1965 Chevy II Gasser Inspired Hot Rod - Let’s Try This Again!

[Dennis Lacy]

Back last winter when Moebius released they’re highly anticipate ‘65 Chevy II Gasser and ‘64 Nova SS kits I grabbed one of each right away and immediately got to work on the ‘65. Not to brag but, I was the first person to start a WIP thread on this forum. 😏 Which means nothing because I didn’t see the project through and many of these have been built and finished since! 🤣

Not one to build anything box-stock (let’s face it, there’s plenty of those examples of this kit and probably many more to come) I came up with the idea to make the car into a late 70’s & early 80’s street freak type of thing with Cragar Super Trick wheels (AMT Double Dragster), AMT Parts Pack wrinkle-wall slicks and a Chevy Big Block equipped with gold Moroso valve covers and air filters.  
 

The BBC comes from Revell’s 1967 Chevelle / Malibu Pro-Street and is a surprisingly easy fit with just a touch of trimming on the engine mount. Even the headers snake through like they are made for it.

 

 

I modified the headers by cutting off the severely reduced collectors and adding a pair of resin collector cones from Drag City Casting.

I then was able to mate up the very nicely done performance exhaust system found as one of the bonus “extras” in the sister ‘64 kit. 

My pal @Rocking Rodney Rat donated a Pro Stock hood scoop from his box of drag car carcasses. 

I also filled in the voids in the tops of the frame rails.

That’s as far as I got. The project came to a halt because last spring MCM reached out to me and asked if I would build a hot rod model for a (then) upcoming issue so I had to stop everything and focus on that. 

To be honest, I wasn’t in love with the project. Mostly because it just didn’t have the aggressive presence I was looking for. The wheels and tires weren’t doing it for me like I initially thought, I didn’t like the way the slicks tucked up in the quarter panels and I don’t like the kit provided nose-bleed stance at all.

Fast forward to this week (a year + later) and I found myself thinking about this project and how to fix what I don’t like about it. The most notable decision was to say screw it to boxing the car into an “era”, I’m just gonna use whatever parts that I like!  After that, the revisions just flowed like a faucet.

First order of business was to pick a new set of wheels and tires which all come from Revell’s 1941 Willys Gassers. It’s hard to go wrong with Halibrand’s and those FAT M&H slicks are super tuff.

Next up was fixing the wonky too-high front stance (what people think Gassers look like that don’t actually know what Gassers look like. 😬) From the same Willys kit I stole the wheels & tires from I found that the tube front axle has a 1/8” drop (3” in scale) at the ends over the ‘65 kit straight axle. It’s also thicker and more robust looking plus the wheels will mount right to it. I had to shave off the original mount ing pins and install new pins slightly outboard of where they were to align with the 65’s springs. The U-bolt detail was restored to the axle by wrapping pieces of .020” square rod around it. I also decided to use the better looking Willys shocks and gusseted shock mounts cut from the Willys frame replacing the dinky pins sticking out of the ‘65 frame.

The exhaust was modified because a car like this wouldn’t actually have full tail pipes. The tails were cut off at the mufflers with the turn-down tips cut off and attached directly to the mufflers for classic “dumps”.

The rest of the BBC was set up. Breathers were added to the valve covers just below the “O’s” just like full scale Moroso BBC covers. The finned timing cover, belt drive and alternator from the SBC in Revell’s ‘29 Roadster were added to the front of the engine and because of its extra size the ‘65 kit electric fan was moved to the front of the radiator as a pusher fan. Other wise, the engine is as it comes. 

On to the rear axle & suspension. The slicks from the Willys are quite thick and as such interfered with the front, bottom edges of the wheel wells. To remedy this I filled the four spring mounting holes with rod, smoothed off the surfaces then drilled new holes 1/32” rearward. Just enough that the slicks won’t bind on the wheel wells.

Then I decided I wanted something more robust looking than the little ‘65 kit ladder bars so I fit the HUGE ladder bars from the Willys Gassers. Way tuffer!

The rear wheels were adapted by grafting on the ends of the Willys axle to the ‘65 kit axle. In doing so I made the track-width a little wide so the slicks would have some poke outside of the quarter panels.

So here’s where the chassis ended up this evening. I still need to graft the passenger side axle end on. I didn’t get to the other side because much time was spent cutting a radius out of the drivers quarter (going too far and having to add material back and blend it in 🙄) to make room for the FAT slicks. The other side should go much quicker since now I know what to do and can take an accurate pattern off of the drivers side.

And now for the Big Moment, up on its wheels & tires with all of the revisions. I couldn’t be happier with the new ever-so-slight forward rake stance and rolling stock with the deep Halibrand’s and FAT slicks poking out. I also love the way the huge ladder bars fill in some of the empty space under the car. The old Pro-Stock hood scoop will stay and yes, those square velocity stacks snuggle right up into it.

More to come soon! 😎

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Dennis Lacy

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

Very KOOL, indeed! -RRR

[Zippi]

Good looking little Drag car.  Coming alone nicely.

[Tom Geiger]

I like your version better too! It’s your model, create the image that’s in your head!

[catpack68]

Nice! Looking forward to seeing more progress on it

[Speedpro]

Was wondering whatever happened to this. I like the changes you made. Especially the dropped front axle. Looks great!  

[James2]

I will follow along....

[Scott8950]

It sits perfect.  Nice job

[Robberbaron]

 

Back in the late '90s, some friends and I used to frequent the street races at Doty Road on the South Side of Chicago.  One weekend a guy showed up with an old resurrected Chevy II 2-door sedan street racer.

From the taillights I knew it was a 62-64.  It had obviously been sitting dormant for years prior, and it didn't have any modern speed parts visible on it.  It had a set of slotted mags and sat EXACTLY like this!

At the time, the gasser look and "patina" were absolutely NOT "cool", but I thought that car was all kinds of awesome.  Never got a peek under the hood, but I'd like to imagine it was Rat-powered like this.  Gonna be following this one for sure!

Edited May 30, 2023 by Robberbaron

[Dennis Lacy]

Thanks for the comments!

Thanks to the 3-day weekend I was able to get a very rare second day at the bench so I kept going on the ‘65. 

I needed to warm up before attacking the passenger quarter panel so I started out easy by building a driveshaft out of 3/32” tube and U-joints cut from a Revell ‘32 Ford driveshaft. I also tuned up the fit of the exhaust to the headers as there was a gap at the passenger side if you look at the previous post. 

 

Then I needed to fix the fit of the ladder bars to the axle as the slots were too big. I glued some pieces of  tube into the slots then filed the slots to the correct size. As can be seen I also finished grafting the other axle end on cut from the Willys axle.

The rear suspension was finished by adapting the ‘65 kit shocks to the ladder bars. 

 

With the rear axle and suspension finished out and both wheels and slicks mounted it was time to cut out the passenger side quarter panel. I made a paper pattern of the driver side, taped it on and traced the shape. Worked perfectly! 

With that it was time for a full mock up now up on all four. I couldn’t be happier with how this model is going now. Decided to hang the grill so it looks a little more like a car. Not a whole lot more to sort out and I can start the paint process. 

I also mocked the firewall into place to make the under hood look more proper. 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by Dennis Lacy

[afx]

Great looking project Dennis.

[Tuffy's Garage]

Fantastic 

[Calb56]

This is looking amazing. Again, you are one of the builders that I want to be like when I grow up....lol. Kudos.

[Limeyglue]

Brilliant build so far, really like the suspension mods. The stance is nice and aggressive 

[Dennis Lacy]

On 5/29/2023 at 2:31 PM, Speedpro said:

Was wondering whatever happened to this. I like the changes you made. Especially the dropped front axle. Looks great!  

Thanks, Paul! There’s a whole lot to like about this kit as it comes and there’s only 2 things that I don’t like. The stance and the rear wheel design. But, both of those things are subjective. Adapting the Willys axle was easy and it wouldn’t be hard at all to tweak the mounting stubs to put the kit front wheels on it. 

[Mr. Metallic]

On 5/29/2023 at 11:16 PM, Dennis Lacy said:

 

That is MONEY right there. Perfect stance 🤤

[slusher]

Another fascinating project I will be following closely!

[Dennis Lacy]

On 5/30/2023 at 2:31 AM, afx said:

Great looking project Dennis.

Thanks! In part I was thinking of you and those awesome Falcons you did a few years back as I worked this thing. 😎

On 5/30/2023 at 11:45 AM, Calb56 said:

This is looking amazing. Again, you are one of the builders that I want to be like when I grow up....lol. Kudos.

Don’t ever grow up! My body may be 43 but I have the maturity of a 16 year old. Just ask my wife. 🤣

On 5/30/2023 at 12:08 PM, Limeyglue said:

Brilliant build so far, really like the suspension mods. The stance is nice and aggressive 

Thanks, man! I couldn’t be happier with the stance. I still have the car mocked up on my work bench and groove on it every time I walk by. 😁

On 5/31/2023 at 12:36 PM, Mr. Metallic said:

That is MONEY right there. Perfect stance 🤤

Thanks, Craig! I wish I could share on TRaK but it’s not period authentic. 

[Calb56]

13 minutes ago, Dennis Lacy said:

 

Don’t ever grow up! My body may be 43 but I have the maturity of a 16 year old. Just ask my wife. 🤣

Well, I've got almost 14 years on ya but my wife would probably say you've got at least 2 years of maturity on me...just sayin'.

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

There's some goodies in the post sent to your work address last week, it should show up early in the week. Be careful going through the bubble wrap so you don't miss any parts.... -RRR

[Kit Karson]

What is most interesting is watching your mind work through the minor modifications just to make everything fit and work together.  Parts from here and parts from there all coming one at a time left matching the right a tuned concert of modified hot rod and drag car trouble cliff and bass cliff notes sounding louder with every step you take during construction, Brother!  Here comes the parade!! -KK

[Dennis Lacy]

16 hours ago, Rocking Rodney Rat said:

There's some goodies in the post sent to your work address last week, it should show up early in the week. Be careful going through the bubble wrap so you don't miss any parts.... -RRR

Sweet!!!

14 hours ago, Kit Karson said:

What is most interesting is watching your mind work through the minor modifications just to make everything fit and work together.  Parts from here and parts from there all coming one at a time left matching the right a tuned concert of modified hot rod and drag car trouble cliff and bass cliff notes sounding louder with every step you take during construction, Brother!  Here comes the parade!! -KK

Thanks!! Have you been getting into the edibles again? 🤣😁

Edited June 5, 2023 by Dennis Lacy

[Rocking Rodney Rat]

8 hours ago, Dennis Lacy said:

trouble cliff

I believe he meant treble clef, yes, edibles indeed... -RRR