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

So I finally found a place that sells the desired trunk liner. But gonna be a hot minute before I can swing or justify swinging it lol

 

Got the other seat garnish reupholstered. And fogged the one sort of surviving sill plate silver and threw it in

 

Video of me upholstering the end piece finally uploaded

 

Thinking after I get some u bolts I'm going to pull the lowering blocks out. Need them for the 54 anyway. When I get some different rear springs along with the planned rear end swap I'll build new blocks for it.

 

Got some generic weatherstripping super cheap through a buddy's employee discount and did the top half of three doors. Actually passenger front got about 3/4. And used a small leftover piece to make a temporary window sash in the driver window to keep some of the rain out of the door. I may eventually get proper door gaskets but so far this stuff seems to work. Not only that but all three doors are opening and closing better now

 

Hey if it works, it works!

 

Was smoking in the car just now and I noticed a big difference in how much smoke accumulated in the car now lol.

 

As a final one two for the weekend I got the Pixar speaker setup and installed and secured the temporary shift boot mounted to the floor

 

So doing plugs and wires on a customer vehicle today I think I accidentally found some plug wires that'll fit without being modified. Hadn't found any that fit an sbc with both an hei and 55/56 265 manifolds. Ones on a TBI 454 look like they'll fit. Going to take the wires i took off and try them. If it's a good I'll get a new set lol.

 

So anyway it's been ten days since I installed the front carpet and about a week since I did the rear. Despite no actual hot days(hottest was low 70s) the carpet is already fitting noticably significantly better. Far fewer spots push in with weight now. By the end of the summer it should be like shrink wrap lol

 

Thinking it's dog leg time now since I actually have a welder now lol

 

So yeah going to build doglegs tomorrow. Grabbed a small piece of 18 gauge sheet, a flap disc, and a couple cutting wheels. Should have enough welding wire

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/oMRkR1ZpQOk?si=2XhUbxxNJr8Z_bwu

 

So I patched the passenger dogleg and built a new driver dogleg. Gonna post some videos on it later. Considering in pics it's rattle can over bare metal I don't think they came out bad. Definitely better than the rusty mess there was lol

 

First video uploaded. Honestly had no idea how long it'd take lol

 

Not exactly what I'm thinking but definitely along the lines in thinking on the eventual scallops

 

Tore down one of the original wing glass assemblies in preparation for new weatherstripping, window channels, and glass. Painted the hidden pieces silver as is. Gonna take the glass frame to work and wire wheel it really well before also hitting with silver. Popped the stainless strips off to give a good polish. Don't have any of the bits to reassemble but figured taking one apart and cleaning in preparation would be a good motivation lol. I've kinda decided finished wing glass is my next project

 

And because I never only think about the current subproject ..... Thinking I may go t5 on this one. While I have the starter reliably-ish functional now it's still not right. Couple options to get it right. I can buy an overpriced special starter that was designed specifically for the 010(and I believe 014) blocks like mine with the defective starter holes. Then I'd be on the hook if it went out to again have to special order if still available or swap noses anytime I needed to replace it. Replace the engine with another SBC. This route would be expensive as I'd wanna use a new reman engine and would need a new matching starter. And then the final option I'm looking at that I'm thinking pretty hard on doing. T5 from behind a v8. I know you can use a vintage bell housing in the swap. I not only have a 57 Chevy bell housing and flywheel already I also have a new reman Wilson starter I bought early in the build when I was trying to get it running with my 283. Also have all the matching tins etc. Oh and an original 55 Chevy starter that tested good. This route seems the best. I want to go manual anyway. I can get the stuff to do a hydraulic clutch including pedal assembly for under $300. I've seen the transmission itself sell from $150-300 when they pop up. Then about $150 for a clutch and $10 for a pilot bushing. And we have a guy we use at the shop that'll shorten a driveshaft for like $50. Not to mention if this engine ever let's go I'll be able to use any SBC with little effort regardless of starter mount situation. And I'd end up with both an o/d AND the correct number of pedals lol

 

I'll try to get a pic in the morning. But got the wing glass frame wire wheeled and sprayed with stainless steel paint. After the glass is in I may tape it off and stuff and do another coat or two. But as it is it came out pretty decent. Even metallic and feels like smooth bare metal to the touch


Also on stuff like my grill I've been thinking about trying to chrome wrap them until I can get real chrome. I know at best it'll look like faded worn chrome but that'd be better than paint lol

 

And the painted wing glass frame. Only gonna disassemble one side at a time

 

Well went to pull the lowering blocks and I bolts to have ready for my 54 tomorrow to make it a roller and found out it's a good thing I did. Way back when I did the open drive conversion my buddy came over and did what he thought was a favor by welding the repositioned perches. Till tonight I thought he did me a favor too. Turns out that was the grinding popping noise I was hearing between gears lol. Nearly all of it was chicken scratch with extremely little penetration. Surprised they held as long as they did. Basically when I dropped the blocks out the perches came with them lol. I'll give them a good weld up tomorrow or Friday. Glad I caught that before driving it on the street. Anyway my initial mission of harvesting blocks and crappy unbolts was a success lol

 

Was also thinking once I get around to building my own lowering blocks I may just weld them directly to the perches. They'll get a pin also but if I weld them to the rear end on top of that that'll add another level of security. They'll just be 1.75" blocks so it's not like I'd be stuck with a drastic drop. And if I wanted a drastic drop I could add a thinner block without the usual stacked lowering block quirks

 

And no more lowering blocks. Also got this sides spring perch rewelded. In the process I positioned it better because I had this one a touch of the first time around

 

So something I noticed when putting the new u bolts in Thursday without the blocks is that after I make new blocks the same u bolts will have enough meat to accommodate them. About 2.5" of threads past the nuts. Only planning on 1.75-2" blocks.

 

And one wing glass glued in.

 

Oh I got around to actually rewelding the driver spring perch. Stuff like that is an example of why I prefer to do everything myself. Buddy welded them on five years ago when I first pulled the stock rear end. Turns out aside from about a 1/4" each perch there was no actual penetration. This time around I was actually using a crappier welder but I made sure metal on both pieces pooled together and cooled before going over the same section high heat. Before I hook brakes up on the rear end I'll unhook the driveshaft and turn the rear end upside down and get the harder to reach areas better. At this point I've decided to just stick with the crappy s10 rear lol. And the O'Reilly u bolts actually clamped down correctly. Still heard a bit of grinding when I drove the car to the house to give it a wash. Turns out the bushings in the shackles are completely shot lol. Eyes of the springs rub the frame. Reinforced my decision to eventually get that posies spring kit lol. May still just put bushings in the current shackles till I order springs. I can always reuse the shackles and new bushings on the currently shackleless 54 lol. At some point I'll need to get some shorter u bolts to properly clamp the fact shock brackets to the springs. Driver side is fairly tight but there's some play in the passenger side lol. Oh and I gave the perch welds a bit on a test. Powerbraked it till the speedometer said 70 mph(speedometer is actually almost dead on somehow lol) for about a minute. Seemed to hold fine.


Also rethought my future home built lowering blocks figure I can stack to 1"×1" square steel tubes with a center hole drilled through both. Stick the appropriately sized rod through one and weld in. Trim one side so the rod only sticks out 1/2" and then stack on the other piece and weld together. Then weld a piece of 3/8" plate on either side. And trim the remaining rod protrusion to the needed length

 

Going to order the wing glass weatherstripping, the rivet kit, and a replacement pair of reproduction b and m hydrostick stickers today when I get paid. I'll order the other wing glass pane and the window channels another week

 

So after checking tracking on the rivet kit I feel goofy for ordering them online. Apparently they're coming from an hour away.... basically just the other side of KC. I could have picked them up myself and had an excuse to hit Bates City BBQ or Arthur Bryant BBQ in the process lol

 

You NEVER need and excuse to go get good BBQ. You should probably drive over there to make sure they have already shipped them if you think you need the excuse. Now if you don't bring her some home or take her with you, you could be in trouble.

 

Funniest part is I also have stuff coming from Florida and Texas. Those things will likely be delivered before the one in KC lol.