hey guys! the troops have arrived & she should hopefully be on the road real soon! special thanx to my good friend adam (aka opivadam) and stepdad dean for wrenchin with me today in the heat, to my dad steve (who is lookin for a 55-57 chevy panel truck btw) for the cool blankets in the back seat, and to fellow H.A.M.B.er terrible tom for trading motors w/ me. i had a 57 235 i picked up & was having trouble with motor mounts & mr terrible had a 54 235 that fit right in! cant wait to fire her up!!!
got her runnin today and took her out for her maiden voyage! shes runnin pretty good, needs some timing adjustments but not bad. need some brake work & new radiator to be road worthy but soooo glad to be movin in right direction! these old stovebolts are some noisy SOB's w/ the mechanical lifters but it was a beautiful sound to my ears!!
congrats! If you surface the tips of the rocker arms it will help to give you a more acurate reading when you check them with the feeler gauge. If you use a wide feeler gauge on rockers that have a wear spot in the middle, you will end up with rockers that are looser than you think.
Looks good...keep the old radiator and get it repaired... cheaper and better. Those old rads are tough to beat..
Looking forward to all the great stuff to come.....Glad to see a '54 BelAir in Milwaukee too......Hope it stays here!
Got her on the road last week & to her first car show! still needs little things here & there, but good enough to drive the sh*t out of it! thanx to wrenchbender54 for the steering column/gearbox. mine ended up having broken worm gear. so after new motor, radiator from nca, column, tie rods, idler arm pin kit, front brakes, brake hoses, sunvisor and whitewalls; i made it to cheaterama last night! i've been there before as a spectator but this year was 1st time as a participant. thanx to the Cheaters for putting on such a great show every year & giving me something to look forward to. hopefully i'll have it lowered & new paint for next years show!
thanx guys! checked out your pics of the show jack. you are very talented, great pics! my buddy loves the black & white one u took of his wife under the food sign.
got the holes for the emblem smoothed out on the trunk & getting hood ready for peaking the seam. was gonna tack a 3/8 brake line down the seam & blend it in with lead and a torch (tip i got from a HAMBer i bought some parts from). wondering if i can just get the lead from hardware store and what kind/size i should use. never really did body work before so any advice would be appreciated! thanx!!
Hey KenCrete, that Chev is lookin' good man, I got my lead and paddles from Eastwood Company online, it was like $35 for 10-1/4lb sticks, my buddy used the plumbing lead from a hardware store and it ran all over the place, I think it has to do with the lead to tin ratio or something, but the Eastwood stuff was "like ****a"..... Brian
Gotta be honest Brian, I chickened out. after watching some videos on leading and pricing out everything needed for it, think its out of my wheelhouse.....for now. Got emblem & latch holes welded in which warped front of hood a little & had to use more filler then i wanted. As of now plan is to get the stainless hood strip from NCA ($40). We'll see if I get the courage next spring when she's out of storage. Or maybe I will find a cheap hood to practice on! Thanx for the interest!
Well spring is finally here and I'm workin on the Bel Air again! I just switched over to an auto-choke carb, electronic ignition and did a valve adjustment. The ignition definitely helped, but the valve adjustment was a game changer! She's runnin unbelievably smooth now & the work was surprisingly easy. Now I just need to get the brakes adjusted right since the right front drum seems to lock up pretty easily. Then It'll be ready to venture out beyond local shows, and start puttin on some real miles!
The Jalopy Journal
