57 Chevy Cruizer

Figured I might as well start a build thread on the old beast, I'm really finding it difficult to keep my hands off the project!!!!!:LOL::LOL: Got a lot of old friends calling and coming by, maybe it's time for a South Dakota chapter of the Over the Hill Gang?????

Anyway, I'm going to repost the pics of the day it came home, then just keep adding on and asking a ton of questions--gotta remember, I'm not a Chebbie guy but IMO this car deserves to be put back together with the same intent as the original build back sometime in the mid-60's; small block, straight axle, 4 speed, tilt front, minimal accessories and creature comforts....

I certainly appreciate all the help and ecouragement I've already recieved and with your help I hope to be able to pull this build off correctly and have an authentic looking '57 Chevy Gasser!!!!

So, here we go!!!! Here's to wheels up and bangin' gears!!!!!

I made Thanksgiving Day my day in the shop and spent the time taking the front clip apart. The fenders are surprisingly good, both will require a small patch panel in the bottom rear of the fender, but that's about it. I also removed all the brackets, braces, inner fenderwells, vent ducts, and dissassembled the grille. The bar on the grille where the directional lights go is in three pieces and made of pot metal, I have a plan to glue the thing back together and use it for a plug to make a fiberglass mold... The front bumper is structurally sound and straight, but the chrome is toast....Probably going to replace it with a home built 'glass piece, too.

Great Dave, it will be real interesting to see how everything comes together. I've been following the other threads on this and having it all in one place will be nice to folllow along.
I'm really looking forward to seeing the fiberglassing.

Thanks Mike, figured it would be easier to keep everything in one place then having stuff spread around in mutiple threads...Please excuse the repetitions, just thought it best to start at the beginning....

Seeing as how I was out in the shop today working on the Plymouth, I spent a bit of time on the front bumper for the '57. I'm going to use it as a plug for a 'glass mold, and thought for looks I'd make the bumper guards part of the plug. As you can see, a lot of the chrome on the bumper was removed by mother nature. I did some grinding with a fine cut stone, then a 24 grit disc to remove the chrome and the nickel. Once I got to the copper coat it was ready to fit and tack one of the bumper guards into place. Still have to touch up my welds (welding by Braille isn't easy!), make a cap for the end of the bumper guard to resemble the shape of the original rubber pieces, some more grinding, remove a bit more of the chrome, then a couple coats of Epoxy primer.

Are you looking for some ideas related to the appearance? ...or do you think you will be able to find history on the car, if in fact it was raced, and do a resto?

Of course appearance is of special interest to me, so I would love to toss a few unusual ideas at you, from the era. :-)

If that front bumper is a true one piece, I wouldn't trash it. It's my understanding that they were only available in California.

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Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

Are you looking for some ideas related to the appearance? ...or do you think you will be able to find history on the car, if in fact it was raced, and do a resto?

Of course appearance is of special interest to me, so I would love to toss a few unusual ideas at you, from the era. :-)

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No real history on the car as of yet, still searching. A bit of scratching thru the primer shows the car to originally be white... Only plans so far are to fill all the trim holes and maybe a two tone split like the 150 sedans were done. Richard suggested the scheme---no ideas on color yet. But yeah!!! Always open to paint ideas from a pro---but caution, I'm certainly no artist and totally incapable of doing any kind of graphics!!!!!!:LOL::LOL::LOL:

Ah, Dave, you're a man after my own heart. I love gassers, especially tri-five Chevys.:D:D:D Back in the 60's they were my favorite cars at the drags. I think half of the gassers at the local track (Indianapolis Raceway Park) were tri-five Chevys. My all-time favorite was Gene Moody's gold '55 Hoosier Hustler. Three or four time NHRA Nats winner and class record holder... Anyway, as I recall, gassers didn't run front bumpers; they weren't required by the rules and bumpers add weight, so - no bumper, no weight...:HMMM: Regardless of bumper or not, I'm gonna enjoy this thread.:cool:

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Originally Posted by NTFDAY

If that front bumper is a true one piece, I wouldn't trash it. It's my understanding that they were only available in California.

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Ooops. too late...already started welding the bumper guards on!:eek::eek: I'll do the bumper with metal finishing and no filler so that it could go out for rechroming if someone wanted it....


Yuppers, it is the one piece bumper!

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Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Ah, Dave, you're a man after my own heart. I love gassers, especially tri-five Chevys.:D:D:D Back in the 60's they were my favorite cars at the drags. I think half of the gassers at the local track (Indianapolis Raceway Park) were tri-five Chevys. My all-time favorite was Gene Moody's gold '55 Hoosier Hustler. Three or four time NHRA Nats winner and class record holder... Anyway, as I recall, gassers didn't run front bumpers; they weren't required by the rules and bumpers add weight, so - no bumper, no weight...:HMMM: Regardless of bumper or not, I'm gonna enjoy this thread.:cool:

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Yeah, same thing around here....but I gotta be able to take it out on the street to play with the guys, so even a 'glass bumper will meet the criteria for the law here in South Dakota.... It'll be light, for sure!! The original one weighs a ton!!!!

Actually I was going to start by asking things like:

...what kind of intake you want to use... and maybe a scoop idea or two.

...things like a Moon tank out front, like many early sixties gassers ran. Nowdays they use it as a radiator overflow tank... but it looks good out there.

...and other things that will come back to me. :-)

As far as graphics, a few things that were popular on gassers then would be pretty simple to do. A color from that era, plus a great name to give it personality.... and you would be "Rockin'!

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Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

Actually I was going to start by asking things like:

...what kind of intake you want to use... and maybe a scoop idea or two.

...things like a Moon tank out front, like many early sixties gassers ran. Nowdays they use it as a radiator overflow tank... but it looks good out there.

...and other things that will come back to me. :-)

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Got to be either a tunnel ram or a set of Hilborn's!!!! and definitely the cute little Moon tank, and of course fenderwell headers!!! Couldn't be a gasser without them!

I would like to do something mild to the hood....Any thoughts on what the guys did to the two little humps on the hood???? I doubt they left the chrome thingies on there?????

Gasser rules in the 60s allowed for a 10% engine setback. If memory serves me correctly, '57 Chevy has a 115 inch wheelbase, so you can shove the engine back up to 11.5 inches if you want. That's measured from the centerline of the front spindles to the # 1 sparkplug. The engine being shoved back into a recessed firewall was part of the reason for using a one-piece tilt front end - easier engine access.

Probably the most common thing on '57s was to fill the front holes with a bullet shaped cap welded in.

As far as scoops... if your injector stacks aren't going to be tall enought to come through the hood... which I don't think the smallblocks ever did... one great scoop would be the aluminum ribbed scoop from the big Ford trucks. It had a little grill on the front, and was used on the Pontiac factory F/X cars from the early sixities. They often showed up on many other racers. Cal Custom made a similar scoop, but without the grill of course. (I'll see if I can find pictures.)

Fiberglass scoops that I recall were generally a half round shape, a little taller and wider in the front. Sometimes they were molded in... but more often just flanged and bolted on.

The early tunnel ram style scoops, with the concave sides would be neat...but didn't come until later in the sixties. I don't think I saw many on 55-57s, since they did not need that much height.

Another approach might be to use a wide early blower scoop... like on the Hawaiian... bolted to the top of your injectors... but only if they were tall enough to put it through the hood.

Of course you could create your own design... but might lose that nostalgic look.

I'll give that color choice some thought, and offer up some ideas. (I love the "design" phase of a project!) :-)~

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Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Gasser rules in the 60s allowed for a 10% engine setback. If memory serves me correctly, '57 Chevy has a 115 inch wheelbase, so you can shove the engine back up to 11.5 inches if you want. That's measured from the centerline of the front spindles to the # 1 sparkplug. The engine being shoved back into a recessed firewall was part of the reason for using a one-piece tilt front end - easier engine access.

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Thanks Jim!!!! couldn't remember what the rule said, but 10% works great with my initial measurements!!! I think another rule was that the centerline of the crankshaft could be no more then 24" from the ground?????

I know the Class was determined by weight to cubic inch, 9.5 pounds per cube I think would be a D/Gas car by the old rules??? So, at 3200 pounds a 327 would have been the engine, and a 301 for the lighter cars......

If you can't find injectors... my next favorite would be a cross ram... which would not be unusual, since carbureted cars were not uncommon in Gas classes then. As you know, those started showing up in the early sixties. ...maybe a couple big "velocity stacks" and a Vertex mag would make it look more radical. :-)

Hmmmmm. Looks like I'll be hitting the swap meets for a Cal Custom scoop!!!! I'd completely forgotten how kewl they are!!!! Could fab one up out of 'glass, too....

Hi Dave,how is Pepper now as I believe he hasn't been well????
Also are you gonna ask if anybody would like a peanut????:LOL::LOL::LOL:
And also thankyou,thankyou, Your work bench looks just as untidy as mine.:HMMM::HMMM::HMMM:
I too will be following the thread along as that gasser chevy is going to be cool.

Dave, here's a pic of Gene Moody's restored gasser. I stole this pic from another website a while back (I'd tell where if I could remember). It's not a great pic as part of the car is in shadow, but it has one of those Cal Custom scoops that Hotrodpaint was talking about. Moody's engine was set back and the firewall was removable for added access. He ran a 327 with Hilborn injection and 4-speed. The rear end was from a 3/4 ton truck.

Dave,
Here's a website you might want to look at: http://gassersinc.com/pictures.htm

Click on Tri-Five Chevys and there are dozens of pics of 55 - 57 Chevy gassers.:cool: Some are vintage pics, some are not. You can always tell when some modern builder missed the point - they've got the car jacked way up to avoid cutting the rear wheelwells.:p Definitely not period correct!

I believe you are correct on the 24 inch maximum crankshaft height. The altered class had the same height rule, but engine setback was 25%.:3dSMILE:

Thanks for the link Jim! Had to add that one to my references, and even found some more shots of the Shake, Rattle, and Run '57 gasser!

Jim, that link is a good one................burned a big hole in my early morning.

Dave, did you read the build links? Those guys are saying 10 degrees caster at minimum, saw you were asking about that on your axle thread.

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Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Jim, that link is a good one................burned a big hole in my early morning.

Dave, did you read the build links? Those guys are saying 10 degrees caster at minimum, saw you were asking about that on your axle thread.

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Yup, saw that...sure does make the steering hi-effort... But the guys running the cars know what it takes to go straight so that's what I'll go for....

Whenever I've tried setting caster at more than about 7 degrees on a beam axle (on my coupe, on 2 previous C-Cabs, and a T-bucket) the front end always shook uncontrolably, so I always shoot for 5 or 6 degrees. Yet, old rail dragsters had caster angles of 20 degrees or more... Can anybody explain how/ why that works on some cars and not others?

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Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

Jim, that link is a good one................burned a big hole in my early morning.

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Sure brings back fond memories, doesn't it?:rolleyes: When you guys get done with that site, here's another one to help waste the rest of your morning: www.gassermadness.com :3dSMILE:

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Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Hmmmmm. Looks like I'll be hitting the swap meets for a Cal Custom scoop!!!! I'd completely forgotten how kewl they are!!!! Could fab one up out of 'glass, too....

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I think you could paint it a grainy gray metallic and make it somewhat recognizable. If you didn't mold the ribs on it, you could paint it silver, then mask the "ribs" in 1/4 inch tape... then shoot the gray. ....but the real thing would be very cool! :-)

You might cruise the net, and make some inquireys about wanting one. You never know.

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Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Dave, here's a pic of Gene Moody's restored gasser. I stole this pic from another website a while back (I'd tell where if I could remember). It's not a great pic as part of the car is in shadow, but it has one of those Cal Custom scoops that Hotrodpaint was talking about. Moody's engine was set back and the firewall was removable for added access. He ran a 327 with Hilborn injection and 4-speed. The rear end was from a 3/4 ton truck.

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I saw this one at Indy! Always "bad". I share the same last name, so I always noticed Gene's cars. :-)

Dave good luck finding a past for your car. I tried for over a year on mine and got know where. All I knew was it was a drag car (not gasser). Bought it in Indiana down by Owensboro KY. The guy I bought it from bought it to restore so it sat out side for years. He couldn't remember who he got it from.

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Originally Posted by cffisher

Dave good luck finding a past for your car. I tried for over a year on mine and got know where. All I knew was it was a drag car (not gasser). Bought it in Indiana down by Owensboro KY. The guy I bought it from bought it to restore so it sat out side for years. He couldn't remember who he got it from.

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So far, I've made it back thru two previous owners, neither of which really did anything with the car.... Trying to track down the guy who had it before them with the help of some friends....

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Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

I think you could paint it a grainy gray metallic and make it somewhat recognizable. If you didn't mold the ribs on it, you could paint it silver, then mask the "ribs" in 1/4 inch tape... then shoot the gray. ....but the real thing would be very cool! :-)

You might cruise the net, and make some inquireys about wanting one. You never know.

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Doesn't look like it would be too difficult of a mold process.... Did some searching for a "real one" last night, not much luck. Probably try a parts wanted note on Racing Junk and a few other places....

When you said "make one" I thought you meant from scratch. A mold would be easy... if you can find someone who will loan theirs out.

Maybe you can offer them a copy. That might get 'em interested. :-)

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Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

When you said "make one" I thought you meant from scratch. A mold would be easy... if you can find someone who will loan theirs out.

Maybe you can offer them a copy. That might get 'em interested. :-)

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With a few good pics, think I could make a plug out of wood, plastic or something, then make a mold out of it.

With all the old farm trucks in your neck of the woods you might be able to find an genuine Ford Super Duty scoop like was shown earlier. Hey, it's a good excuse for you to put a real Ford part on your Chebby mon......

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Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

With all the old farm trucks in your neck of the woods you might be able to find an genuine Ford Super Duty scoop like was shown earlier. Hey, it's a good excuse for you to put a real Ford part on your Chebby mon......

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Yup, think I know where a couple of those old Ford trucks just might be, too!

Brought the hood inside today and took all the trim pieces off of it and hit it with the DA a bit, couple dents, a few dings, but no rust other then a bit of surface rust!!! I like parts to check out this good, saves a lot of work!!!!

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Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Can anybody explain how/ why that works on some cars and not others?

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Might have something to do with the weight on the front axle. I too have seen some really extreme caster angles on lightweight diggers.

Here is another angle. Now if you just had someone who could give you a half dozen measurements.... :-)

BTW... Summit carries many Cal Custom parts. Maybe you could inquire about the possibility of their future plans... and if they include this scoop?

Its all about what your using the car for, the 20 degree users are mostly race cars and its done for stability but they quite often get the death wobble when coming out of the burnout.
On a street car i like 7 degrees, gives good straightline stability and the steering won't be to heavy.

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Originally Posted by J. Robinson

Whenever I've tried setting caster at more than about 7 degrees on a beam axle (on my coupe, on 2 previous C-Cabs, and a T-bucket) the front end always shook uncontrolably, so I always shoot for 5 or 6 degrees. Yet, old rail dragsters had caster angles of 20 degrees or more... Can anybody explain how/ why that works on some cars and not others?

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Dave,If I remember correctly you can use sections of a u bend 2 1/4 exhaust pipe to fill the hood holes. Looking good so far. Hank

Thats what i used on my mates hood a few months ago, works great.

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Originally Posted by halftanked

Dave,If I remember correctly you can use sections of a u bend 2 1/4 exhaust pipe to fill the hood holes. Looking good so far. Hank

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Dave, sort of an apples N' oranges comparison but I was told by Art Morrison to go around 7° caster unless you plan to run 150+ at the track, then set it at 10° for top end stability. We were talking strut front end but wouldn't caster be caster no matter what the spindle mounts to? Since mine has yet to make it out of the shop I can only offer this as second hand info. :whacked:
that 57 is going to be a cool deal when you get it done. :D GO CHEVY. :D