This was my initial plan. 1957 date coded 265 and a factory 56 Vette intake. Then I tore it down and found that cylinder 7 had left the building, big hole punched in the wall from water freezing in it. Will eventually see about having it sleeved. Or maybe use the crank to build a 302.
This is when I bought it out of the guy's field. Outside really hasn't changed much, I'm becoming a fan of buying decent bodies to start with. Usually you can't tell it's even a car when I first get it home...
327 thrown together for now so the car will move around the yard. Sorry pics are out of order, trying to go through 3 years of project pictures... Everything after this should be current as I update the thread.
Man, what a great driver! Bel Airs had the long top fin trim. The paint on that car may not be what you want to end up with, but shooting anything over it would probably look worse. Maybe spot in the doors, Squablow has blended patina'd paint well. I'm really liking this thread.
It looks like something in the pictures but what paint is on it looks like ****. The silver is full of runs and the hood is all cracked and flaking off to bare metal. You can tell some kids were just fogging it in shop cl***. The body is too nice to leave it like it is. I'm liking this car, picture stolen from a gov't tri-five group, this is a Dept of the Interior car in original paint. Just old factory black with some of the gloss worn out of it. If anyone has pics of a 4 door 150 in solid colors and stock wheels, feel free to post ideas. Also not sure what I want to do for the interior, leaning towards tuck n roll but any period-correct ideas are appreciated. I don't mind stock but not really sold on it. Cosmetics are a ways away but I can dream... Thanks for the responses guys!
thats a beautiful ride, and im a ford guy! same here, my '57 ford had its taillights bashed out, 2nd thing i ever did to it was paint the inside with aluminized silver paint to make the tails brighter, replace the bulbs, and stuck some non shattered taillights in it. thats a really nice ride you have there, love me some more-doors.
It's crazy how different the hardtops look. The roof on a hardtop is shorter, so the fins are effectively longer. Notice the filler panel between the back gl*** and trunk lid is longer on a hardtop. Roof itself is an inch lower and a couple inches shorter front to back. It really changes the whole look of the car, hardtops are sleek as hell. To me the sedans look blocky in comparison but the straight trim on a 150 compliments the blockiness. So I'm ok with a sedan as long as it's a 150. In any case I'm a firm believer that '57 was the peak of domestic automotive styling all the way across the board.
Question: while I was kinda diggin' the silver... would a mild scotchbrite pad take the silver off and leave the olive green behind?
There are various shades and reflectivenessesisms of military green paint. You might find something you like better than you thought you would. I'm partial to the very dark olive with some shine to it.
Yes, Muncies are not cheap. Other choices are Saginaw 4 speeds, full syncro Saginaw 3 speeds and 3 speed O.D. and heavy duty Muncie 3 speeds. All of these would install just as easily as a Muncie 4 speed. The floor shifter and linkage might take some fabrication for the 3 speeds, though. Hurst offers a floor shift setup for a Saginaw 4 speed in a 55-57 Chevy. I've been considering a H.D. Muncie 3 speed for my 56 BelAir. These are very strong transmissions that were used in big block Chevys with a 3 speed transmission. For example, a 1970 Nova SS 396 with a 3 speed. They were also used in Chevy / GMC pickups with 3 speed transmissions. Haven't really tried to figure out shift linkage yet but was thinking of using a Hurst Compe***ion Plus 4 speed shifter and linkage. I'd leave the reverse shift arm on the shifter unhooked, with the 1st-2nd and 3rd-4th shift arms and rods as the reverse-1st and 2nd-3rd gears. Attached are a couple of photos of H.D. Muncie 3 speeds. These are sort of a forgotten transmission. The side cover bolt pattern is an easy way to ID them. The top two bolts sort of look like ears pointing up. Otherwise, they look like a Saginaw 3 speed. Some of these that were used in pickups had 5 mounting bolts.
Look for a Hurst dual pattern synchroloc shifter. Better than the compe***ion shifters IMO. For a 4 speed just add a lever somewhere for reverse. Won't get a better shifting setup than that. Nobody remembers what those shifters are so I've gotten several of them stupid cheap. I'm just going to run the toploader, already have a stack of them and since I'm going to use a ****tershield it will practically install itself. Then I won't ever have to worry about grenading a Crunchie. I do have an OD 3spd on the shelf for it as another option but I wouldn't want to run more than the 265 in front of it. Reliability is the priority.
Back in the late 60's (yes I am that old) when you could buy decent tri-fives Chevys for $50 we had more fun with beater cars with built engines than the new muscle cars the big buck guys drove. my buddy bought a wrecked 67 full sized Chevy Ohio State patrol car for the drive train that we put in a 4door 55, we cleaned every thing on 4 wheels until we got found out! GOOD TIMES!!!!
The Jalopy Journal
