Projects 40 Chevy build

This is a 40 Chevy I built for one of my customers. It had gone thru several people before my brother bought it and after some of the work was completed, he sold it to one of my long time friends and customer. I had previously restored his one owner 65 Mustang. We did not pick a particular era for the build, just some of the old hot rod stuff that he liked and remembered from his younger years with a few of my own ideas rown in for good measure. As it turns out, anoe of the previous owners lives about a mile from my shop and is a pin striper/sign painter by trade. I built this a few years ago and just wanted to share it with everyone.

These are the "before" pics. It had about 50 lbs of lead around the 50 Pontiac tail lights.

 

First order of buisness was to replace the firewall and floors... they were nasty.



Then moved on to replacing the tail panel and a little work on the rockers etc. Most of the outer metal on the car was in pretty decent shape. One the body was finished... on to the frame and drivetrain! M2 front end installed and motor mounts fabricated for the SBC.



Trans crossmember, brake booster/master cylinder.


Then the rear suspension. The car had an early Chevy rear end in it so we kept it. It turned out to have a bunch of bad bearings in it and howled pretty bad. We later pulled it and put a later 8.8 Ford rear end with disc brakes under the car.... gearing was much more cruising friendly !!! I fabbed up the shock crossmember for it. Originally it had pin style shocks very crudely mounted to the trunk floor with some 1/4" steel plate mud dobbered to the floor and holes burned thru with a torch to mount the shock.

 

Then it was time to start the painting and assembly. I will let the pics do the talking.

 

Onward and upward.... Lets build this thing!!











I used some master deluxe hood trim to make this unique trim for the car. The mouldings were pretty beat up but the louver parts were nice so I took the trim apart and epoxied the inserts into the openings in the hood. Made it one of a kind (as far as I know)



I fabricated the front and rear bumpers and had them plated.

 

Finished product !!! This car rides and drives better than a lot of old cars I have driven. We added the front stabilizer bar not long after completion and that really made the car handle nice.

 

It's a 40, not a 41. Looks good, but I don't know about the bumpers. I know they're nerf bars, not bumpers.

 

You are right about the year... my bad. I am working on his brothers 41 now.

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badd ass ride.nice build up....but the bumpers...

 

Nice work, now drive the "HELL" out of it !!!!!!!!!!!!