Projects 1955 Belair *First build thread!*

nice set of 55`s Johny! love them old chevies!

 

Man! you gotta find a way to make that cross-ram work! I agree with Chevy55. This is such a cool thread. Keep it goin'...

 

Ok. Got some time to post an udate.
If you look close you can see the pockets we made in the firewall for the valve covers. (Worked awsome, plenty of room)

Also a close up of the engine mounts my bud fabb'd up (the transdapt ones kinda sucked and i wasn't happy with um) here they are close up... Painted um and they look great imo.

***The floor are where the shocks mount to the body had cracked from its previous life. Sooo i looked online and found they sell a crossmember you relocate them.
Made my own!!!. more of a welding practice than anything, they turned out great. and will help tie the frame together a bit But it was FREEE!!!

Sorry i didnt take any good pics

My block is at the machine shop as we speak very happy about this.

 

Coming along nicely!

 

Great project! Love to see a rat motor in a tri-five!

 

Nice project!! Coming along great!

 

Excellent job so far! Keep the updates comin!!

 

Looks great!

 

Got my block & crank back from the engine shop today. Hopefully I'll be dropping my heads off in the a.m to get worked over.

I did figure out that the tall M/t covers are out of the question due to firewall clearance. So i picked up some good stockers that give me a great amount of clearance.

I spent alittle time with a wire wheel & cleaned up the valve covers/ timing cover & oil pan. Turned out really good. Oil pan is alittle beat, but in good condition. (Plus it fits my chassis well) So i pounded it out good as i could. It works fo' me

now im on the fence about either polishing & clear coating, Or just painting them. Im thinking paint will last longer.

 

Oh ya keep going lookin good...........

 

Well I've been gettin money together to build my engine. So in the mean time I've just been doing little things here & there.

I did finally buy a wire harness from American Autowire. It looks like great quality for sure!. Came with a bunch of switches i needed too (Ign/ lights/ dimmer. etc.). So I been staring at that big ol' box of wires for a few days...Already giving me headaches!. Im excited to get thru it however. Ill keep yall updated on how that goes.

looking at the drivers side rocker panel I found a very small pinhole that i had missed before. I figured I would hit it with some low voltage & plug it with a weld, NO BIGGIE. Welllll it blew thru, Got larger, then exploded into a mess of lead .
The pinhole was just on the edge of a lead body seam, So I used a torch to sweat out the rest of the Lead filler. Then cut out the area (It was much worse was under the lead) and patched it. Its sill only roughed in, I ran out of time and had to come into work.
But its monday HOLIDAY! which means DOUBLE TIME!.

I don't know how you east-coast guys do it, Finding just these little problem areas can upset me and throw me for a loop. I'll thank my lucky stars i got a car so solid!

 

Oh yea!
Its hard to get anything done when your bud brings this thing over to mess around with!
Its got a 283 & a 4 speed. No posi tho, Kinda hard to do donuts
Its slated to get MORE motor...ALOT more. Jesus these things are fun-fun-fun, Scary too!

 

Well... The money ran out for now, So I started putting the sheet metal all together.
I'm gonna knock out the bodywork while im broke.
Been puttin it off too long.
Spent the day chasing threads and fitting the front Valance/ Splash pan & fenders again. Painted the hood hinges, plus abunch of other small stuff too.
Had to replace rivets on a fender that were FUBAR'd while i was at it. I'm just try'n to foucus on getting the car solid and doing an inventory of what I have so far. When Ive got enough $$$ to build my engine it will be ready

Just a nice, awsome day out today, 65-70* outside and just couldn't be nicer. Im happy.

Promise i'll have more & better pictures next time. If anyone cares

For you east coast guys I'll leave you with a vegas sunset.

 

55 Chevy, IMO The best looking Chevrolet ever made. Yours is coming together Great!

 

your car looks great.i am jealous.Keep up the good work

 

Bring on those temps and skies! I'm MORE than ready....

I'm anxious to see the radius work you do on the rear fenders.....

 

I cant wait to do the quarters. I gotta get the size tire im running on it first, I need a 28x10.5 Its got some 255/somethings on it.
I saw some good ideas about welding in 1/2'' conduit for the flair. Im gonna take a swing at that.
Im really getting excited about it at this point, Its been SOOO long sence ive had a whole "car" haha.
Just seeing it go together bit by bit is like "Fu*k Yesss, This is rad", Verses "Godamn sand blasting again

More to come!

 

At least you got your car! I'm still gathering parts for my engine! Gonna build that first THEN find the car. I know EXACTLY what I wanna do just gotta do it as the money trickles in, know what I mean???

 

Spent some quality time today.
Got off work and decided to get my hood underside painted up, So i can hang it. Bought 2 cans of VHT Epoxy Paint *Satin black*. and went at it.
Sanded the hood down, wiped it down with Wax & Grease remover...Then sprayed it.
Turned out good, Im very happy so far with VHT coatings!

Once I had the hood installed for mock up (everlong mock up) I pulled the grill down to have a look.
I decided to get it cleaned up as well.
I drilled out the rivets with my trusty HF drill. and disassembled it, painted to top support / hood latch...catch thing.
I still gotta polish the grill before it all goes back together. I have all new hardware so it will look great.

Should have pictures tomarrow to show how the grill & front end are coming together.

 

Yea to be exact, I do know what you mean. Ive got my block sitting here just waiting to be built...Just waiting for $$$

its good for me, forces me to do this kinda stuff ive been putting off

 

I'm sure there's plenty to do while you're saving up for the motor build! Looking good

 

Nice car !!! Looking forward to seeing it in "DP Black" !!!

 

The 1/2" conduit idea has been around a long time. I converted my car from a 4 door to a 2 door and so I had to purchase quarters from the 'B' pillar back. One of the quarters came off an old rusted out gasser (see attached picture) that had radiused wells that were leaded. It's freakin heavy and it's only half the well.

I've been watching your progress for some time and have subscribed. Good luck with your build.

Later,

Mike

 

Thanks for the good luck wish and for subscribing!
That is very cool with the lead, it must be heavy!. By the way
Is that tubing on the outside of the quarter? or split so its like a sleeve?

I was polishing some stuff today with mt dremel tool (Harbor freight), and it got a lil hot. The speed control was gettin kinda twitchy...Ehh paid no mind. Got Real hott The stickers peeled back (luckly i was wearing gloves) so i put it down and PHOOOMMPH Mega-thermal!!!.
Looks like i might need a new one.

Spent the rest of my time making pigtails for the Headlights/ Parking lights/ Tail lights.
The American Auto Wire kit i got has all the right sockets & gromets even, so even I can do a clean install.
Im not an electrical kinda guy, But this stuff is easy enough it seems
made sure i properlly soldered outside connections and actually did a very nice job.

Also ran the back half of the main harness to the general area it will be. I figure long as I do something everyday im making progress

 

The tube is on the outside. It looks like they rolled it to get the arc and tacked it on the lip then leaded it. It's very rusty, so there could have been more to it but it's gone now.

The HF tool is a kick! I am very weary of getting anything electrical from them. I do have a mini air saw that still works great and it was only $10 so if it breaks now, I don't care. The parts washer still works, too.

Nice wiring! I'm not to that stage yet.

Mike

 

got the grill back together slapped it in.went together great. i Was pretty excited...untill i closed the hood and realized that there is a hood-fender gap of about 3/4in
After some head scratching i looked through a danchuck catalog and realized that the core support i got with the car is a 1957, these are about an inch wider at the top. im thinking i can drill out some spot welds at the top support bar to shorten it up. Id rather not buy another one at this point.
Just the fun of buying an abandoned project in peices

Anyways, check her out. lookin better everyday

 

Its been good while, haven't logged in for sometime.
I found a SD card with abunch of pictures so i was tripping out on how much better this thing looks now, She aint done yet but wow...I forgot how far its come

P.s I got a few big things around the corner!
Stay tuned

 

cool build, lookin good

 

awsome build mate, kept wanting to see more pictures!

 

It was time to do something with the quater panels, Id been staring at them for too long. Finally settled on doing a larger radius for a 28in tall tire.
There are many ways to do this...and some of them are probally right. But this is how i did it.

I found that a Tall Can Of miller light fit the center of my wheel perfectly (They were out of PBR ). So I messured how tall I wanted the arch to be, cut a peice of safety wire and wrapped it around a bit of soap stone. wrapped that around the end of a can, Held it in the wheel hub and traced a few times.
BLAMM Nice centric rings .

Then I simply cut um out with a cut off disk. (would have taken pictures of that process, But I had no one to take the pics)

This weekend i'll be welding in some conduit the form a flare. You can see i retained the very bottom of the stock arch. Im gonna see if i can form it all together.
*I may have to trim the very bottom if the tire is too big.*

Its not alot of progress, But im happy with it untill i can finish um up. I think it Looks MEAN!!!