Hot Rods should/could this be a gasser project

I am considering this as a g***er project.
What do you think? Yes, No? Why? What would you change on the car?
The car has a 440 with long ram induction and a 4-speed. 4.10 Dana rear.
I have never seen this model used for a g***er
so I thought I would get your thoughts if it would fit in. If it was a Chevy I wouldn't need to ask.
Would you strait axle this car?

 

there is a reason you've never seen one. This type of car would be the tow vehicle for a G***er. Please don't do it.

 

Yes. And when I say yes, I mean I agree.

 

Do a repaint new interior and drive it like you stole it !!!

 

OK guys I won't do it. Thanks for chiming in and setting me straight. I never thought of it as a tow vehicle but that would be cool and easier to make happen for sure. I could leave the engine and suspension as is. I sometimes cant help myself from wanting to turn every car into a drag car.
I have the interior all rebuilt and some new gl*** and seals to go in it.
Should I get rid of the aluminum wheels? Or do you like them on this car? They seem to fit ok as far as size.
I was thinking of keeping the original colors or all black for simplicity's sake.

 

Did you notice how much higher the front suspension sits with the 440 on the factory coil springs. That 330 Hemi must have been considerably heavier for 110 cubic in smaller.
The 440 moves it along pretty good. Car doesn't feel heavy anymore. I haven't got the new rubber frame to body biscuits installed yet.
Body is on frame in photo. They are a bit over a inch thick. I guess the interior, gl*** and radiator is out in the photo also.

 

always been a fan of Adventurers, esp the paint schemes. You've got a nice ride here, I like your current plans. And three pedals makes it all the better. Any engine or ch***is pics?

 

That third pedal was a tough find. It took a couple years of searching. As far as I know I have the only 56 with a 4-speed put into it. Factory bench seat. All 56 came with the 2 speed push ****on. I had to get the pedals from a 55 3-speed car. ****on less instrument panel parts also from a 55.
I had the body off the frame and blasted the ch***is. It is all stock and painted black. I had to notch and box the engine cross member to get the 440
to set in place on home built mounts.
The engine and trans were leftover from a different build and engine is painted Hemi orange which I hate in this older car.
I will paint the engine golden lion sometime soon to make it look like I at least tried to keep things close in the correct era. As you can tell in the photo it is still a project and I have a ways to go. I will see if I can dig up some more photos. Here is the longrams as I found them with some bits of the original factory gold paint that I need to paint the entire engine. This induction system
never became available until 1960 but I thought it would help take some of the sting away when the folks in the know realize the original Hemi is gone. I am going for a built up during the 60s theme with the car. I think the wheels are a bit new but I haven't
come across anything to fit the era
better yet. I have been thinking of
chrome reverse or radirs someday. But
till I get further with the car these will do and they had a reasonable price tag.

 

Clicked on this thread early this am, thinking I was gonna say "cut it!".
That would be shoehorning myself into a mold. Road machine all the way!
The car is huge! Great lines on it, the roof profile caught my eye right away. Wouldn't be hard to get it low and w/chrome reverse wheels it would be in the vein of Bolander's '58 in AG.

 

I forgot to mention the only options on the car are power steering, am radio and dash mounted clock. It came with
power brakes but I had to remove the booster to install the ram manifolds.
No air, power windows or power seat on this one. Kind of a base model car when new. Most of the wiring and interior was destroyed by age and mice
when I found it. It had been sitting since the middle 70s in a not so protective shed when it quit running. A Florida college student had drove it last.
I installed a rebuilt dana 60 rear axle, rebuilt the factory drum brakes, fuel system and recored the radiator. All the cloth wiring was replaced with modern Belden wire for dependability. All rubber seals are yet to go in. Have to get
some fresh paint on it first. As the photo shows I have the roof metal stripped. It has been sitting in epoxy and high build
primer for over a year so it can be blocked for the last time and sprayed.
It will be black again as factory.
I did s****e the entire underside of the car to get the undercoating off. Then went over it with the blaster. So it looks better on the underside than the top right now. It has been a on and off again type project. I really only bought the car for the Hemi engine for another
project but couldn't bring myself to get
rid of the car. It is not a car I would have went out and purposely bought to restore but it is cleaning up nice and has grown on me more and more as I progress with it. It has been hopped up a bit since I got it and is not generally a car that this is done to.

 

Chevy57dude your post belair looks to have the rear wheel opening moved and slicks? I like it. Is it street driven? How long is that Chevy?
This DeSoto is 18'6" with bumpers.

Just looked it up, the Chevy is 2' shorter. You are right. This thing is huge. I didn't realize their was that much difference.
I do know after I rebuilt the bench seat you could drive all day in the car and not get tired of being in it. Its like a couch.

 

What is Bolander's 58 A/G? New here so I am likely the only one here that doesn't know.
Pic?

 

American Grafitti. The movie.



Before you get too worried about how the car sits, you'll want to get all the rest of the weight back in it, it's amazing how much a car will settle as you add gl***, seats, etc. And then drive it around some and let the suspension settle.

 

Wow man.....not an every day sighting car at all. I like it. Nothing wrong with a high suds cruiser.....with a stick to boot. Pretty damned cool. Yes to the big NO for a g***er build....but I think it's yours to do whatever. I will say that car would be a cool ride to steer with my own hands....and can admit, I would be smiling if it were. Would love to see some build pictures as you screw everything back together on it.....so by all means get to wrenching and clicking. Love those cross ram setups for sure.

 

That's a surprisingly solid example of a rarely hot-rodded model. Guaranteed, you'll have the only one on your block! I like your direction of early 60's street car instead of a (never would have been) g***er. I'd go original paint scheme (colors of your choice), era wheels, and show those long-rams off every chance you get. Cool & different is a good thing!

 

Do what you want and don't ask opinions. On the local level people built their cars with what they had. Be it a 4 door, a wagon or whatever. I've seen people say that whitewalls aren't correct also despite there being a ton of pics of drag cars back in the day with whitewalls.

I'm sure if someone presented this car here the opinion would be to skip the g***er.



Do what you want so that later you don't say "I wish I would have..........". And put whitewalls on it if you want to.

 

Nope I would not straight axle this car and if it is running a long ram on a 440 it already is a g***er at some tracks. it sets correctly for a ***late '50s early '60s gas cl*** car as it is.


*** pre '64

 

The Plymouth 2 dr sedan was the lightest Mopar at the time....which makes it a likely G***er candidate. The DeSoto...not so much

 

Why not use the 440 and 4spd in a lighter body to build a g***er then make the land yacht into a cruiser/tow rig

 

There were far lighter cars. Wagons were never the lightest. People built what they had.



If someone had a Desoto sitting out behind the shed that is what they would have used. Then there were those who simply wanted something different than everyone else.

 

...or build a wild 426 or something for a lighter bodied g***er, and leave the Desoto as it is (an excellent cruiser/tow rig)

I guess you could build an E gas cl*** car, but I kinda like going fast...

 

Man I'd love for that to be in my stable.
Neat car.

 

To catch the gas cl*** vibe it really needs less front tire. I did see hard tops on the track when I was a kid and even raced a hard top myself. post cars were lighter though and if I had had a lick of sense I would have been running a post car my self.

The car would make a great street brawler, and that is where I would go with it myself. but who am I to decide, right?

 

i like the stance like it is now, a little on the high side. where in nwi are you? i'm in the valpo area.

 

To beat a dead horse, there were a lot of hardtops despite the post cars being lighter. They built the hardtop because that is what they had.

I remember going to the dirt track back in the 60's as a kid with most people running big bodied cars except for one guy. He always had a Studebaker Hawk. Sort of sad to think how many of these he trashed but I digress. I always liked him even as a kid simply because he ran something different.

 

Yea my '55 Vic was a 30 dollar car (less drive train) the guy I bought it from had a post car but he wanted 50 for it.

I used to run some with a kid named Larry when I was in high school. He owned 2 '57 Chevys. A *Belair hard top and a post car dressed up to look like his Belair hard top. The hard top was a 327 car and the post car was a 350 car (he was the first kid in the school to own a 350). the post car weighed an honest 700 pounds less then the hard top. He would go to the street races in the hard top and run it until it started to get dark then come back with the post car and run for the money.

All of this is way off track for the thread I think. Sorry.

* did I spell this right?

 

Cool project - you will be smart to find a place to mount a power booster for the brakes.

 

Black will be great, but I like the current colors too. I see the car as more of a hot rod than a g***er. It is certainly on of a kind.

 

Thats a lot of post to go over since I was here last. It appears the majority is liking the keep it a street car theme on this one. I am completly good with that. I think I like it here at the hamb. Lots of input. Much more than other sites I have been on.
The factory colors are what they call iridescent plum and black. I do like the colors. Some of these 56s were painted in pink, yellow or other colors I didn't care for as much. I would like to paint it back the factory two tone. I will just cost a little more and be a little more work. But I think it is the right choice.
I may not have kept the car at the onset if it the factory colors were less masculine.
Being I am at the body and paint stage
of the build has never been the fun part
of a build for me as I am not as efficient as some in this area. This car has a lot of surface area to cover. I have to really
force myself to stay with it so the car doesn't get pushed off to the corner again.
The chrome restoration is another area
that has made this one more challenging than I am used to. I have to take it in small bites to keep it at a level I can handle. I have to hand it to those guys that are skilled at this body & paint work part of rebuilding a car.
I just seems to take me longer than most. I believe to spray the roof I will have to drop the car down on the drums to have good control of laying the paint pattern down. This is why I started with the roof first. I figure it will be the toughest to spray.