Project HEMI 55

[chevynut]

now will you have time for the nomad lol?

Thanks JT.

Well we still have to finish the gasser frame then we have another almost identical C4 frame to build for another customer with a BBC. I am working on the Nomad though. Trying to finish my door panel armrests and I found a guy to machine my custom stainless trim for me. Going to drop the material off this afternoon.

Soon I plan to continue blocking my front end sheetmetal and begin taking the car apart piece by piece. I can still work on the interior while I do that. I want to get the frame out from under it so I can finish a few details and take it to the painter.

[Justin@ECP]

Loving the fab work on the frame!

[chevynut]

Thanks Justin. This one took us longer than usual, due to the Hemi engine mounts. We're still working on the 55 Gasser frame and the Earle Williams ladder bar kit should be here today.

[chevynut]

The HEMI 55 frame is gone. Yesterday Steve came to pick it up and we spent a couple hours bolting the suspension on temporarily so he knew how it all went together. There are no coilovers on it so it's sitting way lower than intended.


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[chevynut]

Well the Hemi 55 is back in the shop. Steve took it to a shop near Denver to have the car built, and decided that for the interim he was going to put a 440 Indy engine into it instead of a Hemi. He wanted the guys there to adapt the 440 to the engine mounts we put on the frame, but instead they cut our mounts off . Then they located the engine, which is 2" shorter than the Hemi, based on our transmission mount instead of where it needed to be in the front. When it was all said and done, they cobbled together some mounts, had to cut the firewall out so the engine would fit, and Steve was pissed. So he pulled the car out of the shop and I agreed to help him get it back on track.

[WagonCrazy]

You never mentioned cutting the trans tunnel but I'll bet you end up doing that as well. Does he want to get the Hemi back in there?

[Rick_L]

I thought a late model Hemi and a 440 wedge were the same basic block dimensions (bore spacing, timing cover, etc.) Why is the 440 2" shorter?

[NickP]

http://www.crankshaftcoalition.com/w...specifications Scroll down to the bottom for Dimensional's.

[Rick_L]

The link does show that the bore spacing is the same.

The difference must be in the front end of the engine, if it's accurate. Timing cover, water pump, etc.

This article needs further development.

[chevynut]

Here's some pics of the '55 in the shop today. The shop he had it at cut the tranny tunnel out and I'm not sure they needed to do that. Steve added a Gear Vendors OD and they had to modify the AME crossmember we built for it to make it fit. Steve wants us to do a bunch of work on it, but I'm not a rod shop and I don't know how much I want to do on it beyond the chassis work.

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Steve has 4 car projects going on right now.....this 55, a 55 gasser for his brother that we built a chassis for right after this one, a 70 Cuda, and a 68 Charger. They're all under construction at different shops and he's getting frustrated with things not getting done. The Charger was supposed to be in the shop for a couple of months, and it's been a year. He just bought a new Hellcat engine that you apparently can't even buy from Mopar unless you have a VIN for a car with a blown engine through some guy in Florida. He just got the engine yesterday. I don't know what he paid for it but that's going into the 70 Cuda which is a resto-mod. The 68 Charger has a 426 Hemi in it and its almost finished based on the pics he showed me.

He decided that he's not going to go with a Hemi in this car, since he has so much going on. Apparently Hemis have become so expensive and a bare block costs over $5K now. So he's just going with this engine now and it's staying that way with no plans for a Hemi.