Father Son Build: 1950 Chevy Fleetline Deluxe

Also picked up these dropped uprights from a fellow Hamber. They appear to be 2" drop. We will get new Moog springs and cut a coil and see where that puts us.

 

Happy Birthday Eli! Looks like you had a good one. Oh, and nice work on the car! Go man, go!

 

Good to see Eli helping out on this build.

 

Just now seeing this thread for the first time, Matt. Super cool to get to build a car with your son, these will be great memories....and great skills he's learning, even if he doesn't become a life long car guy....although it's hard to see how he can't be.

I know I'm late to the party, but back when I had my Fleetline, I hadn't gotten around to dropping the rear end, but here's how it sat with 2 inch dropped uprights and a coil (maybe 2?...it was a little too much what ever it was. LOL) cut from the springs....just for reference for you.

 

Eli is really enjoying our time working out there. He truly is building this car with his own hands. I am hoping this will motivate him to take car of it.

Matt

 

Thanks for the updates Matt! Looks like you and Eli are making good progress.

 

I am grateful for the time we spend in the garage working. It has strengthened our relationship so far. He is having fun and I never have to fight him to get out there. We both look forward to Monday night.

Thanks for the info on your fleetline suspension. Nice car! I like the wheel/tire combo. I will show this to Eli and see what he thinks.

Matt

 

Yes sir. We are making steady progress. I will try to stay on top of loading updates each week. Also, Eli joined the HAMB. We will get his intro post and he can start commenting on here as well.

Matt

 

Do you need a lot of that rust stuff to do the car like you did?

 

If the rear end doesn't sit as low as you like you can adjust it a little by removing a couple leafs from the pack.
Car is looking great, and love the project with your son!

 

We bought a gallon to use for the bottom of the car, inside floor, the bottom of the roof, inside of the doors and quarters. We are using Rustoleum to coat over it. We have maybe used 1/2 a gallon so far. It seems to work pretty good. I really wanted to pull the body from the frame but we don't have a lot of space so we are doing the next bext option. Ultimately, everything will have a good coat of paint so this car will hold up as long as possible.

 

Thanks! We bought new springs from Posie's. I thought they said the springs will lower the car 2" and the car will settle down a bit over time. I think I am going to buy a used set of tires from a local wrecking yard and have them put on for rollers that match the size we are going to use and see how it sits then.

 

Making great progress, and having some irreplaceable father and son time.

 

Nice job!!


I JB weld almost everything the rest I use bubble gum.
Life is to short to do it right the first time

 

Made a little progress this week. Got the trans crossmember out and have the suspension and crossmember out. We are going to weld in the patch panels on the floor next, then finish painting the bottom side of the car. After that we will move onto rebuilding the front suspension.

We plan to use the 2" dropped uprights we picked up from a fellow hamber and new Moog coils with a coil cut.

 

Also picked up a set of five 54 Olds hubacps from a fellow hamber. I am hoping we can get some extra garage time this weekend...we will see.

 

Your rear seems high. Are the rear shackles flipped the wrong way? They should hang, facing toward the frame. If they are facing the floor you need to flip them: jack up the rear if the car and use a big screwdriver or other tool to pry them past the halfway point. They will pop into the correct position, then lower the jack. (I made this mistake when I put new "lowering" springs on the back of my car and it sat a couple inches higher!)

Sent from my SM-G981V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Thanks for pointing that out. The shackles are pointing downward. I will mess with it this weekend. Glad to learn this as I was a bit disappointed how high it sits with the new springs and 2" blocks.

 

No big progress, but we are still working steady each week. We got more of the bottom side of the car primered. We will paint this section next, then move onto rebuilding the front suspension.



Picked up some valve covers too.

 

So we have taken a break from Eli's car due to life getting in the way. We had a 11 day Boy Scout trip to the Boundary Waters where we canoed 101 miles (BSA Troop 101). Eli did not make this trip as he had to be 14 and was not so it was his brother Gabe (14) and me. We then had another Boy Scout week long summer camp in West Texas in the Davis Mountains, then a 2 week trip to California. On top of that, we bought property in Driftwood and have been working non stop to get it ready to lease out. Should be done in two weeks and back on Eli's car.

We did pick up some more parts though. Picked up a Jaguar front end, a 4L60E trans and a 96 LT1 350. The plan is to pull off all the computer, injection and multi-spark from the Lt1 and put a GM performance intake, Edelbrock Performer carb and HEI distributor. We are planning on getting a standalone computer for the trans. The motor has 45,000 miles, the trans has 0 miles after a rebuild and they both have been sitting for 15 years in the guys garage. We grabbed these parts off of CL and the guy was super nice and building a cool 50 Chevy pick up.

We are planning to start fitting the front clip next. Read a lot of good things about these Jaguar swaps plus all the parts are readily available at O'Riely's so that's good. The front end needs a rebuild and will get a new or rebuilt rack. We are both getting excited to dive back in.

 

Go man go!

 

Got my first car and electric guitar when I was thirteen. Still have both and use them regularly. I'm 43 now.

 

Nice! Just found this thread. Awesome father son project and can't wait till me and my son start on one for him. Following.

 

Glad to see that you are going with the Jaguar front end. I re-did/fixed a JAG conversion on friends '52 Chevy ute.
Two ways to do the conversion, bolt them in or weld them in ...... please bolt it in as it's a much better outcome.
We used a '70's XJ6 front end, did you get the intermediate steering shaft too. As we aren't allowed to weld any steering or suspension components Down Under we try to use as many OEM parts as possible.
PM me if you'd like any advice/suggestions etc.

 

Love those Fleetlines, looks like yall are having a good time building it too ! Just a heads up on those Posies springs, they actually raised my 52 a bit over the stock worn out springs..I was bummed too. Also Loudbang is right, these days they'll shoot down a thread real quick. I'd hate to see it deletes over an engine pic. Thanks for sharing yalls build w us here.

 

That's cool. I wish I still had my first guitar and first old car.

 

Lookin good Matt and Eli!

 

Nice project, guys!

I dragged home a bare shell of a 65 El Camino for my oldest when he was 13. We got it running and driving before his 16th birthday, then he started racing it (legally, at the dragstrip) and all the details went out the window. He's 22 now and still has it. but it's pretty rough because he never did anything with the body or interior.

I like the way you guys are taking the time to clean and paint everything. He'll have a nice car for it in the end.

Devin

 

We are back on the car as of a few weeks ago.

Sorted out some off topic front suspension work. Now we are in the middle of the front floor patch panels. Once side is welded in, need to weld the other then grind and paint...etc. We are going to put all new body bolts and rubber pads before we get too far. Not pulling the body totally off, just raising it up, setting it on 4x4 wood blocks which will give us space to clean up and get paint to the areas we were unable to reach so far. Again, we are not building a show car, but want to make sure everything has a good layer of paint.

Then we will be back on the front suspension, steering and motor/trans set up.