Projects 56 Chevy 210 Hardtop Build

Uh, that's actually a gas class race car...

 

Falcongeorge - The Moore car is the inspiration for painting mine white. Never saw it without the bumper.
Smoothy - love your 56!

 

Uh...you said the term didn't exist.[emoji12]

 

well, nice try. You didn't read it closely enough before you posted, did you?
HERES what I said "The word "gasser" as it is used today didnt even exist". Just suck it up and admit you went off half cocked, and we'll call it good. I had to bold it after your post, as clearly, you weren't paying attention the first time...

 

And back to the build thread....

 

That wheel you have is either off a 69-75 vette, or 69-72 GS Buick. I believe they came in 15 and 16 inch diameter. If you can clean the nasty off it and the grain in the rubber is still good, might be worth something to the resto crowd. The 442 olds wheel had 4 spokes, same brushed stainless finish. If its mohagany with three spokes could have come off a 67-82 vette.

 

So as neighbor said, back to the build. Can anyone tell me what kind of compression I would be bumped up to just by switching from stock 76cc chambers to the 64cc chamber heads? Again this is on a stock 72 350 rated at 195 hp

 

You will go from 8-1 to 9.5 to 1 if your engine has the slightly-dished 4 valve relief pistons.
Glenn

 

Appriciate the help Glenn! Now that I know about how much compression I'll have I've been doing some camshaft shopping. I have a comp cams magnum 305h kit avaliable to me for $40. It's recommended for 10.5 to 1 engine but how would this fair on an engine with 9.5 to 1? Where would the engine experience trouble?

 

That camshaft has 253* of duration @ .050" on a 110* lobe center.
In a basic Chevy 350 with 9.5 compression, it will be a lazy and have to be run from 5000 RPM - up.
Since it is a hydraulic, you would need all the best in valves, springs, retainers, pushrods and rocker arms to buzz the engine into the 7500 rpm range and then "hope and pray" the bottom end stays together.

Now, if you want to do it right, lets sit down and figure out what you want this engine to be capable of doing, and then design a package that can do it, .... all it takes is money.
I Strongly recommend using Bullet Cams, but there is way more to the big picture than the camshaft.

Glad to help,
Glenn

 

My plan for the car is for it to make frequent trips to the strip as well as be driven more often on the street. Im about performance and am willing to sacrifice some street manners for a faster ride down the track.

As for this motor situation I had planned to use what i have sitting around, which is a set of 462 double hump 2.02/1.60 heads with screw in studs, guide plates, comp 1.5 roller rockers, & chromoly pushrods. I do however need to buy a set of valve springs because I used these on a different set of heads. For the intake I have got both an edelbrock Victor Jr. and a Performer RPM.

Let me know what you come up with! It helps out a ton

 

The correct way to approach this build based on Drag Strip use is to start at the rear of the car, contrary to what uninformed internet jockeys will tell you.
You must build a rear suspension and axle combination to harness the car and power that is yet to come in the future. Same follows true in the transmission and bellhousing area.
It is really a low priority to invest into a stock 350 engine at this point, as in the big picture, your going to need 600+ HP to get the car to perform in the area you want it to.
So you need to decide on where your going to spend your money to accomplish these goals.

 

Well I've pretty much got that all figured out already. I'm keeping the beefed up leafs in the rear with traction bars/ladder bars. I have two sets of rear gears for my posi unit, a 3.55 and a 4.88. The trans I'll be using is a Muncie m20, however the person who gave it to me thinks it was converted to close ratio. I am unsure how you can tell the difference.

And when you say invest, keep in mind that I've got everything but the cam to build this thing.

 

Well it finally came to me. The name for the car that is. I was sitting here in the car and thinking what a royal pain in the ass this thing might turn into, then it just clicked. Royal Pain. And it works out great cause plans are for the car to be blue. I did a quick search to try and find another car of the same name and came up with nothing

 

I think that paint scheme you whipped up is going to look really good,and that name is a pretty good one too.

A set of 4.88 gears would be a hoot,and would work pretty good with a relatively tall rear tire.

I think you'll want quite a bit more than 9.5 compression though.With a big cam,it will be pretty lazy down low,but with a big cam and wheezing compression,it's gonna run like a pig.

You may be able to squeeze it enough by milling the heads a bit and running a thin head gasket.

With a hot sbc,a 4 spd,and deep rear gears like those 4.88's,that thing should be a lot of fun!

Scott

 

Be careful, you may create a self fulfilling prophecy with a name like that.

 

Well today I decided to take the Cragar S/S wheel with a 7.10-15 Firestone Deluxe Champion I use as a spare and see what it looked like up front. I have to say I personally love the way it turned put and am going to have to put money down to buy the same wheel & tire combo. However I can't find one of these tires for sale anywhere on the web

 

Those wheels look great on the front!

This is just my two cents worth,but I feel like you could really make that car stop people in their tracks if you opened up the radius on the rear wheel openings a bit and put a taller tire like a 29"or 30" tall tire in there.

I know it's not in the budget right now,and you're doing a great job building on a students budget.
Your and for the paint and lettering are right on the mark,too Man!

You're gonna have this thing looking really good,and very authentic in no time!

One piece of advice I do want to give,is stay true to your timeframe and don't get tempted by eye candy.

So many guys build a killer car,only to come across a cool part at the swap meet,then throw it on their car as an afterthought,even though it doesn't really work with the theme of the car.
Sometimes it's a big Monster Tach up on the dash in an otherwise 1962 looking car,other times it's one of those 2-butterfly "shotgun scoops" that look totally out of place on anything vintage.

Judging by your eye for era-correct stuff,and your very cool mockup of the paint and graphics treatment,you are waaaay beyond that kind of thing.

Keep up the good work,and keep posting!
Can't wait to watch this car come together!
(And when you get it up and running you need to make it to Byron Illinois for the Meltdown Drags!Once you go,I guarantee you'll never miss another Meltdown!)

Scott

 

Another vote for the Cragars here! Tri 5s look so right with 'em.
Got a set of of them for the Chevy squirreled away in case I ever wanna change the look.

 

Well I ran into some bad luck with my gearing situaton. The "4.88" gears that i had stowed away actually turned out to be 5.13s but unfortunately they're junk. So it looks like in stuck with the 3.55 gears for now. Unfortunately I don't think that will be a low enough gear for the comp cam 305h that I just picked up for $40 with the lifters. I also understand I don't yet have enough compression to get proper performance out of this cam. I think I could manage with about 10:1 on pump gas. Anyone have any piston recommendations to get about 10:1 or 10:5 with the 64cc chambered 202 double humps? Or could I maybe get pretty close by having the heads milled to 58cc and running a thin head gasket? I'm an engine builder by no means, but I'm putting this one together on my own so every extra bit of info helps

 

Back to your cragar post, Did the back of the tire rub the A arm with that ball joint spacer or is that wheel the rite backspace?

 

Yes that wheel worked out with the spacer, but I think part of that is because there was a wheel spacer behind the slot mag that I also used for the cragar.

 

I have used the spacers but I dont really like em especially with cragars,slots, etc. since they have been known to run loose anyway if you dont stay on top of them and check the lug tightness occasionally.

 

I'll defintely be sure to keep this in mind!

 

A great car to start a project with! It looks like you are getting away without doing a bunch of body work and other things that take time and money that can go into more beneficial uses for the car. When I was a kid, a guy in town had one of these...it was painted a bright yellow and had aqua-colored windows. Small hood scoop. No front bumper. A gasser look and stance (not too high in front) although no straight axle. This was around the late 1960's and was in a small Montana town of about 20,000 people where there wasn't a single pre-war hotrod on the streets (talk about growing up disadvantaged!!!). Anyway, it was definitely the hottest car in town and made me want one bad. Ever since I've always had a thing for the yellow with aqua windows color scheme. I don't know of a nicer tri-5 body style. Nice acquisition!!!!

You are smart to photoshop the finish! Nice job.

 

Here is my gasser before I screwed on fenders I want to weld on ,rear fenders were all mickeyed with bondo .

 

Looking for any pics of white Sedan Delivery Gasser from So Cal , I am undoing for a lowered stock look ,already sold Olds posi and re-geared for street still has muntzie 4spd , here us a Nomad being done at shop with delivery in back ,we do full resto here on old cars here in Whittier.

 

Your undoing a real deal car to make it a lowered stocker?...maybe you should trade it to someone who appreciates the history of it.