1939 Chev Gasser - style

Let me start by saying this is all "OahuEli"s fault. I posted a question a while ago about rebuilding my '39 pick-up with a straight axle and he photoshopped my reference image. Well that did it, it had to happen!

Notice the "style' in the title, this will not be a perfect recreation of what they did, back in the day. I will use most of the stuff that was already on the car, Autometer gauges, braided lines, and other modern bits and pieces. I'm doing this for fun. I toyed with the idea of selling the car, but my wife convinced me to rebuild it closer to the gassers that I like, so here goes.

 

This car was built for racing originally, The original owner/builder was in the process of making it street able when I bought it about 12 years ago. I stripped it back to a bare frame and rebuilt the entire car as a hot rod that I could race occasionally.

It runs a mild blown 350, a power glide trans and a 9 inch.

 

It has done everything I wanted for the last ten years, car events, heaps of street miles, about 100 passes at various tracks. the engine was getting tired and I had differing thoughts on what to do. HAMB to the rescue.

 

Work begins, I wanted to set the front axle in the car, removing the least amount I could, to get an approximate idea on how the car would sit when completed.

I have a local guy that fabricates T-buckets. He makes his own front axles to suit locally produced stubs and brakes, so i asked him if he could make an axle without the drop? Not a problem, supplied him with a width and I had an axle ( with welding certification ), steering arms, and calliper mounts a couple of weeks later. While that was happening I had King Springs make me some front leafs. The man at Kings was very helpful, although he couldn't understand why I would want to remove an independent, rack steered front end, for antiquated suspension and steering.

 

I tack welded some front spring mounts, the rear of the springs sat on blocks of wood. I made the axle mounts, and dummied it together to see what it would look like and check for foreseeable problems before I went beyond the point of no-return.

 

Now it was time for the visual, yeah baby, point of no return or not this is going to happen.

 

Looking Great, keep it coming....

 

nice

 

nice

 

like ur ride

 

gave it a little attitude.

 

i like it.looks mean as hell now! but i have a question, is that front wheel centered in the wheelwell. my old eyes dont see so good but that wheel looks a hair to far forward.is it?

 

I agonised over that for a bit. If you put it in the "measured" centre of the arch radius it actually looks like it's back to far. As it sits in the photo, it sits in the centre of the lower point of the opening and bearing in mind this is only roughly dummied up, but as the axle travels up it will also travel back a tad. Basically i fiddled with it until it looked right to me.

 

I made the shackle mounts from scratch, turned some heavy wall tube for the bushes. I find that if I need to make several things the same shape, I tack them together until the majority of the work is done and then separate them for a final once over. I only drilled 2 mounting holes at this stage to allow for adjustment.

 

With the springs sort of permanently mounted, I fabbed up the u-bolt plates with an integral lower shock mount. Sorry no photos of this, I was excited and on a roll, and I never thought to stop and take some pics. You can see them in some of the shots.

With the engine lowered to try and level the carbs out a bit, steering was next to be tackled. I was going to use a Holden box but it was a real tight fit. Then I heard the Hoffman Group were doing a RHD Vega style box. It's the same style as the Holden box, but more compact.

I got one of the first ones in the country, and you know what they say about not buying the "first" of something. It seems the prototype was fine, but when it came to production they must have been looking at the plans in a mirror, when you turned the box left it went right! Not a driving style I thought I could get used to. The guy at Hoffman was sceptical at first, but all the boxes were wrong ... ooops. I must sat that they were great when dealing with the problem. They offered to return my money, repair or replace the box, all at no expense to me. I find that problems occur no matter what business you are in, it's how you deal with them that sets the mark.It took a little while, they had to re-tool for the correct internals, but they sent me the new components and they fitted up just fine. A big thanks to Chris at the Hoffman group.

At least I had the steering box there to do the mounts. I made some crush tubes with a flange and welded them into the chassis and a braces tab for the lower bolt.

 

Great looking truck! I love the stance now, and moving the axle forward always looks better as the frontend gets higher!
Did your "truck" start life as a car, or just a car grile and fenders put on a truck? It doesn't look like the '39 Chevy trucks we see here in the States.

 

Thanks for the positive comments. Our '39 s used U.S. chassis and running gear with locally produced bodies, 4 door sedans, 2 door slopers, even soft top roadsters. Mine started out as a utility, the same as the photo ( reference only, not my car ) The rear was so rusty it was cut off and a rear made for the cab to make it a pick-up.

My original body tag says it's a "Full door utility" this seemed an odd name, but I found out they made a budget version with roadster doors called a "Half door utility"

Even though they look the same, they are completely different. It's almost as though they were built from a photo, the quickest way to tell an Aussie from a U.S. version is the doors, our's had only the lower hinge exposed and the door handle was inline with the body line.

 

I like your version much more than the US version! Building a truck that uses a car type cab looks so much nicer than our '39 Chevy trucks. I've seen a few "trucks" home built here from 4dr sedan bodies, and some use the ute style, while others use a regular PU box. Both look good if the back of the cab is done correctly.

 

Great to see this thread started Chris, Its all looking great from here

 

Sweet !

 

Thanks, I get carried away and forget to take proper progress photos, but I will keep it up dated.

 

Thanks mate

 

I hope it will look ok, it won't have the performance to back up the looks initially, but a new blown engine will find it's way in eventually.

 

Thanks. The car in your avitar looks cool, yours?

 

Thanks.

 

Found and scanned some photos, when it was a full time racer and as I bought the car.

 

your do'in a good job turning this truck around.lookin good keep us posted

 

Looking good. Keep the pix coming.

 

Thanks mate, I've been following your build as well.

 

Front shock mounts, nothing startling here just some plate and some holes. Leaned the top of the shocks back a bit, as the axle moves up it also goes back.