I've been working on and off this thing seems like forever, it felt good to see it out in the daylight. I still have to get my axles cut and 3:90 gears put together. Than driveshaft, than brakes , than.......... I was going to go gasser build with this thing but wanted to go without the straight axle. I know sits too low now in the front for most gasser except stock classes maybe? I dropped the front 3-4 " mostly due to the ball joint conversion I did. This is the wheel combo i'm going to keep for now. I may raise it some or put some taller tires on the front. How would you guys classify this car now?
Tad, I don't think your 56 grille is going to do me any good. I'm liking the looks of this too much. I also got a 60' front cover to put on my 389 and going to go back to a front mount . For those who don't know or haven't seen this car, it's got a 66 389, 670 heads, cast iron intake 800cm q-jet, th-400 w/2800 stall and 3:90 9" when it's all done.
Who has a 56 grill? I need a grill. I like the looks of the 55 grill far better than the 56, but not finding a decent 55, I'll have to cobble my 56 back up until I find something better. Not to hi-jack your post.
wvenfield, you would have to talk to petritl about his if it was for sale. His is chrome but rusty but still in decent condition.
Nice looking '55! I have a '55 ht sitting here for years that I will eventually get to play with. Have you done any brake upgrades? Anyway...enjoy it. Steve Barcak
Hi Steve, I thought you may have recognized the car from PY, Bill E. over there. Yes I've upgraded the whole front end without subframing the car. I used 58 Pontiac control arms-with ball joints, the lowers bolted right up to the 55 frame and made a mount for the upper. I have a shim adjustment now instead of the upper pivot adjuster plus I built in some anti dive and increased the caster some. I got the Scarebird kit for the brakes. 9" truck rear with some bigger drum brakes for the back. Is that the Hdtp for your musuem? I wish I was closer, I would get that solid 55 sedan we had talked about before. Maybe next year if your coming this way to Norwalk ? Instead i'm trying to fix up a rusty midwest car. Later, Bill
"Hi Steve, I thought you may have recognized the car from PY, Bill E. over there. Yes I've upgraded the whole front end without subframing the car. I used 58 Pontiac control arms-with ball joints, the lowers bolted right up to the 55 frame and made a mount for the upper. I have a shim adjustment now instead of the upper pivot adjuster plus I built in some anti dive and increased the caster some. I got the Scarebird kit for the brakes. 9" truck rear with some bigger drum brakes for the back. Is that the Hdtp for your musuem? I wish I was closer, I would get that solid 55 sedan we had talked about before. Maybe next year if your coming this way to Norwalk ? Instead i'm trying to fix up a rusty midwest car. Later, Bill" Bill, No, I didn't recognize your '55 here. Small world though Your improvements look very interesting and I bet they make the car much nicer to drive and safer too. yes, the '55 HT I mentioned will be built for my planned museum. It has the front clip off and themotor and trans out but, I have all of it and it is in pretty nice codition. I consider it a relatively easy resto whenever it happens. I wish you were closer too! I actually have 2 '55 2dr sedans here. both are less eng/trans/front clip. I think either are god builders but, would need to look them over again. Not sure when I will be in the mid west again after being there at least a half dozen times in the last few years. I love driving and I love the mid west areas too and look forward to seeing and meeting Pontiac friends all over. Dayton looks like the best bet for next year, if at all. take care, Steve <!-- / message --><!-- sig -->
daylight is good!!! especially over the whole car instead of just the front end as we have grown use to Now make the goal a fine spring day come next April or so to drive it out. maybe not the gasser look that most formulate in their minds, but certainly a hot rod with the stance and wheel combo you have. Looks shorter in length somehow. Nice. As busy as my front end is, I like the clean smooth front on yours. Plan on floating a little Moon tank back in there? Yours comes down, mine just went back up again for the winter to install the tri-power, minor body work and detail underneath. Take care, Bill
I'll be using a differant hood I have, but i'll shave the letters and hood ornament on that also. Plus I still have the chrome piece that goes along the bottom of the hood. Unless I can find a way just to use the split front bumpers and put a moon tank in the middle somehow, I may just remove the lower bumper. I really like the center grill though, between that and the hood suspenders I think it really helps seperate it from a chevy . I do have an extra set of front bumper ends so I can play around a bit and swap them back and forth. I still have alot of work to do in the rear, minitubbing some and moving the frame rails in about 3" on each side.
How much tire do you need? I have 235/70-15's on an 8" rims on my '55 wagon. Hooks good. Had them on 10" rims but that meant dropping pressure to 10 lbs. to get them in. A friend runs smaller than this with slicks/7" rims on his '64 GTO, 455 ci and runs 12's all day long. Saves you some work! and you're driving sooner I wasn't thinking about that floating the Moon tank very clearly. I meant back in there behind the grill but the the hood latch would require a lot of work. Keep at it!!! we have like 3 months.
I was going for 11-12" of tire, maybe the wagon wheelwells are wider, I think they are maybe 11" total minus the frame in the way. With the wheel off there is only 7" between the drum edge to quarter opening to get the tire/wheel off. I started cutting into this along time ago and moving the rails in was the best option for what I wanted to do. Probably should have just cut the wheelwells out on the quarter add a solid front axle with parallel leafs and make a gasser out of it.
oh no man, you're doing the right thing...don't cut that radius!!! straight axle would work though yeah, I have 11.75 after rolling the fender beads. Did not know there was a width difference. Another check to the positive side as to why I would ever want a wagon.
The Jalopy Journal
