Thread: gasser ???

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I bought this chevy the other day( real cheap ) and i have been thinking of making it a gasser clone. I dont really know a whole lot about gassers as far as engines and set ups go, so reallisticly how much do you think it would cost to do this? or i was thinking of maybe doing it up like a gasser, but having a street motor so i could take it to shows and drive it alot. Unless one of you want it, then ill give you the same price i paid, or trade. what do ya think? any other ideas for it?

what do you want to know?

General drivetrain setup, what axle to use up front, wheelbase, stuff like that


Its got a mustang 2 and a chebby 10 bolt right now.

you can do what alot of other guys did, go find an old econoline van a dodge van or a chevy of the same body styles torch the straight axle out and i know a few people who can help with geometry setup and whatnot. leave the wheelbase laone unless you are building a fx'er

I got a dodge van (see pic) but unfortunatly it has ifs.

You want to find one from the 60's. Any one of the three makes will have the straight axle you are looking for.

just get the straight axle in jack the front and rear into the air, front typically a tad higher. set the motors #1 plug back 10% of the cars wheelbase from the front axle centerline. example 100 inch wheelbase, 10% is 10 inches, #1 plug goes 10 inches back from front axle centerline. everything else is a run what you brung build, some guys had a good amount of money and decked them out. others had no money and built accordingly on a budget. as far as cost, if you do the work yourself, motor, tranny, and 500-700.00 in tubing. slap a decent small block in with a lopey cam and drive it on the street. pictures shown are compliments of byrons gasser madness, link below, it is the gasser capitol of the net.


http://www.gassermadness.com/

hotroddaddy do not read this one, o.k. everyone else, i was trying to throw him a bone to see if we could get him started on this project. i hope he takes the bait!!!!!!!!

Thanks guys, the more i think about it, the more i want to do it. Now i need to research some pics to find rim styles and stuff. What kind of intake was normaly used? i see alot with the hilborn style injection(my favorite) was this common?

Neat car. If it were mine, I'd go with an injected 283 or 327 mated to a wide ratio 4-speed (T-10 or a Muncie). Straight front axle, nose in the air, dished rear wheel wells, cheater slicks, gutted interior, etc.

As for wheels, Radirs or Halibrand clones would look nice:

-Lee
www.atomicpinup.com

On my 55 Chevy Gasser project, it came with an early 60's Chevy van axle. I had a hard time finding a disc brake setup for it. You may want to look at Speedway Motors for a complete straight axle unit. They come with leaf springs, and shackle setup. Also, you can get the spindle and rotors/disc brakes to fit from Speedway. Since you need to find a Gasser style straight axle, that might be the easiest way. You just get rid of the A-Arm stuff, measure the geometry and weld the hangers to the bottom of the frame. Then the spring perches get welded to the axle below. For steering you can use a crossover tie rod from the existing box, or get an omni rear steer type rack and pinion and mount it behind the axle. No bump steer that way.

Originally Posted by Lee Martin

Neat car. If it were mine, I'd go with an injected 283 or 327 mated to a wide ratio 4-speed (T-10 or a Muncie). Straight front axle, nose in the air, dished rear wheel wells, cheater slicks, gutted interior, etc.

As for wheels, Radirs or Halibrand clones would look nice:

-Lee
www.atomicpinup.com

My buddy just gave me a 283 and manual 3 speed, it needs gone thru, but this should work, i did not think this small of motor would have been used. And yes ive always liked the radirs.

hotroddaddy, gas class cars were classified by engine cubic inch to vehicle weight. You can use any engine that you want. There were guys that ran sixes in the gas classes. It would just have put the car in a lower class. If you go to www.gassermadness.com as previously suggested, there is a history section with the rules and how they changed over the years. It will give you the class breakdowns. What most people don't realize is that most gas class cars were not the highly publicized supercharged monsters that were the face of the gasser wars. In fact, in the beginning, the gas coupe and sedan classes were designed for modified street cars that did not fit into the stock classes. In fact, in the early years of the class, all of the street equipment had to be in place, including front bumpers. Of course, that all changed as the classes progressed.

You can use that 283 with any induction that you see fit and it would not be out of line. Sure, many of the cars were injected but many were not. The engine in my Anglia would be fairly typical of a non injected small block of the day with the exception of a few details.

alot of different rims were used, like the halibrands ive got on my anglia, or the torque thrust style, old aluminum cragar slotted rims, even 5 spoke chrome cragars. the halibrands are going for about 1500.00 a pair on ebay if you can find them, they still make the torque thrust rim, or the old cragars would be fairly easy to find. an injector set up for a small block would run about 2 grand for a decent working unit, just get an old tunnel ram, some old rims, jack it up and just make it a fun car to drive. there were so many variations of these gassers anything and everything was used. now that i look at the 2nd photo again, he has torque thrusts on front, and a set ot E.T. slots on the rear. see run what you brung in action.

283's & 301's were a gasser class STAPLE