Projects "Sylvester" Another 55 Chevy Hot Rod Build

Well I finally got my garage back and my Henry J is on its way to a new home in Alaska, and to a happy racer I hope. I think I have come to the end of my car building odyssey. Over the years I have built all kinds of cars, PUs, boats and even Karts. Some of it has been fun, some it has just been an experience.

I can't say that I ever had as much fun building anything as I did my first car, a 55 Chevy Hot Rod. I was 16 and finding hot rod parts meant scrounging the bone yards and making an Olds or Caddy part fit. Then there was ordering from the back pages of Hot Rod Magazine. I remember turning to the back pages of Hot Rod first to see if anything new was for sale.

Recently, I heard about a 55 Chevy Bel Air that might be for sale. It has a perfect body and has been off the frame to clean and paint the frame and underside of the body. It was a little pricey, but I have never started with something that was perfect before.

Today the car made it into my garage and I have started a build that I hope will be of interest to you. I am going to build my first car again. My target is what it became, not what it started out as. I will try to stay old school with the only upgrades for things like brakes.

I have been collecting parts for some time. What I could not scrounge I bought on the internet. I have an engine, transmission and rear end, all which I will get into more detail as they are installed. There is a guy on the internet who sells interior pieces...so I ordered black roll and pleated door panels and rear window tray. Speedway was selling these black vinyl seats that looked pretty close to what I ran in my first car.

So, lets get started with day one. This will be a weekend build until I retire in January 2014. Then I will be able to work whenever I want on it. I am not in a hurry...except to get the engine in it and get it running.

Today, day one, I pushed the car out of the garage a little and started about installing the engine. My car will have a large journal 327, bored to 331. It has 12 1/2 to 1 Ross pistons and molly rings. The rods are x-rods...about as close to what I ran as I could get. The heads are corvette FI with 2.02 1.60 stainless valves. It runs a Howard cam that is 578/563 and matching valve springs. The rest of the valve train is built to handle the lift of cam and live. On top is an Eldebrock 2x4 with their carbs.

I managed to pick up an old Muncie that had been built and I am running a Centerforce clutch. I used to have trouble keeping a clutch in my car...hopefully this will solve that problem. I picked up a Hurst Competition Plus shifter out of a 63 Corvette, like my old one. I recall having to lean down to pull the lever...now that I am in my 60s I am going to have to go with a longer handle...my back won't let me twist like that any more.



So here they are, today's pictures of the car...and my goal for today...putting the engine and transmission in it. You may be thinking that this is going to be a paint-by-the-numbers car, but it has shop built engine mounts front and rear. I picked up a set of Black Hooker headers for it and they did not want to go in the car. So today has left me exhausted but satisfied...man inflected his will over machine today and it is all in.





I will try to take a lot of pics as I go for anyone who wants to watch "Sylvester" come together. Zilla.

 

I'm in for the ride with ya......

 

Cool - Congrats

 

Great reading your post! I look forward to completion of your double nickel!

 

Looks Great!

 

I'm in this is going to be good. I'm in the process of completing my last 55 sedan project also. Built lots of different type cars over the years but always sold them to fund my next project. This one is a keeper 331 solid lifters, four speed similar to my first 55 go figure. Ron

 

Looks like a fun build in progress.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Going to be fun sounds like its a good one

 

sounds good, i'm in

 

Great looking start. I am a little biased but 55's are really hard to beat in any form.

 

looks like it's going to be a nice ride

 

I'm envious. I wish I had the space and time to replicate my 55 Chevy from 1964. I'll be following. It looks like a great project.

 

Great to have all you guys along. a few years back I built a 55 that I referred to as the car that I never got to build when I was young. My first car was all hot rod...but this 55 was traditional gasser in many ways.

The funny thing is that I started with a pretty good body that has never been cut...it was narrowed in the rear for huge tires that would fit inside the wheel opening without cutting it. Well, that was not going to work...so I put a wider rear end in it and cut the wheel wells.

I put a straight axle from Speedway under the front and installed a one piece tilt front end. The doors were glass as was the trunk lid and rear bumper. I slammed a BBC in it with tunnel ram and had a 400 turbo built for it.

So...I have been down that road and it was fun...but this build will be more of the hot rod that was...than the gasser that I wanted my car to become. I can't wait for the weekend to get here so I can start working on the rear end parts.

Here are some pics of my gasser "godzilla"...from which I claim my handle:

 

I'm in my first ride was a 56.built for the street,after 3,I now have a 56 delivery(work in progress)just got rear dics installed,possible hilborn injection.interior,paint,next.good luck with the car!!!!

 

Nice looking straight axle 55. Is amazing how similar are our story's are. I sold my straight axle 55 to build a car similar to my high school 55. The only thing different is when I was in high school I had to beg or barter for speed parts. A few pictures. Ron. .

 

I like the hot rod look to your 55. I plan on SSs front and rear...and much as I would like to put real skinnys on the front...I just didn't have them back in the day. So I will go with a narrow profile tire on a 6" rim and be cool with my old-school ride.

I spent the week tempted to throw a coil over rear suspension on it but again that's just not what I had. I did try running coil springs for a while but my lower cups were on top of the housing which raised the rear...so they came off after a month or so.

I had a friend weld up a set of front spindles...to raise the front end 2"...but before I got them on my 55 I decided to put them on a 56 gasser that I picked up for a song. I heard of several guys in town who had them brake running them on the street so I am glad I stuck with stock spindles. When I first saw a ball joint lift kit I was again tempted to try it out...I didn't...but I am considering it for this build.

I am posting pics from today's workout in the heat and humidity. Did all I could do...I ran out of material. The ladder bar is 60" and brackets are 2x4 mild steel. I ordered a set of floaters for the rear. I'll add some HD shocks in the rear and 80-20s for the front.

I got my carpet this week and have decided to run a white headliner...so I will get that ordered this week. Also picked up my center section from a race buddy who put an Eaton posi and 389 gears in to for me.

With any luck, next week end I will be building the other ladder bar. I will tinker some with the engine and hopefully move it closer to start up. Zilla.

I had 3 gas stations when I was 17. The last picture is from my Conoco gas station and shows the 56 gasser with the spindles on it.

 

Well it turns out that floaters will not work on the 9" housing that I have...so I am off to plan B...shackles on the front of the ladder bars. So I spent this weekend building shackles.

I also decided to change the rear ladder bar brackets. It is going to work great and look fine under the car. Speaking of under the car, I got the Flowmaster dual exhaust kit I ordered. 2 1/2" with a crossover pipe...hangers and all. I waited till it got here to order the reducers for the Hooker headers...so next weekend I kinda have planned out.
Last weekend I got the intake bolted down and the distributor in. Next weekend I will index the starter and with a little wiring and mounting of a few electrical components it should be ready to start. Like I said...big weekend. Zilla.

 

I got a lot done this weekend but no pictures yet. I made the other ladder bar so all I have to do now is smooth them out a little and then etch and prime and paint. Spent today putting the Flowmaster exhaust under it. Turns out that it is not just a bolt in deal...drilling and drilling and wrestling with it and it is ready to be connected to the collectors. With the problems with my vision I will have to see if my buddy will weld it up for me. Next weekend I will install the 9" rear and get the ladder bars up under the car. I can already see that the emergency brake cables are in the way...they will have to go. Zilla,

 

Well I don't really know where to start...I guess with the rear end spring pads that didn't line up. I ordered some and they finally came in and I got them welded on by my buddy. He welded the mufflers on the exhaust and the transmission cross member in as well.

I have had to make a new front ladder bar crossmember since the one I bought hits the exhaust tubing. I think I have this figured out now and will be out in the garage tomorrow to see if the one I made will work.

My starter decided that it didn't want to clear the oil pan kick out so I had to order a mini. Its ready to go in and I picked up all the wiring that I will need to wire the entire car. I will get some picks as soon as I get something completed.

 

Ok, I'm keeping tabs on this thread, looks cool so far.

 

Great thread, thanks.
Can you describe the issue with the floaters and your axle?


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I have a rear end housing out of a mustang. Some of the housings for the mustang have a 3" diameter axle tube from the center section to the brake backing plate. Mine doesn't...it tapers down to 2 1/2" about 9" from the backing plate. Floaters are designed to weld to a 3" axle housing...so I had to return them and go a different way. I built a set of shackles for the front mount on my ladder bars. That allows the ladder bar to move forward and back a little when the leaf springs compress and unload on the street. It was no biggie...the problem that I had with the ladder bar mount is that I made my ladder bars 60" long...which put the cross member for the mounts under the tranny...making it difficult to get the tranny out. I am close to having my cross member finshed...one side is already in. Zilla

 

It has been a while since I posted anything on Sylvester. I am going to blame all the winter weather for that. I have stayed busy buying parts though...and with a few warm days here is what I got completed.

I put on a complete tubular front suspension with QA1 coilovers and a 1" sway bar. I had already installed the disc brake kit I got from Speedway. Taking the old front end parts off was the majority of the labor on this task...that and cleaning everything up for a little black paint.

I won't be able to set the ride height until I get the rear end on the ground...but it doesn't look too far off where it is. I plan to run it slightly nose high...maybe by 2" or so. Zilla.

 

Great car you´ve found there!!... I like the fact it doesn´t get the straight axle treatment, although I dig gassers, but I think not every 55 2dr post does necessarily need to be a gasser .

BTW
If you´re looking for your warm weather , its over here... we ought to have snow , I´ve heard you have got it... you can keep it, that´s alright with me

I´ve been looking for a 55 2dr for a while now project over here, but all I find are 4drs that are expensive as hell... It has been 13 years that I have bought my 56 2dr, so maybe my feeling for tri Chevy prices is not very up to date.
May I ask which price range was your 55? Maybe drop me a pm if you don´t mind to share that info.

 

Work continues on the 55. The rear end and ladder bars are completed and the center section is in. All new brakes in the rear and all that is left to do is run the lines to them.

The front suspension is completed and the toe is set. More brake line running to do up front. I decided to go with a Locar throttle and it was a tight fit with the two fours. I think it is going to work fine with it hooked up on the back side of the linkage.

I have been working around the boxes with the bucket seats in them that I got from Speedway, so I got busy building brackets and installed them. It took all of 4 hours per bucket to get them in but they slide nice and should be very solid. The tallest bracket was 2 3/16" off the floor and the rest were at floor level. If you want low back buckets these are a good buy at $200 each.

I got a new shim kit for the radiator support and temporary installed it so I could get the new radiator out of the box. It has been a real hassle working around all these boxes for the past three months. The radiator dropped right in and NAPA fixed me up with the flex hoses.

I have all the supplies I need to wire the car except the parts to build a fuse panel. I am making a diagram now of the routing for everything. Since my stock high torque starter didn't fit I had to get a small aftermarket starter and I think it is time to throw it on the engine.

I was surprised how much the price of having a drive shaft made has gone up. (2) 1350 u-joints and 3 1/2" tubing came out $300. No worse than the price of the rear shocks I guess...at $40 each.

I have a list of parts in my office that are ready to go on. Got to get it ready to go out for paint soon...black front and white rear, Bel Air trim. Zilla.

 

Looking great 'zilla, hope to see it soon prowling the streets!

 

Very close to going out for paint...look for it - black in front and white in back with a Sylvester the cat on the right side of the trunk and a poker hand painted on the left side - the cards 3, 2, 7, 4, 4. 327 with two fours.

When it comes back from paint I will pick up with the assembly...I have a pile of parts to install. Zilla.

 

Well it has been a while. The car went out for paint and is a beautiful straight black toner and Chevy PU white. It is still in the paint shop and work has continued. Most of the trim is on the car, the engine started right up and runs like a champ. There was a problem with rear springs (6 leaves) and it has been addressed. The car is looking GREAT! I have all new glass and I hope to get it in for the headliner Friday of this week. I will share some photos soon. Zilla.

 

I look forward to pictures after you get it assembled.

I had a '55 in the late 60's and want another now too.

 

OK, well we made having it at Goodguys in Dallas. The back seat was not in it and it was not running the greatest - but it was there. I finally got the car back home and put about 50 miles on it and I have to say, it is a total pig. The first thing I wanted to address though was not the driveability...it was the paint. The paint is soft enough that if you use a duster to wipe the dust off, it scratches. While it looked shiny...it did not have the "glass-like" look I was wanting. I took it over to a guy in town who buffs cars and has the reputation for being the best with a black car in town. The pic below is what he was able to do for it. At least a 90% more toward what I was wanting.
So, after a little driving it I decided that a short track sprint car engine is not the way I want to go...so I pulled it out. The 4 speed was leaking so I have sent it out to have it rebuilt and resealed. I hope I have a reputable builder - I am not sure. I ordered a crate engine from GM, their 290 HP model, and it is on the stand getting parts bolted on. One of those parts is the Edelbrock 2x4 set up. Man, what I have been through with that purchase. The Tech guy and his supervisor at Edelbrock finally just told me that it was not going to work with my high compression engine on 91 octane. That is after I have had the carbs open about a half dozen times.
I won't dwell too much on the engine problems, lets just say that a 3500rpm and up cam does not work well for me. I got really tired of having to muscle those wide tires with a worn out steering gearbox (the second one I put on it) so I have ordered a 500 power steering set up. I looked really hard at the rack and pinion deals...I just felt the 500 would work better for me. I will be cutting off the steering column and putting the new gearbox in before the engine goes in.
I am going to give the 2x4 set up one more go...if it does not work on the new engine I may just take a sledge to it. I think this engine will be what it needs. After 51 years of building cars with too much hp for the street I have finally outgrown it. I am looking forward to cruising in Sylvester to little parking lot rod runs and car shows all over. I will update my little thread here with more pics as soon as I finish getting things back together.