Hemi....
Like HRP said, starting in '58 it was all chrome, big fins, and lots of bling! Cars got bigger, heavier, and fancier becoming something of a fashion statement or something...
Glad I found this old '57!
Here you go Dave if you already haven`t seen it, about half way thru red `57 belair gasser, cool vibes too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjtB_...eature=related
You don`t know how many times I have thought of a gasser build with my `37, especialy when its on jack stands it just looks good.[IMG]http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...e/IMG_0239.jpg[/IMG]
Thanks for the link Rich, great video!!!! The red and black '57 was a very nice car, and a lot of other very well known cars on their too! I'd love to someday replicate the Malco Gasser Mustang!!! It was always one of my favorites.
As for the '37......well it's never too late to change your plans~!!!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
Absolutely! I think the styling which was pretty simple and "utilitarian" through '53-'54, was staring to accelerate! The boxy look of the '53-'54s, and even some '55s, disappeared. Some of those same cars changed quickly from '55-'57, gaining "more highly stlyed" changes. In that "light", it is not a stretch to understand why the styling took another big jump... adding lots more "bling". Like so many things in life, once we humans get started, we often go too far!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Severson
A side note of interest... the sales advantage was held by Ford through '57, but Chevrolet took over after that. If you ever read Iacoca's bio, he was a sales manager for them at the time, and said Ford built a string of lemons during that era. He tells of driving '57-'60 models to sales eetings, and had things happen like doors popping open on a bump. I'm sure that, plus the styling of cars like the '57 Chevy, added to Ford's decline in sales.
One last observation. I have been obscessed with customs and rods since '58. What other car, besides the '57 BelAir, is almost never dechromed, or restyled??? It is almost a "stand alone" achievement, in the world of auto styling! (The '53 to '55 Studebaker might be one, of very few.) :-)
Almost exactly 3 years ago we had a little discussion about this sort of thing: http://clubhotrod.com/forums/showthr...highlight=1957Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Severson
BTW, from a body style/platform point of view, within GM anyway, '57 was a "simple" restyle of the platform begun in '55. The real one year wonder was 1958 (again GM here). Then in '59 it was all new again with the basic chassis running through to '64.
How the heck do you remember something from 3 years ago Bob??? Heck, I don't remember what I had for breakfast this morning..... Hmmmm, wonder if I had breakfast this morning?:whacked:
I would tend to agree with you Jay, it's hard to improve on the original style. Only a few have been successfully done. I lean a little more toward older stuff and would also throw the '40 Ford into that ring. With the exception of the El Matador (and only because it's such a well done radical custom that almost completely disguises the original), there just about isn't a single restyled '40 that is an improvement over the original.Quote:
Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT
During the same time the 57's where around,GM used to hold competitions for kids to build clay models of cars for the design teams to use for new ideas.It was more of a open door policy then ever before.They held clinic's for teams of high school kids to go and figure out what was wrong with a car that GM set a problem for them to solve.There was more support for kids to get involved.GM made it seem as a kid you could become anything you wanted to be.
Sorry Dave-I honestly don't want to hi-jack your thread.Just some memories.
Let me momentarily highjack the thread.... This brings up something I noticed years ago. My own drawings that I did as a "highschooler" seemed to have more imagination, than I do now... after almost 40 years of custom painting!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by 1gary
The answer I came up with is that we all become conditioned to think alike, by reading the same magazines... building the same models... watching the same car movies... idolizing the same "hero cars"... and eventually tend to think "inside the box". Kids are fresh to the hobby, and tend to be more original!
This was all a culture shock, for me! {:-o
I agree with Jay on us losing some of our willingness or ability to do different/unexpected things to our cars as we age. I am on a couple of rat rod forums, mainly because I like the other members and have become friends with some of them. And even though some people knock rat rods as being crude, trashy, badly constructed, etc., there is a lot of that "thinking outside the box" that Jay mentions. They are willing to use unconventional components in unconventional ways, whereas us older guys would be hesitant to do the same things, perhaps.
We can argue that it is because we become smarter or wiser as we age, but maybe we also lose some of the excitement we once had for our creations. I have sat on a chair in my shop and thought "If I had owned the cars I now have when I was 21, I would have been beside myself with excitement......but at my age it is not quite the same level of excitement."
Kinda like the first few times you had the pleasure of being with a young lady............it was always more exciting when you were young. :D
Don
I do like the way the rats often have unusual bodies and other components. They also will go with a more extreme appearance. There is some variety in the engines too.
They still have some "group thinking" in the choice of flat black... red & white striping... red wheels with white walls... header wraps... and horse blankets.
And spider webs. :rolleyes::D:DQuote:
Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT
Don
That one got past me. :-)~
It happens to you to does it,Dave??Maybe something to do with solvents??I remember what happened a few days ago,and sometimes a few years/decades ago,if it was ground breaking...but what happened an hour ago??yeah right...:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Severson
Yeah,love the 57,and what ever you do to it,it will surely be ultra kool...
Man, I tell ya...anymore if I don't make a note or otherwise write it down, it's gone!!!
Hoping to get some time next month to get going on the '57. Getting some things planned out (another couple pages in the notebook) and fending off questions from all my "friends" about what the heck I'm doing with a Chevy!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:
Dave,good idea,I need a notebook too..:eek:The 57...well,I have been told that I am biased,maybe I am..I seem to have had more Fords than anything else in the last few years,apart from the Dodge..but when the opportunity arises to grab a car already sorta set up as a gasser..what else do ya do??You cant be predictable ALL ya life...Gotta throw a curve in there now and then,:LOL:What would I do with it??hot small block,4sp,period rear end,ladder bars,all it needs to make it look and perform like its just dropped out of a time capsule,,Yee haa,,then do the same to a 57 Ford,for a peace offering to your friends...:D:DYou got a winter coming at you,so you can lock yourself in the workshop with your ''pondering stool'' and plan...:cool::cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Severson
Yeah, want it look like it's right out of about 1966 when it's done.... Might sound selfish or egotistical but the main reason I got the car and will most likely build it myself is to keep it from falling into the wrong hands... Hate to see it go to someone who would rat the thing out, then try to tell me that's how it was done "back in the day", car is too nice for that!
Dave,I dont blame you for saving it..It needs to be built the way it was/should be,period style gasser..With a bit of luck,there will be a bit of a resurgence of this style..We have three tri 5s down here now,one of them being Golly Adams old 56 that he built when he lived in California,a friends BBC 55 in Auckland,and another 55 that was built and finished early this year,and even if there are about three million tri 5s in the country now.:D...these three stand out from the rest,cos they are GASSERS...:cool::cool:
Still think a FORD power plant would bring grins to thousands of onlookers!:3dSMILE:
Are you sure they're grinnin', look closely now!!!:eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
hmmmmmmmmm gassers and 301's my my brings me back to my 1st set of posts:eek::D
go for it dave, you'll have a blast!:D but IT HAS TO BE A STICK!!;)
WAZZUP Scooter?
not alot, you have a PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT
40 years ago------
I found that to come up with something different was the most difficult thing to do, but to have to conform to a paint scheme that we had been identified with and even after a few companies that wanted to sponser us had hired some firms to do some drawings---they all pretty much returned the drawings they made with our old paint scheme on them---soooooo, blue it was---
These days I pretty much just look at building things so no matter what part of the car you are looking at, there is SOMETHING to see
Definitely gonna be a stick, Scooter! No other way to do it, is there???Quote:
Originally Posted by gassersrule_196