'51 Chevy sedan help/suggestions.

Well, I now own a ‘51 Chevy sedan. It’s all stock. The engine is hanging from an A frame for the last five or twelve years. I gotta get offa my lazy *** and get a job and a few bucks and start work. Brakes, electric, drive train.

If I remember right, a ‘54-’55 235 and three speed are pretty much drop in replacements. Hell, if nothing else, I’ll find another 216, drop it in and drive it for awhile. Any other easy replacements?

If I have to get an open drive rear, what years are direct fits? Indirect?.. Any easy fixes here? I don’t care if it’s not the strongest rear ever made, as long as it’ll put up with moderate power and won’t take much talent to rig up.

The wiring...holy fritos...I’ll do it myself. Whatever needs replacing, which is probably all of it, from scratch. Rocky’s my hero (wired the ‘33 from scratch, correct?). I need to learn about this. Wiring diagrams, what awg wiring to use where, what parts (condensers, etc) to get from NAPA, ...um... anyone here sell life insurance?

Nothing definite yet nor will I be starting on this anytime soon. Just preparing myself for what is to come. Cosmetics come later. Much later. The car will be a driver when I get some work done. Nothing special, just transportation. Any ideas are mucho appreciated.


Thanks,
Jesse

 

'57 chevy rears drop right in if I'm correct.

 

Welcome to my World, Son!!!

Wiring these cars is easy...just don't use any of the stock **** and re-do the whole car from scratch. Really, it's not as bad as it sounds...take it one circuit at a time and you'll be done before you know it.

Now...as for the motor...you COULD make a career outta dropping in time-bomb Stovebolts on a weekly basis, and you'd be a HERO in the eyes of some, or...you could seek out a more MODERN engine.

Let's see...you'd want something kinda small...not too much room in them engine compartments. You don't want the motor too wide or too long, for sure...and it'd be swell if ya didn't hafta cut, modify or eliminate the heater/vent tubes or the firewall. Hmmm. A small block fits, but requires firewall surgery and vent tube hackery in most cases. A later full pressure 235 CAN be coaxed in there, but they're only good for TWO weeks run time as opposed to ONE...

...if only there were a cheap, commonly available, ultra reliable engine out there that made at LEAST as much power as any Stovebolt. Something that slips right under the hood of these old cars and will run forever. Hmmm, there's GOTTA be SOMETHING that fits that description!!!

(Let me lean on this here Chevy Citation a while and think about it!!! )

As far the rear axle, you can go one of two ways...you can keep the 4.10 geared stock closed drive diff if you pull off some wild-*** parts chasing and run a closed drive ****** out of an early 50s Chevy truck. It'll bolt to your newer bellhousing and hook up to the torque tube. You'd have to either make up some new mechanical clutch linkage, or run a hydraulic set-up. I wouldn't go this route, but it IS an option!

To make things easier, switch to an open drive rear axle. I know for a fact that a 1956 Olds rear axle fits right in there on the stock springs if you drill a new locating pin hole in the each axle spring pad. You want the hole 2" forward of and 1" out from the stock, central hole...make it 1/2" in diameter, and the rear axle will drop into place and be centered in your wheel well. I'm told this also works with 55-57 Chevy rear axles and likely 1967-81 Camaro/Nova axles as well. I can only attest to the 56 Olds one, but it makes sense!

The driveshaft from a four door 68-72 Chevelle will be the right length, and will only need a conversion u-joint out back to mate up to the stock Olds rear axle. You can re-use your stock rear lower shock mounts by bolting them to the springs with the original lower plates and a couple new bolts per side.

All in all, it's pretty easy to drag one of these old cars back to life using cheap and commonly available parts from newer cars. If I can do it...ANY fool can!

 

yea no 6 bangers unless you get a brand new rebuilt 235 from the late 50's early 60's. go to this site for a very good how to on that. www.stoveboltengineco.com

Now a sbc will fit as long as u cut those ribs off of your fire wall. and dont have deluxe heat on your p***anger side air tube. other wise that will need to be smacked with a big hammer or cut out. Me and Fathack wired my 50 chev in 4 hours start to finish and that was going very slow o yea and if you go sbc and th350 with a long tailshaft housing a stock s-10 drive shaft works if you mount the motor just right And im using a 60 biscayne rear axle but that wont work unless your going with a 4 link or the likes of it for bags.

Have fun!

 

Fat50, are those rears leaf or coil sprung? Did you have to do any mods to get it in there?

Why does everyone bag on straight sixes? Are they really that unloved?

If it would drop right in I’d take the 283/PG out of the ‘59 that I can’t seem to sell and put them in the ‘51. Not a bad idea, if its not too much work. I just want to keep it simple and straightforward.

I guess an open drive rear shouldn’t be too hard to find.

BTW, anyone know of a good replacement dual reservoir master cylinder? I want to get rid of the single right away when I do the brakes.

Thanks guys

 

if ya got a 289 and no bucks and a powerglide why wouldnt you use it?

 

Cause I'm currently trying to sell the car that the 283/PG are in.

 

Actually, how much work is involved in swapping a small block in here? With a 3 spd? PG? Homemade turbo clutch 7000? Were the 6 cyl. and V8 motor mounts interchangable?

 

71 camaro rear works drill according to Fat Hacks intr. Thats what i have in mine.

 

A small block takes some time to get in there. I used speed way upper mounts and made my own lower. you have get a trans crossmember drop or build your own i got mine given to me by fathack. but thats with a th350 may be diff for a glide. And your 51 didnt have side mounts so there is no interchange there by the way. here is a pic of my motor. i can get better shots of the mounts shoot me a pm if you need any more tips if in fact you choose to go with the 283. And a rear end would not be hadr to find but the g-body rears are coil spring so it needs to be one of the ones fathack said.

 

Cool fat50, I checked out your site there. Looks good. I'm wondering though, are the engine mounts purely weld in or can they be simply bolted in? I'm still not sure I'm gonna go with anything other than a stock 6 cylinder but it's nice to know my options.

Actually I'm headed out there right now so i'm gonna get some pics of the heap. So I can stare at the mess while I'm at home.

Thanks

 

i don't know what guys got aginst 6bangers but my 51 that i had, the 216 babbet pounder ran great.i got to say i didnt beat the piss out of it,i still could run down the interstate at 75mph with no troubles.

 

Well, I'd better learn to weld. That body is funky. Didn't check the frame yet but I've got a lot of work ahead of me on the fenders and rockers alone. I haven't got a clue as to how bad the interior and trunk floors are yet. Too much junk in the interior to see and no one seems to have a key to the trunk. But I'll worry about the cosmetics later. First is mechanical and electrical.

Then I'll give myself tet****.

I appreciate the help on this, guys. I've got a better idea of what I could do. All I need is to get out there and find work.

Thanks again,
Jesse

 

You can do ALOT while you wait for that dream gig. I was unemployed all last Spring and Summer, and it afforded me lots of time to get things done on my car...stuff that took more TIME than MONEY.

Get your old motor and trans out, clean the engine compartment, maybe upgrade to a more modern brake system with a firewall mounted master cylinder and booster (junkyard items like I did!), do some cosmetic work...there's LOTS of productive things you can do without lots of cash on hand.

I would s****e up a few dollars at a time, then tackle things I knew needed to be done, and get those things out of the way while I could. For example, the stock battery tray and support area below it were rusted out, so I made a new brace, bent and fit a new piece of metal, then installed a new plastic battery tray one afternoon last Spring. It cost about $7 in parts and hardware, and by the time I had a battery to mount in it, the tray was ready, and I added a sturdy hold-down.

I also wired my car before the engine was even in it. The stock 6v headlights and rear tail/brake light bulbs can be swapped out for 12v units that are a direct replacement, and then you can wire them up. I knew where my starter, alternator, distributor and battery were gonna be, so I made my wiring harness and laid it out so that the various wires could be hooked up once the engine was installed. The lights and switches I wired long before the stock motor was even out!

I did lots of work on the car with very little or no money on hand last year. Alot of that was made possible through generous donations from many HAMBers, and alot of the parts were scrounged from junk my buddies didn't need or want, and stuff I could buy dirt cheap at a local U-Pull-It junkyard.

That way, once I had the money to finish the car, all them time consuming tasks were done...it was wired, had pedals, a radiator, all new fuel and brake lines, a new gas tank, etc. Also, since at the time that I did those jobs I was under no pressure to get them done quickly, I took my time and did things kinda overkill as far as reliability goes. Doing so insured that there wouldn't be as much last minute rushing to get the car on the road, thus kind of helping to avoid the temptation to cobble stuff together. When I drove my car for the first time, I already KNEW the wiring, cooling system, new controls, etc were bulletproof and done right. Makes for less things to worry about, and fewer things to come back to and fix later.

Get busy, Man...you got LOTS of work ahead of ya...let the money come when it does!

 

Can anyone decifer the VIN and Body Tag for me?

The VIN is kinda odd looking. It's not like the tag on my '51 Olds where ALL the letters are pressed from behind. The '51' in the Chevy tag are stamped in from the front like someone did it after it was pressed. The rest are all normal, pressed from behind.

VIN: 51 JKL 171452

Body Tag:

 

HACK, stop showing off that 2. blah V6!

 

i never botherd to look at my tag and match it to my ***le but my vin on my ***le was my engine number like most of these cars are. i can check for ya in a little bit


edit: ooo you wanted to know what the numbers mean. umm are you doing a resto on it>? if not then those numbers are just there for ****s and giggles. im sure you can figure out what color it used to be and what trim leval you have just by looking at the car

 

****head.