62 gasser

[chopper tom]

Any ideas on puttin leaf springs on the back of a 62 biscane [x frame ]gasser project????A cheap but light way.

 

[Gastrick]

I'm sorry that I missed this question Tom. I actually read in the "fresh thinking" post that I neglected to answer. I guess I just missed it. I actually have a 1962 Impala long term project myself. It's not a gasser style car, it's a tubbed pro-street car. It does have the same chassis as your Biscane though. I used a coil over ansd ladder bar setup in mine. In order to utilize a leaf spring rear suspension, you would have to fabricate outriggers on the sides of the frame rails to mount the spring hangers. It wouldn't be that difficult. It might not be that light but I don't think it would add that much weight in the overall scheme of things. I don't have any pics that would help but I'll see if I can track some down.

Here'a a pic of my Impala chassis for ya.

 

[gassersgarage]

Any ideas on puttin leaf springs on the back of a 62 biscane [x frame ]gasser project????A cheap but light way.

You know that the triangulated 4 link in a Chevy wasn't a bad design. The problem was the stamped trailing arms that would flex under load. The old time fix was to box the trailing arms and use sheet metal screws, screwed into the rubber bushings to stiffen them up. Throw an air bag inside the passenger side coil spring to adjust pre-load. Use could also raise the rear attachment point for the upper tailing arms to change the instant center of gravity. (no hop bars)

Hotckis now makes a kit to address all the above issues. I had one on my Biscayne and it worked great.

A cheap fix would be a set of bolt-on ladder bars that Lakewwod use to make. They were even bright yellow, to stand out.

 

[chopper tom]

Wow gastric thats gonna be cool ,i diffinitly wanna see more as you go !!
I was thinking the same on the out riggers but what to do about the drive shaft ?this things gonna be setting up high in the back[gasser stile]and i dont think it will go under the tunnle and if i cut the bottom out will it kill the frame's strength ????
I dont wanna use the stock rear end or the rear parts,i allready have a 59 oldsmobile rear with a 5'13 gear ready to go racing!And do you guys know any thing about these old's rears ? from what i can telland ben told that thay are brutes!?

 

[Gastrick]

I had the opposite problem with the driveshaft tunnel tom because my car is so low. If you look at that pic I posted, you can see that I raised the tunnel by cutting the top out and adding a raised box. I'm using a one piece driveshaft so I needed to raise it a lot. I also added 1"x2" braces down the sides of the tunnel although it doesn't show well in the pics because I molded them in.

The Olds rears are very good and were used extensively in race cars during the late 50's and 60's until the popularity of the 9 inch Ford came into play. That 5:13 ratio will be a stump puller. Make sure that you use good axles though. With that heavy car and deep gear, it'll want to munch parts if you hook up real good.

 

[chopper tom]

i was wandering about the big tunnle .
ha ha ha i would be tickled to just get it to the point where breaking stuff was all i had to worry about !!!!! but i havent seen anothe rear like this eccept on ebay?I got it from a friend that had it in his camaro and raced it for about 4 years and never broke any thing ,but the axles look bigger than the ford 9'' axels do ,and i dont think there aftermarket????
I put a 50 ford frount axle under the front and it works good so fare .do you think there is much wheit differance in a tube axle????
did you really race gassers/if so i would love to here some war stories!!!!

 

[35Mastr]

Gastrick,You said long term but that chassis looks finished.How is the body.I really like those cars.You probably got it nailed doing it up as a Pro Street.