Projects 53 Chevy Bel Air "Cleetus" mild custom daily driver

I think I'm going to dive into painting the dash soon. When I swap columns and boxes would be a good time for that. Especially as I may have a nicer dash speaker grill traded for. Cars ending up a lot nicer than originally anticipated lol

 

And sanded. Tomorrow I'll tape it off and get some red down. Decided to take it to bare metal as some spots the other layers of paint tried to smear while other spots it tried to chip. Also realized I need to add some air tanks to my compressor to increase air capacity lol

 

Gotta say this is one smooth turning box. Can tell the difference between it and the 51 box currently in the car. Everything unhooked this one turns MUCH easier

 

First coat and column is already turning out well

 

I guess I may be fast at painting? 5:57 I sent a text to a buddy saying I'd be ready in an hour or so. Got up, hung parts for paint, taped off the box, mixed paint and cleaned gun, cleaned parts, and laid down two or three coats on all the parts by 6:17 lol

 

Painting doesn't take long. Prep is where time is spent.

 

Column did take me a bit yesterday. Mainly because I decided to take it to bare metal

 

It looks good.

 

Thinking for now I'm going to abandon the two tone door panel idea so I can speed up the process of getting a finished LOOKING car. On our way to have @Tim sling some more ink at Karen's wrist and there's a hobby lobby like two blocks from his shop. So while Karen is getting stabbed I figure I'll walk down there and pick up a few more yards of the black vinyl. I like the black vinyl hobby lobby sells a lot better than my original door panels I made with Walmart black vinyl

 

And some quick and crappy front door panels done with less crappy vinyl lol. Probably do the rears tomorrow

 

Is that black or brown??

 

Black. I verified before I bought it lol

 

I was glad to see the armrests actually were black. I reupholstered them like 4 years ago and it was a real possibility that they were dark brown lol

 

So yeah. Have a 2004r core coming and decided to see what cruise rpm would be. This will definitely do nicely after it's rebuilt. Won't put it in till I get confident enough to take it on the highway a few times. But considering a lot of places I like to go like @fastcar1953 place, @Tim shop, and hooters are all an hour of interstate away I don't wanna zing the crap out of my old 350 constantly. And considering the current rear is a posi with my personal favorite ratio(3.42) I don't want to swap that out either lol. Guess this car will stay two pedal lol

 

May polish it some more later. But it's definitely brightening up. This is the piece between glovebox and passenger door on the dash

 

If I ever get paid this week I think I'm going to take advantage of the long weekend and get my dash in proper paint. Same time I'll paint the gauge bezel and turn signal housing. Ill wait to do the gauge pod till I get a new temperature gauge. This will actually be the third column and box going into this car. And none of them were worn out lol. Swapped to the current box because I didn't feel like adapting the original power steering to the 283 I had in it. Went to the current 51 box. New box is actually an upgrade as it's a 54 Chevy box. Apparently they got better bearings for 54. And the turn signal housing I mentioned painting is still original to the car lol. Actually stays in place decently on the current 51 column despite being made slightly different

 

And should be a go on the dash this weekend

 

You’re moving right along . Looks great Thank You for sharing Your hard work on Your car

 

I'm looking forward to a gleaming dash after this weekend. Not looking forward to all the masking involved lol. Paint on the new column is what finally motivated me to quit procrastinating on painting the dash

 

Got dash pretty much torn down for paint. Gonna clean it tonight. Tomorrow I'll pull the mirror, windshield garnish, steering wheel, and turn signal housing and get to sanding and masking. Hopefully have it in paint by this time tomorrow

 

Now to let it dry a bit before I unmask and see how many thin spots there are lol

 

Guess I'm doing another coat tomorrow. Friggin butterfly and a mosquito flew into it at last minute. Oh well at least it looks like I got good coverage lol

 

And take two on the dash. Masked a lil different this time so I could easily unmask enough to close doors to prevent anymore butterflies from sneaking in lol

 

Funny story about this Chevrolet script. Always get a bit excited every time I look at it due to associated memories lol. Bought it about a week or two after finally getting the engine in and taking my wife for a spin(her wearing leather pants and a bustier lol). Then the next day I met Elvira lol

 

Ignore the gauge bezel. Paint didn't want to act right lol. But the dash reassembled after paint. Definitely looks a lot better. I'll try to paint the bezel and the factory turn signal housing another day. I'll try to get the new painted 54 column and box in next weekend. But I'm loving the overall look

 

Looking good! I’d be tempted to leave the turn single chrome but paint the bullet at the end of the stalk red

 

Red Bell was what I meant by turn signal housing. On a 53 it originally houses the turn signal stuff in there. I just didn't wanna bother with making original stuff work.

 

Is that the turn signal you got from me? Looks good

 

It's one just like it. One I got from you will go in the 54. I actually still need to polish the turn signal sectors for both cars lol.

 

Side note. While I had the factory heater controls, dash speaker, and dummy stock radio out I actually decided to take a look at my factory wiper mechanism for the first time ever. Never once looked at it using the "outta sight outta mind" mentality figuring it was in sad shape. Was pleasantly surprised. I already knew the wipers moved freely and in sinc. Was not expecting everything inside the dash to be so clean though. Most of the metal bits are barely even discolored lol. No frayed cables or anything. At some point I'll get a 57 Chevy electric wiper motor to run them. Still need to get a wiper switch. Harness is set up to use a 77 f100 switch. Last switch I had for it was brand new and came with the harness but I broke it trying to make a factory 53 Chevy knob work lol. As I haven't gotten the wiper motor yet I hadn't bothered to get a replacement switch