Hi guys- I don't post much here on the HAMB, but true gearhead. I'm looking at buying a '55 Olds 88 two-door post car. She's a manual 3 on the tree now rowing the 324 & the 3-speed. Wondering what, if any stamped sheet metal 4-speed humps could come close to convert the car into a floor shift. Or, am I up a creek and having to fab a hump myself? I might be diving off the deep end- but I have this little engine called a Hemi (392) & it's just beggin to get in there in front of a A833 mopar trans. Could this be a first?? Hmm...
The bell housing on that 324 will not support a newer 4 speed so it will have to come off and be changed for one that accepts modern trannys. Change the disc to match the tranny input shaft and possibly fab up a tranny mount. Not sure if the 55 had tranny mounts on the side of the bell housing or at the rear of the tranny. Either way one will have to be fabbed. Tranny hump will have to be fabbed. Shouldn't be too big of an issue. I would not be one to side with the Hemi swap being an Olds nut that I am, but it is your car so you can do what you wish. If you take the 324 and that tranny out it will have some value to other Olds followers.
Don't get all caught up in the Hemi, new or old style, mystique that advertising is pushing. There is a place for the Hemi, and it's not between the fenders of a Olds.
vtwhead- the 324 would come out & the 392 in it's place with a 4-speed; not the 324 with the 4-speed. My buddy saw a '57 Olds 88 with a 392 this summer at the Minnesota Back to the 50's, so I won't be the first 'nut' to crack it. Maybe I'll locate another '55 plymouth instead (like my old avitar) and keep the peace
To answer the OPs question - The factory hump/boot for BENCH seat '68-72 Chevelle / El Camino is large, square and readily available. Check out Ausley's Chevelle Parts. Bought one for my O/T parts chaser El , looks like a lot of material on the hump for trimming.
Yes, Mopar to Mopar would make a lot of sense! I was at a yard just a 1/2 mile down the road two years ago after I got a call that they had just received a bunch of old cars to be crushed. One was a 56 two door Plymouth with the gear shift in the dash and was in really great shape. All the chrome was great including the hub caps. When I got there in a pouring rain storm he had already speared it with the loader and was lifting it up to be crushed! Next to it was a '37?? Plymouth coupe with the square headlights and he would only wait until I got the dash out of it. I wanted the headlights but he couldn't wait for me to get to them and stuck it with the loader! Those guys are just notorious for ruining a guys day! That hemi would have looked great in that 56.
Probably won't be a first, anything that you could possibly think of has already been done by someone. As for the "hump" you shouldn't need to fab a new hump for a 4 gear and the shifter hangs off the side of the tranny, you just poke a hole in the floor to fit the shifter through and then put a boot on it. You may have to take a hammer and massage the original hump a little but even that is doubtful, ever seen a 4 speed hydro? they are huge and they didn't build a different floor board for the standard shift and automagic cars, cost prohibitive.
324 manual, '55 Olds 2 post ? What else is there you need ? You're a lucky man, at just that. Running, with a hole in the floor.....almost done. Wish I had found it
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