Willy's 55 Gasser.....Let's Get This Car Together and RUNNING!!!

55 GASSER FINAL BUILD...... (Page 1)

Missed the "Test and Tune" session at our local track this month (Nov.), as I had pulled out all the side glass and had not picked up any replacement yet, and the local track tech. inspector (a buddy of mine who came by the shop to see how I was doing...) told me I wouldn't be allowed to run without glass or plexiglass in the side doors. So slowed down my efforts a bit to catch up on other things, and now aiming for January, as I will be gone over the Christmas holidays visiting my kids and grandkids in the NW states.

UPDATE #4 (for this page): In order to get the car running for that first time last Sunday (Jan 15th), when I discovered the Z-Bar upper lever was hitting the #7 header tube, I adjusted the bottom link to the clutch arm tight just so I could get the clutch to disengage temporarily for that "first FIRE"!!!!!

Now I need to modify that Z-Bar to it doesn't hit the headers, and gives me more room to adjust some clearance into the throwout bearing.

(Quicky Update), Added a few more pix to the earlier ones (below) on the Z-Bar mods. Cut that upper lever arm, angled it back toward the firewall 2" at the top hole, and extended it another 1/2". Then cut 2.5" out of the clutch pedal rod, threaded both ends, and put in a threaded piece so I can adjust the length of that rod. With both the upper and lower rods adjustable, I can adjust the angularity of the Z-Bar as well as where it rests with regard to the firewall and the #7 header tube. Now for some paint and reinstall to see how well it works!!!

Here's what that upper lever arm looked like when I was first checking it out. In this photo I had not lengthened either bottom lever arm, and I already knew I needed to lengthen the bottom lever arm 1" and moved it to the left 1" to align the rod with the clutch arm correctly, and when I tried it , the upper arm cleared the header tube. Wasn't thinking clearly or I would have figured out that lengthening the upper arm would put me in contention with the headers!!! Sheeesh!!!

Here's what the linkage looks like now, the four holes in the upper lever arm are: bottom hole is the original location, and the other three range up to 5" for the top hole, which gives me back my 1.5 to 1 lever factor of the original Z bar. Lengthing the upper lever arm decreases the clutch pedal effort and increases the clutch pedal movement or "throw" required to operate the clutch. It's a trade off as to which way I want to go with this. By making those holes I figured I had some options available to me.

That adjustable lower clutch rod came from Classic Industries:

Sure is nice to have....

Link To Classic Industries Adjustable Clutch Rod Page

This is what I am looking at doing to modify it so it does not hit the header tube. Angle it back toward the firewall about two inches, maybe even extend it another half inch, and shorten the clutch pedal rod, adding the threaded piece shown in the photo and make the length adjustable.

UPDATE #3 (for this page): Got the throttle linkage figured out and assembled, got it adjusted so all the throttle butterflies open at the same time, and go to full open, all sync'd correctly. Still need to fab up a link from that linkage, down where my hand is, going back to the gas pedal lever on the front of the firewall. Will use the original 55 gas pedal, it's all beat up and decrepit looking, but works just fine!!!

UPDATE #2 (for this page).....

Had a water leak into #2 cylinder and outside also at the intake gasket on the front of the right head. The closest intake bolt hole was "soft", and when I checked the intake bolt holes they were all "blind" (closed off at the bottom), and only about a half inch of threads in an inch deep hole. So I ran my "bottoming" tap down another 0.4" and made 0.9" of thread and cut some new bolts to fit. I have an old tap set that has four taps for each size thread. Starter, more cut, even more cut, and a bottoming tap. I ran my 3/8" by 16 bottoming tap down into each hole and put longer bolts in each one.

UPDATE #1 (for this page).....

Hung the headers on and figured out where I wanted to put hangers down at the collectors, and welded tabs on for those....

Fitting my 3-1/2" "Race Ready" elec. cutouts on, and found there was some slight interference between the cutout butterfly disk and the pipe where I had welded it into the collector flange, when I hooked up a battery and tested the opening and closing operation....

So got the grinder out and beveled the inside of the flange to get clearance....

Good! Got it working smoothly now, let's see if it still works ok after some touch-up paint and final install. That other side of the "Wye" will get a 3-1/2" to 2-1/2" reducer and a street exhaust system.....

Original Posting for page 1....

I did get the motor/tranny bolted in, fuel system hooked up, iginition system too, the radiator installed, and ran into a small problem with the cooling fans. The dual Spal fan motors were way too close to the blower belt for comfort, so I split the two fan shrouds apart and fabbed a new set of brackets to put them as far apart as I could, on each side of the radiator. It came out pretty nice and gave me some additional clearance from the blower belt!

Looking down between the radiator and the blower drive.... Before I moved them, the fan motors were almost touching the drive belt....

I also worked with a local auto glass guy to cut new side glass for my doors. The brackets that hold the glass were shot, I had to rebuild them and then glue them onto the new glass. The roller channels were in pretty good shape, needed cleanup and paint, but the glass retainer channels were rotted out, had to replace all four and rebuild the brackets....

The lettering on the glass in this pix threw shadows on the cardboard under that glass, giving it a crazy look, at first I thought I had too much to drink....

It says "Front, Right, Inside", decided to letter them all so I wouldn't get them mixed up....

Still have the left rear glass to install, getting the wiring completed, and fabbing that final throttle link. We leave for the Pacific NW in a couple of days to spend Christmas with our kids and grandkids, so January is starting to look pretty damn close!!!

More later, as I make progress.....

Here's some links to more pages........

The Final Assembly! (page 2).....

Assembling The Blower Motor (page 5)

Assembling The Blower Motor (page 4)

Assembling The Blower Motor (page 3)

Assembling The Blower Motor (page 2)

Reworking an Olds 425 to take a 6-71 huffin on it. (Page 1)

Some Interior Views, Seats Modified and Upholstered!!!

Fabbing A Pair Of Drive Shaft Safety Hoops

Working On The Fuel System

Patching Up Some Of The Sheet Metal Holes.....

Building A Set Of Fenderwell Headers....

Adding A Front Sway Bar......