Projects 53 Chevy Bel Air "Cleetus" mild custom daily driver

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And the project I have been working on awhile now to be a daily driver. 53 Bel Air I pulled from a field where it sat nearly 50 years. Was originally a sky blue with army green roof. Original 235/powerglide car with factory power steering. I swapped it to a 76 350 with 77 th350 and manual steering using a 51 styleline box. Has an S10 rear end for now with a 3.42 locker. All junkyard sourced Stewart Warner gauges.

Plans are to at least lower the rear, add lake pipes, louvre the hood, red scallops, 55 Chevy headlights (swapped to 54 headlight bezels and tail lights for now), something custom with the grill, and red and black tuck and roll. Going for an early sixties mild custom look

 

Heres some pics of it as purchased lol

 

I'm going to be working on doing a lot to this. Front disc conversion, new gas tank, a proper floor shifter, carpet, rebuild the heater, finish getting tires from this decade on it, start hunting new glass, and properly weld and fill the hood. Currently I just have fiberglass shoved in the seam. Really had no choice as the original t strip was long gone and anytime I popped the hood after a rain the top of the engine was flooded. I also have a set of 461 heads I'm going to send to the machine shop to go on it. The engine long block is an untouched 350 from a 76 k10 with 80k miles on it. Valve seals are horrible on the original 882s lol. Figure for my needs the 461s will fit the best. It'll get new valves and seals along with bumping the compression to around 9:1. As it sits I'm maybe making around 200 hp....with the 461s I might get up to 220 hp lol. Basic RV cam is in the plans too

 

Also next summer it'll get some "real" paint. Already have it but ran out of time this summer as I'm painting it in my backyard. Nason ful-thane single stage true black.

 

Hopped back on rattle canning it for winter. Had used what was supposed to be a black single stage topcoat on it but after what it did to my paint gun along with how horribly it held up I'm just stripping it off and spraying with semi gloss black engine paint till next summer. This fender could use another coat but I ran out lol. May give it a quick wetsand in a few days and hit with more paint

 

Very good. I like it.

 

Going to start on the passenger rear door next and work my way forward. Then I'll hop on painting the quarters again lol

 

Several times on this build some of the stuff I used I kinda felt like they were vintage inspired rather reproductions until flipping through old magazines. First part was my speedway front engine mount. Then I saw an identical mount in a 1959 HRM in an article on engine swaps. Last one was the air filter. Then tonight I found this studillac in a 1955 HRM. Lol

 

So this one will be about more rattle can. This actually turned out to be a good before and after pic. Lol. Gonna start on the front door tomorrow and order the rest of the hardware for the trim Tuesday

 

And planning on running these on it as functional exhaust with motorcycle baffles just after the manifolds. Figure these with a three inch blocks in the rear will go a long way towards my mild custom intentions lol

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Lake-Pipes-70-Inch,39841.html?sku=91013397-SS

 

Had to edit to make it visible. But another door sprayed. Should have most of the hardware for the trim day after tomorrow

 

After accidentally calling out a check signer claiming to have built his car at a car show today I got motivated to do a little on mine. Sprayed the fender and got most of the trim back on. Going to order a new gas tank this week so I can get rid of the boat tank in the trunk. Next week I'll order lakes pipes

 

And now all that is left to rattle can is the hood, roof, and trunklid and then I can leave paint alone till next summer

 

Ordered my gas tank today. Happened to look at the reviews and near all of them were there being no hint at what the threads for the intank pickup are. I hope you see what I see because the apparent lack of reading and comprehension skills of the people apparently building cars scares me lol

 

And got my tank in the mail and installed today. Got a few small things to do to finish it up but it holds gas and the car runs lol. Really wanted a stock tank but they were either a lot higher or from a less reputable shipper than speedway. Ordered this Tuesday night lol. I just wish they supplied rubber gaskets for the sender and intank block off plate instead of crappy cork. I fortunately at least had a new rubber gasket for the sender that I got with the new sender. I'm getting close to being done with the required restoration parts and can get back to custom stuff soon. Lol. Also picked up the 58 Impala rear end this morning. Il start on it in the next couple days

 

And as I'm waiting on shipping and budget on more parts I decided to freshen up the one original to my car wheel I got with the car. First pic is after I started hitting it with a wire wheel and before I hit it with the sandblaster at work. Second is after blasting and spraying black to make sure no exposed metal. And finally the red to match the car. Figure I'll throw a whitewall on it and put it in the trunk as my spare with the one 53 Bel Air hubcap I have lol. Kinda tempted to find a full set and reverse and chrome them. I know they aren't the popular hoops for chrome reverse but I'm liking the inner lip

 

Looks like you have that rattle can figured out.

 

Yeah always been good with rattle can. But like I said this summer it'll start getting real paint. Doing it outside and the nason single stage is a bit more sensitive to cold and takes a lot longer to dry than duplicolor rattle can lol

 

Great job on saving the car and getting it back on the road .

 

The pic of chev in the field - should have got the Buick behind it. Where that Buick end up?

 

I believe it's still there. I tried to sell it for him(elderly guy not good with Internet lol) but no real bites

 

And a Riviera isn't exactly my style
... especially at double the price lol

 

Finally got the the 58 Impala rear end torn down. Aside from brakes everything seems to be in good shape. Will replace axle bearings. Couldn't find the numbers on the gears but counted pinion turns and roughly took 3.25ish turns to spin ring gear. So going off available gears that year I'm guessing 3.36.....which would be near perfect. Ill clean everything really well and swap mounts.

 

Also got these caps coming

 

And got the control arm brackets cut off. Now I just need perches lol

 

Was a lil iffy on the caps till I pulled it on a hump in the yard that pushed the rear wheel up. I think after I get some lakes pipes and drop the rear 3" the caps will do nicely

 

Your hard work is paying off, nice car.

 

Once funds start coming in faster than they go out it'll get a lot nicer. Might even get actual carpet lol

 

Love this build