Found Dads '56 Chevy Gasser!

It will definetly get repainted the way it was. The only difference is the lettering will say Panneton Bros, or Panneton & Sons, or possibly Panneton
Family Flyer (PF Flyer, remember the old sneekers), on the doors and maybe "Yesterdays Child" on the quarters or deck lid.

 

Bitchin 56!!!!

 

I really dig your "old meets new 56", I've been trying to get my brother to do something similar to his 55 with the truck/escalde "tunnel ram'' and have the car look like a Modified Production car on the outside since its pretty close already.

 

We are getting the car out of chassis shop pergatory this weekend. Here are some shots of the new "bullet". I guess there are too many pixels so I have to load them one or two @ time.

 

The headers have to be slightly modified (lengthened downward so they clear the rear "hair pin" mount) and then they'll get aluma-coated white.

 

Just saw your thread today. Of course the car is waaaay beeeechun'. I am wondering what method your chose to go with to get 410" I did read early on that originally your family went 4"x4" to arrive at a "square" engine. Are you taking advantage of modern parts to build an oversquare engine now? Gawd you'd make insane power with that tunnel ram and could rev it to the moon!

 

Yeah, sorry purists, but I'm going the easy way. 4.165 bore X 3.75 stroke,
2 750cfm Q-jets on weiand tunnel ram, 300 cfm victor jr's, 1.65/1.6 rockers, 250' @ .050 X .600 Jones solid roller, Carrillo rods/CP pistons cause thats where I work and the parts are bitchen (11.0 cr pumpgas friendly). The last one I did had a single 850 Holley on a victor jr intake with about 5' more duration a@ .050 and .025 more lift. It made 618hp and 560 lb ft. I'm using the the mechanical fuel pump as a crank case evacuator and the moon tank will now be the puke/breather tank. We use this trick on one of my co-workers cars as a vaccum pump for power brakes with an additional canister, and it keeps 18 inches of vacuum in the 2-3 quart resevoir. I've been dying to try it as a vacuum pump for the engine. The moon breathers have 1/2 pipe plugs in them, so if the crankcase vacuum is too high, I can drill them out/remove them. If the works it should be worth another 15-20hp.

 

P.S. In my experience this type engine won't make power much north of 7000 rpm and peak torque around 5500, so don't expect any dyno reports @8000+ rpm.

 

lookin good can't wait to see it done....

 

Thanks Butch, yours has certainly turned out nice. I love the green (my favorite color), and glad you had the huveos to do it. How do you like the
old Hurst Ram Rod shifter. I've got several, but it looks like you have to hold the T handle up when going to second gear, unlike a Long or Mr.Gasket, is that true. I'm going to do a max effort 292-301 in the future
to beat on with a heavy flywheel and a 288 low super T10. Do you know Darrell Wikle?, he is a good customer of mine and builds some nice engines

 

Looks like a fantastic street engine. Sooo, how about another Jackson injection huh? It can be done on the street as well. Couple that with a mag and you're one baaad mutha.

 

I've got a set. Some friends/customers I have have offered to convert it to EFI, and think that they can run the injector wires through hose or hardlines so it looks more like a mechanical set up. So its definetly in the works. I chose the Q-jets because they came out in '65 and run very good if you know what to do to them (I do), just check out the latest 9 sec. Super Stock chevys that use them. A customer of mine won a chrysler engine shootout last year, they base line the engine with a big Holley HP series carb and single plane manifold. Then they swapped on a Weiand tunnel ram and two Q-jets and picked up another 40Hp/Tq.

 

Here is a pic of Dad getting the trophy for a Rotary Club Charity Race @ San Fernando. If you close you can see the '56 behind him. This is a very early pic as the car is in primer and no lettering, early-mid '62. View attachment 2010_09_01_08_05_03.pdf

 

Sorry, here is the image already opened up.

 

New pics coming soon, anyone else find any old photos?

 

So cool to read your story,as someone who also found dad's old car,I can seriously relate the feeling you get when you walk into that garage and see it sitting there...

Best of luck,surprised too no one else has come forward with additional pictures...never say never though.

 

I got the car running with the new engine trans in time for the Muro Bros. Gasser Round Up last Sept. I kind of threw it together, after getting it back from the "tin bangers", so when we got back home I wanted to go through everthing carefully and get her ready for some racing. The clevices on the front of the radius rods "hairpins" are welded not threaded
and the chrome around the welds was cracked. Some sanctioning bodies do not allow chrome over welded suspension parts anymore because the chrome may be hiding cracked parts. Well, the clevices were cracked! When I took the "hair pins" off they felt very lite and there was something rattling around in them. I turned them clevices toward the floor and banged them on the ground and two piles of rust came out of each tube. I have a thickness checker and they are .050-.055! I believe they started life as 1/16 (.062) and rusted to the current .050ish. New radius rods are currently being built. When one or both of these finally let go, and they would have, me and the car would have been "ass over tea kettle". These



old cars are definetly bitchen, but don't take anything for granted or you might get bit!

 

Wow glad you checked those would not want anything to happen to you or the car good luck. I would love to see that car go down the track.......

 

Thanks, Butch, I can't wait to get it on the track!

 

Bad news turns to good news.., found out last week, our car is not our dads, thats the bad. The good news is I know this because I do know without a doubt who's car it is as verified by
the Vin. # This car (Yesterdays Child)was bought slightly used in 1956 by the best friend of Dennis Coker (who still has the original Selma Chevrolet contract that his buddies dad co-signed. It was a two tone (white & maroon) 205HP Power Pack 210 with three on the tree and 4.11's. Dennis bought it from his friend in Nov. 1959. Dennis raced it original as a D/Gasser with full trim and drove it back and forth to work every day. Later, he switched to E/Gas because it fit his combination better. After someone turned left in front of him, he painted it Bahama Blue (which is still 4 layers under the current paint job.) Later he would paint it red (its 3 layers down, and have it professionally lettered. He sold the car in 1965 after he had his second child and realised he didn't have the time or money to keep racing if he was going to be a good and responsible father. He says he sold the car to a guy he remembers as being Asian and lived in Long Beach. Dennis has trophies magazine articles and other memerobilia and we are planning a '56 reunuion soon.
There has always been two things about the car that confused me, dads car was supposed to have the springs moved inboard (this car didn't) and dads car didn't have wing windows and this car did. After seeing the
Jan. '10 issue of Hot Rod Deluxe with the picture of Dennis Cokers car, I began to wonder. I googled his name and found three people with his name living in So. Cal. I called the "Riverside" # first, his wife answered, I asked if Dennis was in, Yes, may I ask who's calling? Well, you don't know me, however if your husband ever drag raced I may have one of his old cars. The '56!? Yes. Oh my God!, let me get Denny. We had a cool talk and he told me all about it and the paint jobs, after the call (last friday evening)I was pretty sure it was his old car. On Saturday afternoon his wife called and read to me the same Vin# as my car off the original sales
contract. He have had some great conversations since and I'll share as time goes on. His and my dads cars have lots of similarities, hence the confusion. I'm a little bummed its not dads car but, very excited to know who's it was and to start learning some history. I appologize for any misleading, we were 90% sure we had dads car. If you Hambers don't mind, keep your eyes peeled for the real Panneton Jones & Christensen Car. More pics and info will follow soon.

 

Here is the car with its original paint at an early "Winternationals" (may the first one) I'll ask Denny when I meet him. Pretty cool to take the trophy in a street driven D/Gasser over a more modified '55. Dennys wife told me that they were actually partners with the Marrs brothers for a short time later on with their '56.

 

Well this took a big ol' left turn, what are your plans now? Any leads on your dads actual car?

Scotty.

 

No leads on dads car. That was always the problem, then when this car showed up on ebay with nearly the same features we that for sure we had it. Honestly I've always wanted to build a clone if I couldn't find the real one and this one had such a great head start for a clone we bought it even though we weren't 100% sure. I am still convinced that Richard Ruth did the front of this car as it has many of his earmarks. We are definetly gonna keep this one and if we ever do find dads, add it to the stable. I am in the process of building a nastly little 306" SBC for Gil Muro (Hot Rod Ranch/Spirit of San Fernando '55) in trade for a paint job. Now we have to decide on the red with Dennis Coker livery, or Repaint like it is (if we decided that, we'd probbably leave the original patina on it for a while.) We have thought about painting it Dark Blue with a Silver top like dad was going to, then redo the pintripe flames is silver & grey with "Yesterdays Child" on the quarter panel in silver leaf. Any thoughts? Now I'm trying to track down the owners between myself and Dennis. When Dennis sold it in '65 it still had stock front suspension and the original interior with a notch in the bench seat for the four speed shifter. All the serious straight axle engine setback stuff was done sometime after he sold it.

 

P.S. Most people who have seen this car told us to never repaint it, even when we thought it was dads old car. They say, "you can't create or buy real patina like this, leave the paint alone". What do you guys think, now that we know its not dads old car, should be ever paint it?

 

Maybe a different serial number tag was used? Could still be your dads.....?