Just curious if anyone has done it and have a few pictures..i did a search and really couldn't mind anything..i really don't know much, or anything really about it so i was doing some reading on it and got me to thinking that i haven't seen one..also what would be the pro's and con's of this? and could you get it to sit at stock height? anyways..was just thinkin.
It can be done quite easily with a kit from Speedway. People do it all the time to Novas, Falcons and early Comets. The look doesn't really fit the era of Mavericks to me, but I can remember several around here in the 70s and 80s. I think it was not so much the gasser look, there was a fad called street freaks. It was pretty gross. Gasser from the 60s Street Freak of the 70s
So what your saying is the steet freaks of the 70's turned into the donks of today? And like it or not guys this is what most of the gassers I see remind me of ... no matter how nostalgia they are
I was at the used tire shop the other day getting me some nice new used tires (real rust rods use tires no ones ever heard of except the guys at the used tire shop) and watched a skylark getting some 33's put on it. It was so sad came in on normal 14" rims looking sick, fresh from the body shop. I was telling the guy how nice his car looked. Then the tire monkeys rolled out some tires and wheels bigger than the ones on my Bronco... it was gross. Gasser is not just about big wheels though.
No they are not, they were about stuffing as big of a tire under a car as possible without cutting the wheel wells... Of course everyone in the world figured out there was a better way too make a drag racer... well that is except for those guys that half the time tear up a perfectly good car so they can jack it up in the air and let it sit in their garage, since most of them become non street worthy.. But some of them do drive them onto a trailer to drag it out to car shows so other guys with similar cars and taste can admire it...
I've had a number of straight axles, mostly on older hot rods that already came with them........................but did put one in my 48 Chevy. There are a couple of ways to go, although a transverse spring looks neat it really is hard to setup correctly. A leaf spring type is what I had on my 48 Coupe, and although it was pretty cheap to do......mainly because it came out of 55 Chevy 1/2 ton pickup it road like a truck.....as most straight axles do. There are two types of axles, the early I beam type and tube axle, just like there are three ways to attach them, transverse spring, or parallel leaf or 1/4 eliptical...........with the transverse spring you need to locate the straight axle either with a wishbone setup, hairpins, or 4 bar. Then you can steer the straight axle with either a cross steer using a long tie-rod from the pitman to passanger spindle, or like the old days where you have the a short tie-rod from the steering box to the drivers side spindle, or you can you one of the newer style rack-n-pinion for the cross steer......but with a straight axle part of the reason for sitting the car high is to clear the oil pan in a cross steer situation..................I guess my thought would be that a straight axle saves a lot of weight off the front end and is best suited for the race track...............don't think you would like driving it on the street..........................IMHO Here is an article on straight axles..........if you are thinking about this for the Maverick...........read this article http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/0902sr_science_of_straight_axles/viewall.html and another about setting up a gasser chassis http://www.streetrodderweb.com/tech/1112sr_woodys_hot_rodz_gasser_chassis/viewall.html
Here is another article that is good to see just to get an idea of how one would put it in.............and it is a fair amount of work on a unibody car. The other thing, is that if you went with an I Beam axle you really need to use a forged unit...................and they are not cheap.............or the alternative is to use a cast one and maybe had it break while driving ..http://www.gassersinc.com/members/lonniecobb/55straightaxle.htm The axle in my Model A hot rod was a SuperBell Forged Aluminum axle....and the cost...................if you have to ask you can't afford it.
You know its sad when you quote someone and tell them they don't live in the real world because your "straight axle car is a driveable street worthy car"... lets see lets go back in the way back machine and see exactly what I said.... Now did I say all of them? Hmmm don't worry your epeen will get better...and tell you what when you drive that car half as much as I do my maverick.. come back and talk too me.. Sad too say your little corner of the world is probably as closed off as mine is... well thats if its not more closed off... After all we all end up where we are for a reason im here because college is cheap and the pay in the aerospace industry is better then the neighboring states...hang on this little area of Utah probably has one of the largest and most advanced aerospace industries in the north American continent... Lets see a few of the major aerospace players are.... ATK(formerly Morton Thiokol)...Parker, Williams international, a full Boeing division, a Moog aerospace, and Barnes aerospace division.. and that's all within 50 miles of each other... So whats your definition of the real world?
If you wanted to build a straight axle car on a budget, you can get a front axle from a 2wd Jeep Cherokee. Cheap as heck from a salvage yard...then get some Speedway leafs. Here's a Nova that has one.
