51 Styleline deluxe project

No problem it’s always nice to have an insight on things from someone who has been there the hamb has always been a place to find info so don’t hesitate to ask and my suggestion on heat/ac is vintage air I’ve used all the units available and the vintage air stuff is by far the best on the market and the stock heater will work but it takes a lot of room that is not necessary and won’t work as good as the vintage air gen 5 stuff and you get a/c when you buy it lol good luck on your build I’m following along so keep us posted on all updates

 

The front inner and outer fenders are all off. Prior to putting it up on the lift I decided to pull the interior out. After getting the seats out, curiosity got the best of me and I had to test fit the buckets. As with most things this gave me ideas that may not be acceptable to NHRA rules. I need to raise the outside of the seat mount by about 1.5 inches. I think I want to build a reinforced compartment under the seats that may be covered with the carpet. There will also be room between the seats for a potential console. I’d like to do a 1st gen Camaro or 70 Challenger free standing console. I do have the skills to build a custom console but I’m not sure that I would be happy with it. Thoughts?

 

Look at Jeep consoles on eBay. I was considering buckets for my car a while back.

 

I did a quick look at them, but I don’t think I want something that sticks up with an arm rest. The automatic is a manual valve body so it will look a lot like a stick shift minus the clutch. I will be moving the emergency brake to the floor between the front seats. A 1st gen Camaro console will probably be the best choice.

 

Well I put the car up in the air and waited for my help to arrive. As I waited we started discussing steering columns in an other thread. I saw what looked like a few rust spots and made a mental note to check them out later. Help didn’t show up and I brought the car back down to check out tach placement. Since I don’t really want to drop the rear end by myself, I decided to pull the carpet up and check out the floor. The car was gone through by someone and they did things to it. Some good. Some not so good. I saw the jute carpet pad when I pulled the back seat. What I found today was the chopped foam carpet pad that they glued down to the rest of the floor. There are a few small rust holes and some joint gaps in the floor. Most were covered with the shiny metal tape. I pulled the carpet and pad and will clean the floorboards and paint them to seal them after I fix the bad spots and get my cage in.

 

Those floor pans look good for originals my luck I would have removed the carpet and pad along with the floor lol a few spots of repair won’t be too bad

 

I think I'm going to get rid of most of that black rubberized undercoating stuff. They put it everywhere so hopefully I won't find too much more rust. That little bit should be easy to take care of. I thought about flattening the floor under the front seats and then building a box pedestal for the seats to sit on. I hidden door latch and a slide out tray makes for convenient storage. I need to find a second clock housing for the dash. Boost and fuel pressure gauges with the tack in between. The plan is becoming more concrete.

 

Moving forward again. The rear end fought me not wanting to slip off the transmission. I guess it had been a while since it was apart. If I had it up where I could get at it, the angle of the dangle locked it in place. Since my help has been a constant no show I was a little cautious about trying to get it out while up. I made a dolly cart for everything to sit on and slide back with enough height to get under it. Drive the slip ball back and pulled the cart back with a come-along. It’s out. Brakes looked serviceable and started drilling off the spring mounts.
Frame looks good so debating sand and paint, just paint, reinforced the frame and paint, or what. Rolled the 9 inch under to get thoughts on tires. These are too short but about the right width. I will rough in the spring mounts and Cal-traks then weld them and paint

edit: Before you ask, the tires on the wheels are G60-15s. Not close to the 31s I want to run or the 29s I think are the minimum I will run.

 

Progress comes slowly but surely. Finally got the rear end under the car. CalTracs are on. Gas tank is out and I’m ready to mount the 25 gallon fuel cell and battery in the trunk. I think I need to cut the trunk floor and raise the fuel cell up to maintain clearance. And I’m trying to decide if I want the sump to the front or rear. I’m thinking rear with the pump mounted to the cross bar to slosh towards the pickup, but forward would be more out of the way. I found out two of my three options for rear wheels won’t work as it sits. The 10” Western slots fit great. The 8” ET slots have just a bit too much backspace and tires will rub the frame if I don’t remove the outer lip on the bottom. The 10” 5 spoke wheels have a step for the spokes that won’t clear the discs. And the radiusing of the rear quarters will require some extra metal fab to make it work since there is space between the outer fender and the outer wheel well. And with that thought I now realize the biggest hurdle is to stop over thinking every single aspect of this project. Time to just do it.

 

Time to work on the front half. After a long struggle the engine and trans is out. New Yogi trans crossmember is on hand now. And today I dropped the front suspension. I have a definite plan going forward,so I will respectfully ask that this thread will be moved to the OT section. While the original suspension can be made to sort of work, it had too many issues to overcome. Not gravel road tough with the weight of the BBC, interference with the oil pan, and no power steering to name a few. So it will get a Heidt’s MII setup w/ power steering and disk brakes. It took about 10 bolts per side to drop the front suspension. Remove the brake lines and it dropped right out (Note: not in that order). I left the sway bar and tires on so I have a way to pull it out of the way. I will use a spare block to define what to do with the firewall once the suspension is installed.
Engine/trans is out on homemade dolly.

Made a centerline for locating the new front end (may not be needed).

disconnected the brake lines and lowered the lift in case CG causer to fall when the front dropped. Then unbolted the front end and down it came. (10 bolts per side into threaded backer plates.). Picture shows the 10 holes on the suspension.

On the ground


And now clean up and start building.


Edit:? If you were wondering, it was good that I brought it down. The front lift arms had to be moved towards the back and it is still very light in the front.

 

I have it on a dolly complete with springs if someone needs it. Engine and transmission is on a dolly, and the front end is on the ground. I believe in sharing and not throwing anything away without trying to find it a good home.

Today I got the Heidt’s front crossmember trimmed and located. Now I can start assembly since I know it fits. Had to grind 1/4 inches to make it wide enough to fit the rails. Also have it 1/4 inch forward to match the original tire center line. I’ll tack it in place and hang parts on it before I finish welding it in place. Part of the measure 3 times and cut once ( ok until I get it right) process. If you’re wondering, the yellow strap at the very front is to anchor the front down. It’s a little light right now and will tip back with the slightest pressure up on the front or down on the back.



To mount it you have to remove the locating brackets from the frame and notch the outside lower lip to clear the mount. the bracket is bottom outside of rail and the notch goes below it. The welds that secured it are visible by the green strap.

 

The way I tied the quarter panel to the wheel houses after I radiused the rear wheel openings was I took solid 1/4 steel rod and formed it to the wheel opening. I welded it to the inside of the wheel opening, to have a wheel lip and to have a way to weld the filler piece to the quarter panel. I made poster board templates of the wheel house "gap" and transferred the template to sheet metal.

 

I wish the floors in mine looked that good when I tore my car down. Mine never had carpet... it was a rubber mat car. I think that it why I had to put toe boards, front floor pans and patches for the seat area.
You have a really nice solid car to be 74 years old.

 

Thank you. Someone tried to fix it up at some point but went the inexpensive slap it together route. I can see original sheet metal in the rt rear with a skin over it and not bonded together at the edge. I’ll address that at some point. But it kept the car from rotting away. I’m hoping I can get most of the assembly done and have it driving soon. How finished things will be is questionable right now but Goodguys is the 4th.