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

@squirrel id say that looks better. About a paperclip wire thickness clearance. Ground down the starter nose on inside bolt, went to 3/8" shank bolts, and half shimmed the outer bolt. Bout to test it. I'll have to hit up Fastenal for higher grade bolts though

 

Finally finished drilling the caps for the lakes pipes. Aside from it having a high idle in the video and the exhaust having to much bass for my mic to properly pick up it sounds a lot better. Lost most of that tractor sound it had at idle lol

 

Good progress

 

Had the driver side done for like two weeks. Just got around to drilling the other one yesterday lol

 

Totally forgot I scavenged the complete stereo setup from the car I traded towards a five speed last month before I traded it. Infinity kappa speakers and Kenwood stereo. I think most of it will end up hidden in this car.

 

Finally got around to making a brace for the starter. Starts up Nicely now

 

So new developments mean I may go ahead and shave the side trim when it warms up. Appears I have a new indentured servant aka apprentice as my 15 year old step daughter decided she wants to be a petroleum primate. Regardless I'll weld and peak the hood and respray the trunk. But if I have my sand block monkey like I think I will I'll remove all the side trim aside from the gravel and scuff shields and the bel air emblems. Handles on front door handles and a bel air window trim. As for the bel air scripts. In 23 when I bought my reproduction scripts I stuck them on loosely when the quarter panel was spray painted solid black. It made me think of the fuel injection scripts on a 57 Chevy. Actually looked kinda cool with the rest of the trim gone. Also a chance I'll go 56 Chevy rear wheel openings like id kinda wanted to do since I got the car in 2020. In any event it'll look more like the custom the Amish style sticklers here claim it isn't lol. Another motivation to do the shave is I was never happy with how the paint on the quarters turned out. I had decided to test the claim that I could lay paint over unsanded primer after an hour. Paint adhered fine but the texture of the primer caused an orange peel texture. So it would be nice to get rid of that

 

The daily driver intention of this build along with the issues with the starter have been causing me to debate eventually swapping to a vortec 350. Along with a manual transmission at some point. Think I settled on a cam when I do and for the engine for the 54. Gm 14097395. From what I read it'd put hp in 320 range and torque in 350 range. And torque down low is beefed up. Which is honestly more than I need in these two cars. The current smog 350s 200 hp so far has seemed plenty. So an additional 100+ hp and a clutch should make it a ball to drive lol. Both cars will serve duty pulling trailers at some point so the extra torque would come in handy

 

And on days like today the extra toque would help push the snow I out of the driveway with the front bumper

 

Smokey burnouts

 

Had originally planned on rebuilding one for it till I priced a reman with four year warranty. May just save up and buy one

 

And.....I got it stuck in my back yard lol

 

And you come here to say that without pics? Come on now...

 

Best I got lol. Ran out of light

 

I think removing the side trim would be a mistake. Without the trim it would look like a thousand other common "cheapo" Chevy sedan models out there. The Bel Air trim makes it look like top of the line...I'd keep it.

 

It's keeping the stainless around the windows and the gravel and scuff shields. And I'm keeping the bel air script on the quarters. I still love how it looked against a sea of black. And my trim isn't in the best shape plus I'm missing one of my paint dividers. I'll see what mood I'm in after repainting the trunk and welding and peaking and repainting the hood.

 

Man I’ve still got a good thick layer of clear ice and about a foot of snow in my driveway. But I sure thought about it anyways today lol. Soon as it’s gone I’ll get out lol

 

I'll get some cat litter tomorrow. Whole area is intended to eventually be a garage anyway.

 

With the help of my car ramps and my trusty Daytona Jack me and ol' cleetus finally defeated the diabolical yard. Side note. It's fun trying to jack up a lowered car sunk in the mud with lakes pipes lol

 

Here's how bad a trimless Bel Air would look...just like a lowly 150...almost looks like a '53 Dodge.

 

So on the post talking about my step daughters intended project truck I mentioned her getting the current hubcaps off my 53 as hand-me-downs. When I bought the current caps I really wanted these. But these caps were 3 times as much and I was doing a lot all at once. Once I pay off the grill for the 54 I'm going to go ahead and pick these caps up.

 

Eh ...my car would still have a lot more stainless than that. I've wanted to do scallops ever since I bought the car. Without the side trim it'd be a lot easier to lay some out that look good. So it wouldn't stay plain sided. I'm eventually going to do a two door conversion and when that happens it for sure won't have the side trim. Would greatly Jack up the conversion cost

 

And honestly I'd have preferred if it was a 210 instead of bel air. Part of why my 54 210 2 door appealed to me when @fastcar1953 offered it to me lol.

 

So a deep dark secret is I've been seriously considering some portawalls lol. Not long term. But definitely for seeing if I actually like whitewalls on my car. And while it's exclusively being used around town with no highway use. Seeing this pic of a 53 olds in a familiar paint scheme got me thinking on them again lol. Can't justify even cheapo actual whitewalls at this point. But portawalls are cheap enough....

 

And a less glamorous modification I'm thinking on. Guy with a 54 gave me this idea. I plan on occasionally pulling a small camper with both this car and the 54. And I refuse to use an old style hitch. Guy with a 54 has a custom fabricated receiver hitch that goes in in place of that cross member. Thinking I'll build one myself. Guy that built it offered to do mine for $200 which isn't bad at all tbh but he'd need the car in person. And it'll be a good while till I can trust this on a two hour one way drive lol. I figure Ill do mine with more bracing and have the hitch tube inline with the main mounting body. That way the actual hitch would just barely clear the bumper when slid in. And tuck it slightly behind the bumper so not easily visible when not in use

 

Doesn't look like part of my car. But it will be lol. Getting used to my el cheapo welder and welding up my exhaust I used up the wire that came with it. Ordered this roll on Amazon expecting a bigger roll. It was cheap enough lol. But I'm thinking I'll order a backup roll before I start welding and peaking my hood. I feel like that'll use a lot of wire lol

 

I need to figure out how to get this from Joplin to me. Super cheap but he refuses to ship and I have no idea when I'll be in that area

 

My 2010 Challenger had a factory option receiver hitch that was out of sight when the hitch was pulled. The receiver was vertical and the pin could easily hold any weight I was going to need. Build your own and the hitch can be whatever height you want. Drill a second hole 90 degrees to the tow position and you could leave the hitch in and up out of sight.

 

This is the hitch I am thinking on copying somewhat. I'll add more bracing though. Car is fairly local to me ....in fact he told me he lives a couple miles from my favorite BBQ place. So I can probably look at it in person if needed lol

 

I've used port-a-walls on 2 of my hot rods with great success on radial tires. The Panel had them for over 10 years...the '36 going on 5 years...no issues

Although they say for tubeless tires, I prefer to run radial innertubes in my tires to avoid any slow leak issues.
For under $300 you can get that WWW look.
($80 Porto's, $100+- tubes, $100+- re-mount/balance).