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

Looks great . Check out a semi chrome shop . They have a large selection of different sizes of lights. Those truckers are loco over lights . I know that you ordered lights already. Just a suggestion for your next project

 

I'll still check it out on this car. Had to have lights before it went on. Doesn't mean I won't change them later

 

So the bar ***embled. Kinda threw me off that the lights have an actual mounting orientation. Went to stick the second screw in and the second hole was gone lol. Turned it around and there it was

 

And my solution for mounting beefy piece of angle iron. I'll cut and drill this to bolt to the back of the bar and then build mounting framework off of it. I intend to build an early olds style filler piece to go between grill and radiator support so it won't be visible anyway

 

Extremely sloppy mockup. Lol. But I'm liking the look

 

Definitely not till I get a new one piece bumper. It's currently a combination of 54 Chevy center piece and 49 Chevy ends. Guard hide the meetup

 

So I've been su****ious of the carb on this thing a few months now. It never was the right size anyway. @fastcar1953 tipped me off to a cheap off brand copy of an Edelbrock that's still reliable so I went ahead and ordered one just now

 

Added perk is there won't be a big honking Edelbrock emblem on the front..... meaning it'll look more like an old Carter

 

A pair of long nose pliers will make that ugly-*** Edelbrock emblem mysticly disappear.

 

It's really the wrong carb anyway. Smallest AutoZone had on hand was a 650. And I needed a carb right away

 

Looks like it grew there! Maybe some smaller guards that would cover the junction would work for now? Just spit balling ideas

 

Well should have my copycat Edelbrock carb Thursday. I'll know Saturday if I'm right about current carb being funky. If it's not I'll need two carbs anyway lol

 

Ebay carb finally came in today. Im going to swap it on and try it out with the current plugs. Then swap out the plugs as they're the same ones as when I put the engine in a few years ago. We'll see how it goes lol

 

Well it definitely runs better. Currently working on getting it turned around so I can work on the front suspension

 

And apparently I broke a starter bolt. Guess I'll go ahead and my spare starter ground down to fit.

 

Ive run outta patience on this engine. Gonna go ahead and work towards swapping the 300 hp engine in lol. Will just mean another step closer to reliable outta town after front end is fixed

 

Just gotta buy a come along, a wagon, couple heavy ratchet straps, an oil pan gasket, and some 10w30. And of course yet again a starter lol

 

@The Chevy Pope,

I've got 6 or 8 come-alongs. You're welcome to borrow one/some if you're ever in the Columbia/Fulton area. New they are over my head price-wise but nearly all of these came from swap meets and estate/garage sales for way cheap. A few of these would be fairly expensive if bought new.

 

With my work schedule it'd be a couple months till I could head that way. Currently working 73 hours a week. Im just going to buy a cheap one from hobo freight to help move the car around the yard

 

Well; with today's gas prices you can probably pay for a HF unit for less than driving round trip to COMO.

From downtown Warrensburg to my house is a little over 100 miles. So 200 miles at 20 mpg is 10 gallons of $3.89/gal gas.

As the old saying goes your mileage may vary.

 

Meh. If I had the time I'm sure I could find a marketplace score to make the gas worthwhile. I seem to do well buying off marketplace buying in Columbia and Jeff city

 

Man just realized that this will be the 3rd engine I've put in this car. First the 57 283 power pack. Then the current 76 350 four barrel. Now it'll be this one lol

 

https://youtube.com/shorts/DquBXF5zdQY?is=fjrr0BwNQWVYIp2b

Fiddled with the starter and got it to fire. Never mind the knock. That was just a loose lakes pipe cap lol

 

So when I was fiddling with the starter to get it to run for that short I noticed something I didn't notice last couple days. With the bolts snugged but not tight tightening the inner bolt pulled the starter towards the ring gear while the outer bolt pulled it away. Which I interpret as the starter not sitting flush flat against the block. Would explain why I broke another starter bolt so quickly Sunday. Guessing I didn't grind enough of the surface. As I tried to shim it yesterday I really won't have to pull the starter to check. I can check the shims I pulled out for witness marks

 

Local '54 ...

 

So yup found the witness mark I was expecting

 

Oh man you’d love a trip to Atch’s place!

 

For ****s and grins I cleaned this up. ditched the bumper gaurds, Lee lens’d the badge and erased your ******* reflection lol

 

Okay I can see the vision now with the ‘57 grille bar! One popped up on marketplace between you and I last night (closer to me) for $60 and I thought about this thread, come to find out you already got one!