Hey guys, I've been lurking around for a while, but I finally got a chance to go home and get started on my car. It's a 1952 Styleline Special that my grandfather has had for 50+ years. My mother learned to drive in it, and I ended up purchasing the car from my grandfather after my older sister found that she couldn't take the time to work on it. I got up early to make the drive. Would be using the old tires off of another set of wheels that happened to be just about the right size. This is how it sat. We had no ramps to use so we improvised with planks and a sheet of thick iron. We hooked the 4-wheeler up to it and managed to get it out, but couldn't get it onto the trailer. Went and got the tractor and pulled it up on. Got it back home. Again, no ramps. Brakes didn't work, only the parking brake. Got it off with a couple old boards and a half burned log. The wood split and cracked loudly but seems like it got off unscathed. The two tires on the left side of the car were flat before we even got home. The back tire completely shredded itself while unloading. Ready to work. The back right wheel wasn't stock, but I happened to grab the spare when we picked the car up. There's an old rear end with a matching set of wheels sitting back where we pulled it out that I'll pick up some day. The front right wheel looks like it's been through a few different coats of paint. Once dark blue, then blue, then green. Got it on jack stands and we set to work on the brakes. Found the king pins were shaking but the bearings looked to be basically new. Delco Pleasurizers. Just out of sight: A hole from the bottom of the battery tray to the ground. Cleaned all the leaves and tarp remains from around the radiator. Cleaned out a bunch of junk from inside the car. An exercise machine, old videos, and about 3 boxes of various parts and chrome bits. Floors are pretty solid. Only a couple holes by the front seat, same on each side. Pulled the old gas tank. Before, it was running from a 1 gallon gas can sitting in front of the radiator. The entire underside of the car is caked with an inch or so of dirt and/or grease. We had to chisel just to get the wire off the sender, then I spent some time scraping and cleaning around the tank to be able to get to the sender screws. It was getting late at this point, so we got ready to call it a day. We'd been running back and forth to the parts store and this day was mostly disassembly. We pulled all the old fuel lines and brake lines and were getting ready to put new parts on. It started to rain on us a bit so we pushed everything under the car and headed to the house. The next day, we got right back to rebuilding the brakes. New cylinders, shoes, hoses. Cleaned up the brake hardware a bit. Had to stop for a bit and I cleaned up the old gas tank a bit more. We had ordered one to be ready for when I came down but they ended up shipping two different 54 gas tanks instead of a 52. Was thinking of doing a coating/cleaning up the gas tank, but after finding a hole and having heard stories of bad coating jobs I decided I'd just order a new one and wait. Wanted to actually look inside the tank to see how bad it was, but the sender had this older screw head pattern that I had no tool for. Tried to remove the filler neck. One nut came off, the other broke the bolt. Got the brake hoses all on. Kind of a bad shot, but you can see some of the gunk underneath the car. At this point we went and got new metal brake lines and bent and stuck them on. I never got a picture of them back in place, though. It started to get involved at this point and I was taking less pictures the more we worked. The key to the car was lost soon before I got it so I took the ignition to the local locksmith and he made a new set of keys and repaired the cylinder. I still have not gotten into the trunk. The ignition key fits only the ignition. Took the glove box lock in, and the new key only fits the glove box. I'm told the air cleaner and a bunch of other parts are in the trunk, but I have yet to get into it. I know there was only supposed to be one set of keys for this car originally, so I assume the locks were changed for security. Any ideas on how I'd get into the trunk without breaking something? Got a new fuel pump on. The tires I brought mounted pretty well, though they're a bit wide for the wheel. Changed the oil, put the additive in, new oil filter, new spark plugs, spark plug wires. Filled the old radiator up with water to see how it'd run. Spiders started running out of every nook and cranny, and I got a bit of rock/dirt thrown in my face while filming the startup. It ran a bit rough, but we already had a new carburetor ready for it. The insulation spacer was cracked, but didn't seem to leak. The new carb made the car run really smooth and quiet, and it could actually idle without dying. The next order of business was getting the brakes finished. We'd put the new carburetor on while waiting for a new master cylinder to come in.
Getting the pedals out was a pain. Weirdest master cylinder setup I've seen personally. The little pin inside was already broken on one side. I thought I'd go back out to grandpa's to see if he had a new one in his NOS parts, or to see if I could pull one out of one of the two junk cars (52 Deluxe and 50? Deluxe). Couldn't get underneath them since they're on the ground and the floors weren't quite rusted enough to just push out and get to the master cylinder. I gave up on the pin and re used the old one for now. But, I came back with a bunch of NOS parts, and I pulled a good carburetor spacer off one of the junk cars. Grandpa's shop is full of stuff like this. We managed to get the fuel sender off of the old tank to see what condition the tank was in. I ultimately decided not to use the old tank, and I ordered a new one (and sender) that got put on after I'd left. New master cylinder finally came in and we got it into place and got the brakes ready to go. We got the car on the ground and got it running. I managed to drive it up the driveway and back before the water pump started to squeal really loudly. Unfortunately I didn't get any good video. Got the old water pump off. Glad we ordered one ahead of time just in case. Unfortunately I didn't get any more pictures from this point. We got the new water pump on but had to remove the alternator in the process. The head of the bolt holding the alternator sheared off and we had to pound the bolt out. Luckily we had the exact bolt we needed to fix it. I had some errands to attend to before heading back out of state and wasn't there for the last bit of repairs. Dad was nice and put the new/repaired radiator in after I'd already left. The gas tank came in a week later and was installed. When I get back there the car should be ready to run and drive. I just have to get insurance and registration/inspection. All in all, we replaced pretty much the entire brake system save for the pedal itself. We also fitted new fuel lines, new carb, water pump, and fuel pump. I'll update the topic as more develops. All in all I had a fun time and got to spend time with family.
cool story and car. you can get in the trunk easy through the back seat. if you don't have one already get a chevsofthe40s.com catalog. they have all kinds of parts for these.
it is a "Special" with less chrome, but it has bumper tips, a radio and a deluxe steering wheel. most specials were stripped down to save a few bucks.
Great write up, thank you. I like seeing all the pictures. How long did it take in days to get through everything you did?
Yea, grandpa said when he got it, it had nothing on it and he pulled the radio and other parts from a Deluxe. I think he got a radio a long, long time ago but the other nice trimmings he pulled from a junked Deluxe sometime in the 70s. Thanks! From picking it up to putting the new water pump on, it was 5 days. Two of those days we spent most of the time waiting on parts to come in.
Enjoyed your posting and photos. Nice work in not ideal conditions,you have a nice project going. I felt your pain with the master cylinder R&R, I had to go to U tube to for the info and it was still a PITA. Keep at it. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App
As it stands now I get to pop down once every six months between college. It was time to visit for Christmas, so of course I wanted to spend some time with the car. I'm terribly forgetful so I didn't take many pictures. I wanted to drive the 52 to Xmas dinner, but Hagerty won't insure me as my daily is still in my parents' name and State Farm says it's not antique unless it's fully restored (I know right?) and wanted DD prices. I instead settled for driving the car up the road a couple times without getting on the highway. Dad's been working on a small shop, so I can keep the car nice and dry now. Did a little brake job on my DD while I was there. Only work we really did was pull all the old carpet/lining and vaccum the floor of the car. It let us get an idea of the rust present. More rust than I would like, but when do you like more than surface rust? Driver side floor is pretty solid Passenger floor Passenger side door rail Single largest hole is on the passenger side near the seat. Rainwater seems to drain right down into this area. Rear floorboard had a quarter-inch layer of some tar-like looking substance. A lot of it had cracked and pulled up easy, but there was a good bit that was solidly on there, and I didn't have time to pull it all. I assume this is some type of sound deadening. Closer look at some of the holes under the sound deadening. More rust under the door Under the back door where the fender flares. Had a reasonable pile of stuff pulled off the floor. Carpet, some sort of basically-dissolved vinyl/rubber liner, rubber strips, and some sort of soft-ish material that looked like insulation when pulled apart. A little piece of the vinyl/rubber(?) liner that survived well enough to read. Perhaps the marks on the circle indicate April of 52? Hard to see, but I had to empty the vacuum and clean it twice during the process of vacuuming. Had a small mound of dirt outside the shop when I was done. Floor was filthy; rust not included. Cleaned the windows too! Had my brother, girlfriend, and sister-in law helping me at the time, but sadly didn't think to take a picture as it was happening. Last day before we left I wanted to go down and pull some parts off of the junk 52 Deluxe. Only thing was it rained all day long. It was cold, wet, and somewhat miserable but I still enjoyed it. Fiddled around for a while trying to pull some parts through all the cob webs, limbs, leaves until we got the tractor and lifted the car and stuck some wheels under it to get it off the ground for the first time in probably 30 years. We damaged the front right fender but it wasn't of much use to me. This car is really rough and has already had a good bit of parts pulled from it. At least when I come back in the summer it'll be easier to access bolts on the lower part of the car. After we got it up off the ground I took a few pictures before departing. From the front. Front left fenderwell. Back seat area/floorboard. I actually crawled in through all the spider webs/hanging headliner and pulled the back seats out and some other parts that had been tossed inside before we lifted it. Floor was so thin that it tried to swallow my foot, as you can see from the hole. View from the back seat/window. There's a bullet hole in the driver side windshield (under the leaves), and the right windshield glass was cracked like someone tried to kick it in. Mom told me once that my older brother went down and shot a bunch of windows out of the junk cars when he was younger. Grandpa apparently whipped some butts after it was over. Also the flex flashlight on the column? I forgot to get it out before I left, so it's probably still sitting there. Kinda blurry picture of the car after we got it off the ground. I didn't even know there was still a rear end on the car until we pulled it up out of the dirt. Remnants of the back seat. Finally, a few parts we pulled out. Radiator, a spare wheel, and various small chrome bits. Maybe next time it'll be a little less cold and dry, and I'll be better prepared to cranking rusty bolts (should've brought a cutting wheel).
Time for another post. This time is like last time. I didn't really do much work on the car; I spent most of my time pulling junk cars/parts so here's some pictures of that. I'm not sure where to go with the car in the near future. I don't want to start doing body work or pulling it down to the frame while I'm still in college and have the car sitting as a pile of parts for years. Anyway, here's the parts 52 Deluxe as it sat before we pulled it out and loaded it. It took quite a bit of time to work it out with the soft dirt and odd location it sat in. The underside of the car after loading. We also loaded up an old GMC Trucks sign that had been sitting in the bushes for years. A glass bolt that came out of the sign. It was the only one I found. Just some random stuff I found in the dirt: Steering wheel entangled with roots. Buried hubcap Old touchup paint Also, we've always made trailers out of old truck beds. The front of the car after loading. I hate that it didn't escape the loading process un-damaged but nothing that was solid on the car received significant damage. We took the hood off and placed it in the truck bed so it didn't fly away whilst driving. Another shot of the loaded trailer. The car once unloaded and up on blocks. Rear passenger floor of the 52 We turned around to go get the 50 Chevrolet. We found it still had rear wheels but the front was sitting on a drum and spindle on the front. After a bit of thinking we decided to pull the wheels and front bearing off of another 49-52 front end that was sitting on the property. We hadn't prepared for this so we improvised tools. Getting the salvaged assembly placed onto the old, rusty spindle It's not pretty, but it's just enough to keep the wheel on. It took a hammer and wood block to get it on as far as it went. The back end, with a loose wheel. Getting it hooked up and ready to roll for the first time in 30+ years. We pulled it out, all wheels turning except the removed rear wheel which drug itself out. We lifted it back up and re-attached the wheel for easier loading. While the car seems more complete and intact than the 52, it's been rusted through pretty badly. The trunk can't close because all the metal holding the mounts has nearly disintegrated. The roof has two large rust holes in it and the roof itself almost isn't attached to the lower body. The back glass was held in with hope and leaves so we lifted it out and sat it to the side. This car has an engine and mechanical parts that are mostly complete, though. There was a gas tank here before it was parked, I'm sure. The car had been in an accident before parked. Loaded onto the trailer Backend after loading Side of the car after unloading. There's no floor to the left side of the frame. The only door I can get open is the rear passenger door. Some interior shots
As for my 52 Special, the only work I did was crawling into the trunk so that I could finally open it. Just after getting the trunk open. It was easier to remove the plate holding the trunk than try to get pliers in to turn the lock mechanism. Pulled the old lining and a bunch of other crud out of the trunk. After a good sweep. I took the car for a ride a few times while I was there. I tried recording some driving video but it was about 103F the entire time I was there. My phone shut itself off after about 3 minutes in the car, saying that it was too hot to record. I have about 10 hubcaps for the car so I decided to finally put some back on. I also removed a panel from the GMC Trucks sign, cleaned it, and placed it inside. Bad lighting so it's a bit hard to see. Bonus: Had to go to a junkyard to get an A/C relay for my daily. Saw this 69? Mustang that had some heavy front-end damage. There are several of these all over the yard used to move cars/parts. A corvair Old sign. This one was pretty worn but the main building was full of all sorts of nice signs.
Congrats on getting the car running/driving. That's such a big step. I noticed on your parts '52 that it has the backup lights. I would be interested in buying them if you aren't going to use em.
The Jalopy Journal
