A100 PU Gasser style

Hi Guys, it has been a while. I have now moved from the UK to Canada. Yes, I took the A100 with me. It is now a little closer to home. I plan to give it the gasser look, So I want to raise the front by about 2 inches.

I guess I will add a couple of blocks, anyone else seen or done this?

Jeff

Nice to have you back. To me the gasser look always looks great. Look forward to seeing some pic's of it.

adding blocks WILL affect steering and could promote excessive tire wear. there could be shims between the axle and the springs for caster.

a buddy of mine made a gasser out of a old falcon wagon and used a dodge pickup front axel upside down to get the front end high. but if you wanted a few inch you could re arch the springs or a cheeper way would be blocks would be fine you would just have to adjust the drag link (i dont know how much travel you will get out the ends)

Couldn't you just use longer shackles and shock extenders? That's what I did with my 75 Pontiac back in the day...

Thought blocks would be safer, up for all suggestions though!

Jeff

I can't vouch for the safety aspect. My lift amounted to about two inches in the rear for that sport rake that muscle cars had in the 70s.

Lift blocks in the front are highly dangerous & I would recommend you stay away from using them.
If you must lift the front, I would do it by re-arching the leafs. Brad

LiveWire64 wrote:Lift blocks in the front are highly dangerous & I would recommend you stay away from using them.
If you must lift the front, I would do it by re-arching the leafs. Brad

beat me to it, very dangerous. just re-arch or have some leafs added,

also measure your garage opening, i didn't i my new house, got lucky but truck has less than a inch clearance

Well, I've had a couple of straight axle gasser cars but they were cross steering which works great lifted as long as you keep the drag link relatively parallel to the tie rod. You don't have to worry about this since a100's aren't cross steer. I'd say have a set of lifted springs built instead of re-arching. Also you have the matter of finding longer shocks to work with your existing mounts or look at reloacting your shocks mounts to allow for the lift. I can't remember off hand how the A10 is but you gain a couple inches mounting the axle on below the springs. I've had various amounts of caster on my cars 10 degrees and you won't be able to turn a corner. Somewhere between 5-7 degrees usually works best on the big 50's front-engined cars. I don't know on a forward control rig like the A100. I'd be curious as to what caster you find works the best on your rig. And, I'd have to climb up under there and look for sure but you might need a dropped pitman arm too.
The whole concept of the nose up stance in a gasser was to simply get better rear wheel grip leaving the starting line. Later gasser class rules even allowed for up to a 10% engine set back to allow further weight distribution towards the rear. But in the pickup body you're so light in the ass that it'll have trouble hooking up anyway. Unless you do an engine set back partially into the bed to distribute the weight better. A complete rear engine set up like the famous A100 wheelstanders & you'll have problems keeping the front down. Plus the you can't load a motorcycle in the bed anymore either! Maybe try and find the original specs on the Little Red Wagon. If I remember right he had the front lifted on that thing. Although it sat pretty even with the big tires in the back.

Jeff, where in Ontario are you living now???

I am between Barrie and Orillia. In Horseshoe Valley.

Jeff

blocks will work however they need to be solid not hollow because they are illegal and may crush under load.ive played with big ass 4x4 trucks for years and not a great idea.
i would personally rearch the front springs or throw a few extra leaves in the with arch