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

Anyway I totally forgot till now I had enough rewards points through speedway that I nearly get the bushings for the shackles free. So now I have those on the way lol

 

And a video on how I very successfully cheaped out on rear door gl*** install lol

 

And no pics but I finally finished gl*** install and threw all four door panels back on. Still gotta dig up some nice arm rests for the rear but no one is sitting back there for now anyway lol

 

And the shackle bushings came in today. Did a quick wire wheel and rattle can fog on the shackles and slipped the bushings on. I'll bring one to work tomorrow to test fit on the springs of the 54 before I try tearing down the 53 to install them. If they fit I'll get another set of bushings coming for the 54 lol

 

Marketplace score. And in usual fashion the seller threw in several boxes of parts and a nice 53 front splash pan

 

Better idea of the difference between my old parts and the speaker grill and glovebox door I picked up today. On the right you can see the new glovebox door in place. Don't have time to install speaker grill so I stuck the new ashtray in the original grill. And I heavily polished the original grill .....that's as good as it'll get without new chrome lol

 

Uploaded wrong pic last reply. So here's the one I meant lol

 

Be a lot of random posts with parts from what I was given today. I'm still going through it and still registering mentally what I've already seen lol. These rear bumperette are far from perfect. Few spots where the chrome is missing. But they should actually polish up nice. Definitely nice enough where I'm happy lol. Might polish them up and either clear coat them or just touch up the bare spots with silver paint to slow further condition decline. If my originals had been this nice they wouldn't have been painted lol

 

Score!

 

Another thing I just verified is I also got a brand new (well unused in original bag lol) trunk weatherstripping set. Was pretty sure that was what it was. Googled and verified the shape. I knew the top piece practically fell into place. Story was the guy built a near show quality 53 Chevy a lil over 15 years ago from three cars and sold it. Apparently nice enough that when it went across Me*** in Springfield unchanged it did extremely well. He basically gave me all his leftover parts he still had left. He's 58 now and is mostly into Harley's. But does have a very nice mild custom 53 Ford two door. He said the 53 Ford will be his last vintage car. So the Chevy stuff had to go lol

 

So I decided to just make a video of the highlights of the haul. Still a lot more than in the video. A lot I actually need for the 54. But just running vague numbers in my head it's amazing how much it's going to save me. I seem to catch 53/54 Chevy guys as they're wanting room more than the parts. And I guess they catch on I'll actually use the parts. And when I get rid of any leftover I'll trade or give them away as I'm not as big on straight selling

 

Got the speaker grill installed to go with the glovebox door I replaced last night. After a quick polish I got the good enough chrome for me bumperettes thrown on too. Also got the top trunk weatherstripping piece glued in and drying. Not 100% sure on lower weatherstripping piece orientation for the trunk or the orientation for the door weatherstripping yet. I'll research and get those on

 

Finally got the spring shackles I got from @snoc653 and the new bushings installed. It turned out to be a good thing I planned one replacing the complete shackles. Driver side was severely worn and p***enger side was HEAVILY pitted. This car will eventually get brand new shackles when I get around to saving up for and buying a new leaf spring kit. And then these shackles will go on the 54. But for the time being these give me time till I do lol. I'll be able to drive on these. And as shot as my originals are ill be able to use them to make the 54 a proper roller

 

Man looks much better! Your really keeping steady progress on that car

 

Like I said the old guy's donating to the cause over the last few years have really helped out a lot. The Saturday haul actually put me a couple months ahead on parts ordering lol. Unfortunately that also means I'm THAT much closer to the dreaded windshield replacement. Yesterday I was trying to figure out what I was going to order this week. I basically keep a bunch of tabs open on my phone with parts I need to order. Realized the only ones left I still needed that I currently have open are the windshield and windshield gasket lol. Gonna order the gasket this week. Saturday actually put me ahead of my open tabs. Like I didn't have trunk weatherstripping open yet lol

 

Well. Got the windshield gasket ordered. Just gotta save up for the windshield. Dread doing it but at least once it's done I won't have that dread over my head anymore lol. Ill get to peaking the hood soon so that after I order the windshield I can paint the hood and the lil strip between hood and windshield better since the beltline trim will be off. Mebbe go ahead and redo the upper half of the p***enger front door while I'm at it

 

So I'm pretty sure I installed the lower trunk weatherstripping wrong but we'll find out if it's close enough to work soon lol

 

Yeah definitely on wrong. But it definitely seals lol

 

That’s better than a lot of seals put in the correct way! I’d call it a win

 

I'll probably go back and reinstall later. Honestly kinda makes shutting the trunk a bit tough

 

And on this date in 2020. Pretty sure I removed all paint visible in pic lol

 

And tomorrow's project. Splash pan I got with the marketplace haul a couple weeks ago was absolutely perfect aside from someone sloppily torched out for clearance around the radiator. I picked up a short piece of thin 3/4" angle iron I'm going to weld in to repair the straight sections. Then I'll curve some thin sheet metal to fix the pet**** hump. Doesn't have to be perfect but I want it to look nice. Then I'll start sanding off the cheesy late 90s Ford purple and get it epoxy primed.

Side note a buddy hooked me up with a quart of the same Ford a6 hot red I used on the roof and dash today. Apparently a customer didn't actually know the right paint code and didn't want it after it was mixed. Popped in to price a pint to do my wheels and he gave the whole quart to me instead lol

 

I'll post some pictures of the bottom of the splash pan to give you guys a better idea of how nice this thing is lol. Like it's a shame they did such a hack job of t******* it. Had they done it neatly I probably would have left it. But considering this would have been done at least twenty years ago the 49-54 Chevy cars weren't exactly worth a whole lot. Like I'm sure the cheesy paint cost more than the pan was worth then lol

 

Ignore the scratched up twenty year old rattle can. But an idea of how clean it is. Like if it weren't so heavy or had such sloppy work done to it id have thought it was reproduction

 

And I'll flap disc the welds smooth and hunt for any holes I missed. Already saw one lol. I'll pretty up the pet**** opening and begin sanding. Hope to have it in epoxy primer by Wednesday

 

And finished up the metal work and flap discing. Was going to make that section extra nice till I remembered it's just a daily driver and everything on the pan behind the grill will be covered with bed liner. I will hit it heavy with epoxy primer to smooth it a bit more.

 

And when I was putting the grinder and welder up I happened to glance in one of the marketplace score boxes I really hadn't inventoried and noticed the radio bezel. Gave it a quick polish with my mother's polishing ball on a drill only using the residual polish already in the ball. Guess I'll be swapping radio bezels too lol

 

Well I doubt I'll make my goal of having the splash pan sanded and in primer by tomorrow. Rained and is raining like crazy today. So I tinkered with polishing the new radio bezel instead. Guess I'm going to have to try to polish out the radio itself too lol

 

This is one of the two wheels that came with my 54. Conveniently it's the exact wheel I run on the 53. 70s-80s gm 15x6. This one hasn't been painted aside from over spray. So I'm going to start with it on sanding my wheels and painting them with real paint. I'll throw a new tire on this one when done. When I start on the ones on the car I'll also put new tires on them. Then use the current tires as rollers and yard drive tires on the 54.

 

And to keep the paint code saved lol