1949 Chevrolet Gasser – Progress 2016 01 02

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We have reunited the Car Nuts Gang and once again after a two week vacation for Christmas. The third meeting of the Car Nuts on 01/02/2016 was attended by Anne Lever, Arthur Lever, Jim Boehly, and Tom Deyle.

We got a number of items completed. One of the things we got done is firing it up for the second time. 80 PSI on the oil at idle and it sound nice through the short “Exhaust System”.  Tom produced the YouTube video you can watch here. The leaks will be discussed further down in this page.

https://youtu.be/q7VlbjWTlP4

The siren sounds on the video are an inside joke. I have some neighbors that are not fond of HP sounds, and, on more than one occasion, upon a fire up of an engine the cops have shown up with suggestions to cease and desist.

DSC_6339 First order of business was to solve all the world problems

We then move on to resolving the problem of spacing between the inner side of the rear tires and the frame. We were going to jump right in an start cutting the frame

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DSC_6340 But after much discussion decided to install the rear backing plats and drums to see how that effected the spacing before we started cutting.

So the axles were pulled (discovered that the spacers for the lug nuts and the lug nuts themselves need to be machined down to fit the wheels correctly), and the backing plates with all the bake hardware were installed.

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DSC_6346 While we were doing this work inside the nice warm garage it started to flurry outside, ever heard the song “Baby it’s cold outside”. Don’t worry too much soon it will be your turn also to be operated on.
DSC_6355 Car nuts hard at work, the axle goes back in, we also discovered the o-rings were missing in the axle bearing housings, we will not be adding oil until we have those an also the third member.
DSC_6358 The drums go on, the parents of this young man need to buy him a new pair of pants
DSC_6387 Using the cross link to center the tires and wheels on the chassis it now appears we have enough spacing between the tires and frame so that we do not have to do any cutting. When the rear axle was ordered measurements were taken and supplied to the vendor and it looks like we got it right, looks like miracles do happen
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The Car Nuts got a bunch of other small tasks out of the way. We wanted to make it easier to fire the engine to get our fix on HP sounds occasionally so…a ground wire was added between the engine and the frame. We used the technic of melting solder in the end of the connector and then plunging the wire into the melted solder. I have been told it is better to crimp the end of the connector, but the guy I borrow the crimper from has moved to Lake Havasu, Az. Yes that is another twelve point bolt holding the ground wire to the block. I really like them because if you have a 3/8 inch twelve point sock you can essentially take the whole thing apart.

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While we are on the topic of twelve point bolts we swapped out the engine mount bolts to twelve points also

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 DSC_6373 Oops got a little off topic, the topic we were on was making it easier to get the fix of HP sound. Note clamped to the front of the frame an electric fuel pump (no more need of siphoning gas to prime the carburetor. Clamped to the other side of the frame is the MSD 6AL-2 control box for the MSD Distributor, and MSD Blaster two coil. The MSD 6AL-2 will allow Anne (the driver) to leave the line at a predetermined launch RPM on a trans brake

Of course we had to fire it up, and we discovered we had a bunch of leaks, not the least of which was oil coming out of the dip stick hole. You would think we would have learned our lesson after the first fire up, at least I was smart enough to order a dip stick to put in the hole so we could stop that leak.

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The driver of this Gasser, my better half and newly indoctrinated Car Nut looks like she has things well in hand.

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DSC_6380 No more oil from this hole. I need to find the retainer clip I put it someplace where I would not lose it.
https://youtu.be/q7VlbjWTlP4 No sense in making you wait, here is the link to the You Tube video
DSC_6237 We are getting pretty good at putting the body on and taking it off.
DSC_6290 We have been missing the front cabin to chassis mounting brackets. They had to be cut off to make the new reinforcement chassis insert for the four bar system on the rear axle.
DSC_6292 Hung the bracket by the mounting bolt and located the amounting point on the chassis.
DSC_6298 The bracket originally extended beyond the outer chassis frame rail to the original transmission cross member. That cross member was cut out to make the new center section to support the rear four bar system. So..as one of my old car show hosts used to say, “it will require a little modification”. He has since sold out to advertisers and just bolts stuff on

Now to weld up the cut off end

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You know how these young guys are, always laying down on the job, but the job must go on so more fitting is required.

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So…the chassis to cabin brackets have been restored on both sides.

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