57 chev gassers

I was looking at Boones post about his Dads Chevy g***er and I like the rear fender treatment..Then I started looking around for pics of 57 chev g***ers and noticed not many of them had radiused rear wheel wells,Why is that?,I think if done correctly the look would be outstanding....Anybody got any pics of 57 g***er chevy's with radiused rear quarters?

 

Not radiussed but definitley turns my crank!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJliCvFeCM

 

I believe the reason most '55's had radused wheel wells is that there wasn't enough room for much bigger tire/wheel in them, definitely not a big meaty slick. The opening was much more squared as well, sometimes you see where people just squared the opening up to make room at the front and back, as opposed to a full radius. By '56 they opened them up some, and had the more graceful wheel well opening, which interfered less with a bigger tire. You can stick some big weenies on a '57 compared to a '55. Sometimes they just put a hyraulic jack in the wheel well with the tire off, and forced the opening out. I just looked at a super nice '55 Bel Air Hardtop that had the worst bowed fenders I had ever seen. It had more room, but looked hideous!! Sad, but we did things like that back then. I will never forget hacksawing the lip of the rear fenders every two inches, and hammering them flat on my mint '70 Torino Type N/W in 1976 so my new white letter tires and mags wouldnt rub! Tim

 

I think you do not see as many radiused rear fenders is because of how the rear stainless sweeps down, it interfears with it. Also, unless you are running a nomad quarterpanel, its hard to make it look good (some have done it thou) because of the rear fin and very flat panel. Another issue is how the lower rear qtr panel rolls back, if you radius it, you almost need to add some metal to allow the radius to continue down (instead of going into a sweep back at the lower rear edge.. see pic below.. it like its missing some metal... the 55 does not have this issue)

I have looked at mine and thought about it (if I was staying with the g***er look) but the only way I would consider it would be with Nomad qtrs.. but then again, they are not as heavily radiused as might be needed

 

Believe it or not but these pics are of the same car, my car. 1st pic is from the previous owner. 2nd pic is after he cut the rear 1/4s. Thats how it was when I bought it. I put the 1/4s back to stock and years later narrowed the rear. 3 different looks, same car.
Duke

 

I was thinking 55 Nomad 1/4's also...They have a nice line in them...Boones is that black and the gray car the same one? just different time line?

 

That car is wicked !!!!

 

How about Project X. I believe it was one of the first modifications they did to the car in the magazine "back when"

 

no different rides

 

They did that just to piss me off! never liked tri-fives cut on, with the exception of using Nomad fender openings. Man, I like those 150 2 doors.

 

Dukeofbluz,how much did ya narrow the rear in your car?

 

Hell I dont remember the sizes right now, I moved the springs inboard , moved the tubs over 4", bought 12.5 inch wide tires & 10" wide wheels and put them inplace, then I measured between them and ordered a rear housing from Currie.

Duke

 

Mine has the springs moved in,inner wheel wells moved in and uses a 59 Ford 9 inch.8 inch Cragars with 50,s. 2 inches of clearance on both sides of the tires.

 

I was gonna make this 4dr. into a convert,but I have all the pieces to do a 2 dr conversion already and the g***ers look kick *** anyway!!! Where's the best place to get the axles? Speedway or MAS?

 

here is a 55 hardtop we just put nomad quarters on they work great, and they sell for 1000.00 bucks each so not cheap.....

 

Here's a series of pictures of a 57 that I was crewman on back in the seventies. First pic is of it running in the States with the wheel arch opened up. Second pic is of it when my friend Pete took delivery here in the UK. We put a small filler piece in so that the car could run the sweeping fender trim. I have to admit that I never liked this look and much preffered the open look. I also preffered life with hair!
Next pics are of the car after it was sold with the arch opened back up. Looks much better in my opinion.
The final picture is of the car a couple of years back in Sweden! It is now being restored back to the condition we raced it in back in seventy six...

 

Not sure if I could ever find pictures of it, but "back in the day," I hogged out the wheel wells on my 57 to make room for the larger tires. Did the basic dumb-kid chop and then rolled flairs with a set of vice grips. Well, that worked, but it looked like a piece of ****, but I didn't care at the time.

Later, I decided I'd had enough of the butchered look, so I used two sets of patch panels to create one larger opening. It had the same look and feel of the original opening, only it was much larger and higher. Most people then didn't realize they weren't the original openings. Of all the crazy **** I've tried over the years with body mods, that one turned out first cl***.

 

rat motor nice car looks my old chev street car then we made it race car back in1966. ck out leswelchphography.com old stuff sears point opening day 1969. went 11.35 with new hilborn inj. 331ci muncie 57 pont 5.86 D-G- 6.17 E-G . fender wells cost 50.00 1 day service cut them out hand formed the lip inprimer.

 

Here is a pic of my 150 g***er with hogged out quarters done by the previous owner.

 

Just my preference,but more of a jr. stock look. Uncut with a 57
Olds axle, 15 x 8/ 0 offset wheel and MT 28x11.50x15 ET Street.
Springs pocket-modded under frame and a set of Cal-trac bars.





Final ride height will have the top of the wheel even with the
factory wheel opening

 

Buzzard,do you have any full side view pics of your car?

 

I'll take some for you.

 

That would be great!!! I would like to see what the rest of the car looks like!!!