If you could open a barn door and find a STREET RACER 1951 Chevy Deluxe Coupe that was tucked away since 1963, what would it look like? Motor, wheels, tires, interior, lettering?, etc????
Why - did you find one ? If so - post pictures I see in your profile you have a 51 Chevy so If you are asking because you want to create one - you really can't re-create weathered time in my opinion. It's kinda like Calogen lips on a 73 year old woman - it don't work trying to go back again to original.
More like a time machine. The period correct builds are hard to do. Survivor style build that has done its time is really hard, ok nearly impossible to pull off. 201x build that's 100% period correct and looks like it crawled out of 1962/3 is doable but that's the time machine deal. Go back to 62 and bring the car with you.
There is a 57 G***er on here from Canada that looks like a time capsule from the early 70's...... dreams
A lot would depend on what part of the country that Chevy was built in.....West coast might be different from East coast and North different from the South. But there was a guy who in about 61-ish had a similar bodied 50 Olds that he built for street racing, and we were friends. The body had no mods, except for radiused wheel wells out back for the slicks (M and H on steel wheels that had a white pie shaped section so wheel spin could be determined more easily) The body was stock black with no lettering or any decals. No straight axle, but he had jacked the front end up by modifying the spring pockets plus spring spacers. It sat pretty nose high. The engine was a built 394 with homemade fender well headers and it had a 4 speed hydro and I forget what he used for the rear end, but the gears were deep. The interior was stripped out except for the front seat, and the front bumper and grille were removed to save some more weight. It was a beast but after a while it wasn't as compe***ive, so the last I knew he was building a Henry J with a sbc to take it's place. Don
It would look just like Reg Washingtons, '51 Chev Cp. He use to beat the pants off me at Arlington . .....................Jack
Actually it was from Nebraska last plated in '72. I-6 drivetrain pulled and gone. Some minor dents and weathered (not even getting into the patina thing!) Frame has slight surface rust but no flaking or scale. I am going with the sbc. Just wanted to get feedback and insite from you all. I am trying to visual the look of how rods were set up between '51 and '63. I'm a FNG and am excited about the posibilities and for the "Polar Vortex" to be over. -13 F this morning!!! This site is Fantatic!!
First thing you do is hide the credit card, then you find an arc welder ad oxy/acc torches if you dont already have one. Then find all the old pics you can find. Its laughable when all these guys are building "traditional" cars using modern store bought parts and the prettiest tig welded, plasma/laser cut parts they can find
so, post some pics of your ride. so, why the year '63 so important to you? I agree with others about trying to build a time capsule. but, you can get pretty close if you take time getting the right parts together. upgrades in steering, brakes, etc would be wise. get some car magazines from '63 to help figure what you need.
i am picturing, dark blue, red firewall and wheels, wide whites and caddy hubcaps. underside painted dark gold, red and white-rolled and pleated interior. the hurst mounted motor is a 283 painted red, 3 twos wieand valve covers, mallory dual point. a pair of electric fuel pumps on the firewall, home made headers with the generator mount on them. after market shift on the floor. cheater slicks out back, and a pair of tailpipes sticking out in front of them. sun tach on dash. no skulls, tikis, fuzzy this or that.
Bubzy----don't know if this will help you or not. I have a '50 chevy coupe, this is the way that the car was built when I bought the car 12 years ago, newest part on it is the motor and trans. The motor/trans combo are from a '64 Impala, 283 with alu. power glide and has a '55 chevy rear end with 3.36 gears. The body is complete stock with factory frontend under the car. Car stance is level front to back. Has a old black and white cheap vinyl interior that was in the car when I bought it. If you keep the stock front end under the car and go with a sbc, the exhaust manifolds from a '55 or'56 265 chevy clears the steering without any problems. My car has a Hurst front engine mount like the one's on '55 to '62 Corvette's. My car was used as a daily driver when I bought it, but I'm building it back as a mild custom that I would have had in High School in 1960/1961. The drive train is staying the same with body mods and new (old style) interior. Hope this helps, Ray...
1963 street racer would have cut out wheelwells, Olds rear, SBC, fenderwell headers, chrome wheels or maybe 5 spokes. black 63 Impala bucket seats and either the matching 63 back seat or no seat at all. the rest would be black pleats... real tuck n roll if you have any money. got to have SW gauges and a tach on the dash. 4 speed since autos are for sissies who can't shift. other than the wheelwells the body would be stock with the exception of nosed and decked. either a bull nose or a solid strip between the hood and no ornament. I saw one in the 70's that had several large holes drilled in the front bumper... like 3" or so all the way across. either that or no front bumper if you wanted it raised it would have wood blocks between the suspension crossmember and the frame, just like John Mazmanians Vette. if you were rich it would look like Boones dads 51 Hardtop with Halibrands and an axle..
Very little bling, Maybe 5 spokes, but more likely stock wheels, (Might have mags just on the back with slicks) no interior, no front bumper, no white walls, definitely no automatic, maybe 2-4s or 3-2s, stock body, radiused rear wheel openings, ladder bars, probably stock paint blended with a rattle can around the rear wheel openings. Build it with the thought "Do you want to look pretty, or do you want to go fast". Put the money in the engine! If you didn't notice the slicks, from 50 feet you wouldn't know if it was a junker or a street racer, until it was fired up.
...and if the quarter windows weren't covered with decals, it would have the name of your favorite song such as the cl***ic "La Bamba", "Get off My Cloud", "The Entertainer", "Lucille", "Lost Highway", "Reet Pe***e", ... can I go on??
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