57 Chevy BelAir Gasser Build

Those WAC axles are the best of the best!

 

I used a Speedway axle under this 55, 6 years and many wheelstands later it is still up on all 4's. I have used WAC axles in a Track Roadster and a Bonneville Roadster/Lakester, and they are clearly the best. Bill does the ends totally different, machining and welding the end as a sub***embly, then plugging it into the tube, then the final weld. Good luck on your project !

 

Awesome! Thanks man! Those axles he builds looks pretty top notch. I'd throw a few books his way for something with that level of pride in craftsmanship. The extra thought that goes into that design and the time it must take to get through the cutting, machining, welding process is certainly worth the price. Not a slapped together axle fire sure. I'm a welder and fabricator and I know what it takes when you're all in on designing and building something and I have a strong appreciation for it, especially when they product supports like-minded folks pursuing their shared p***ion. Just awesome.

 

As I remember, Bill worked for a company building axles for oval track Modifieds. They take a real beating, and with the ends slipped in place, you could also rotate the ends for caster split, (RH tilted back a few degrees more than the left) to alter the cross weight in the middle of the turn.

 

Got my Firestone rear cheaters today. Stopped at the shop and got them switched over to the TTO wheels on the way home. Pretty stoked about these....

Gonna get them cleaned up and in the shop. Any suggestions for care and maintenance of this type of tire? I have used a lot of products on tires over the years. Do you guys run them raw and just keep them clean, or what kind of cleaner and/or conditioners do you use? I know some rubber is sensitive to certain products and will cause drying and cracking. I have Griot's Garage in my area that has some great products for tires. Pretty legit auto detail shop. I have used 303 Aerospace a lot as well as other detail products. Mainly want to be sure and keep them in good usable condition more so than any particular appearance, if there's a good way to promote that. No tire shine of course.

 

Cleaned em up a bit....

 

Looks great, they'll be right at home on that 57

 

Lookin' good! Now spray a nice coat of Lemon Pledge on them and rub it in real good. That'll keep that nice satin sheen and it won't hurt the rubber.

 

WAC axles are #1 The Best and Strongest .... period. Personally, I wouldn't use anything else.

 

Us LandSpeed racers store our tires in thick black plastic trash bags. It’s the Ultra-Violent (UV) light that is supposed to do the most damage, and shop fluorescent bulbs the worst offender. The real **** guys purge the bag with Argon right before taping it shut for the off season. And keep them in a moderate temperature, not too hot, not too cold, just right….

 

& keep tires away from running electric motors which create ozone. What u smell in a subway station ( besides other stuff ). Bagged in cool dark is great

 

You guys really do have the inside track on this stuff. Good info fellas thanks. That's pretty hard core, bagged and purged with argon, wow! I do have a plethora of argon in this shop lol. So pledge, that's interesting I never would have thought of that. I've always gotten ****ed into the auto detail product stuff but nice to know the more affordable alternatives.... Good tip. I'm diggin hard on those WAC axles. Pretty sure I'm buying one but we'll see how she sits on the truck axle.

 

Have you seen Colby Welch’s g***er build? His Ford Falcon Ranchero he built for SEGA has a truck straight axle in it. Drilled for lightness and works *****in! Old school all the way!

 

No I haven't, but I'll do that. I need to get around the web and the forms more. I don't spend enough time looking around lol. I was going to cut the tubs in the back of the 57 tonight but never made it that far.

 

Thanks for the tips. Fortunately I have all LED in the shop so I should be in good shape there and all my stuff is stored inside. Good stuff to keep in mind....

 

I got the tires rolled inside and thrown under the car real quick earlier but never got to chopping wheel tubs and dropping the body down like I had planned. Anyway that'll be soon, I'm going to measure some things and get a "best guess" on the ride height so I can get the body/tire relationship sorted out for axle narrowing. Any extra tips on mock-up? I thought I might grab a couple of long threaded rods to run through a couple of lug nut holes and nut each side of the wheel to square them up with each other and hold them at perfect distance to one another, and would also give me fine adjustment on width spacing. Then I'll lower the body down a little bit at a time until I like the tuck and go from there to get ready for the 9" sizing.

 

Piece of pipe or conduit close to size of the center holes in your wheels would hold 'em.

 

...Never heard of that, but I like the idea. Will for sure give it a try.

 

Why don't you just take 2 floorjack's and raise the tires into the body? Seems like it would be easier... That's just a lazy man's opinion though.
Don't be surprised if you have to cut the inner tub's out first...

 

Oh yea the inner tubs are already planned to get cut. I'll get after that soon. I was going to got into that last night but we had company stop by.

 

"Yea that sounds like a cool way to go and adds some strength for sure. Sounds like you have some seasoning on your front axle experience in this regard. Have you ever had any concerns with the king pin boss attachment welds on your stuff?"

No, I've had my Speedway front axle under the Austin for 12 years, and never any concerns or problems. But it's the only tube axle I've ever owned as I almost always use truck or van I beam donor axles. But my '39 Chev coupe also is a narrowed axle, as it was about 5" too wide for my '39, so I narrowed it also. A lot trickier to align than the tube axle was on my Austin, but it wasn't too bad.

I hit a huge bump on I-205 about 5 years back coming home from the World of Speed here, and hit so hard it put my head into the roof, (even with 5 point harness on) and broke one of my rear coilovers! But the axle made it through without any harm, so I guess that says something for the welds.

 

Damn, that sounds like you took a hard hit there. To bust a coilover and hit the roof with a harness must have been a good time!

Good to know on the durability on that tube axle. Thanks for the story!!

 

Got my engine cross member from Speedway today, not sure why this one piece came and nothing else though, lots of stuff coming in soon from them! This was part of a kit that comes with factory style engine mounts but those weren't in the box so hopefully those show up too. ***uming they are coming from different warehouses.

Looks like a nicely made piece though, and plenty stout. I have two of these guys coming, I ordered one for the 57 and another one for my CJ5 project. I think they'll work great, and priced pretty decent at $100 for the kit. It comes with three-bolt triangular mount plates that can be welded to the tube and you can bolt it in, or just cut to length and weld er up!

 

Thoughts on Mr. Gasket ******* bars vs. Ansen Ground Grabbers?

I have a set of Mr. Gaskets I can clean up and use but a buddy has a restored set of Ansens for $600 available.

 

Are the Ansen's the one's that lock with a bolt/pin, or am I thinking of some other kind? I'd use what I had laying around. JMO

 

Yea you got it on the Ansen setup. They're all restored, but they're powder coated. New logo stickers, etc. Pretty cool setup. Mine I'd have to clean them up and paint them they're pretty gross, and there's a couple scabbed on shock bolts that need to be cleaned off. No big deal. And they make new bumpers and decals for them as well.

 

Going to buy some 2x4 steel rectangle tubing for front frame rails this week if I can get to the steel yard.

Thoughts/experience on walk thickness?

1/8", 3/16", or 1/4"?

 

That's similar to the one I used on my 57 pickup, also from Speedway

1/8" (.083) wall is pretty standard

.

 

Are you referring to .120" wall? (.125" being 1/8")

 

Yes, I had square tubing thickness in my brain for some reason lol
I have tapped that .125 wall before for fine thread bolts too to hang fuel filter and fuel pumps, line clamps etc. without issues.