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

And again waiting on parts lol. Officially have Lee lenses and 3" lowering blocks on the way. They're coming from slower shippers than speedway so may take a bit lol

 

And small progress bit that happened because of a company that actually bothers to ship stuff you order from them. Lol. Actually pretty froggy about this one. Had actually planned on lee style lenses ever since I saw a set and found out they still make reproductions. Actually a large part of why I swapped to 54 tail lights.... though at this point not much left of the original 54 tails. Wanted these since back when this car still looked like a Cuban refugee raft lol. As much as it makes me feel like a boomer I'm going to check out what else mooneyes sells

 

So lowering blocks from pol are supposed to FINALLY be in tomorrow. I'll be glad so I can delete my account with them and block the website.



Anyway I went to check current pricing on a front disc swap from speedway as I know they'll actually get it to me. Generally only have about $150 a week to spend on the car so I was basically looking to see how much to save as it's the next biggish check on the list. Turned out backordered. Ended up finding a bracket and bearing adapter kit with brake hoses for the same front brakes on eBay. After checking my price at O'Reilly for stuff to flesh out the rest of the brakes it'll be within $20 of the speedway kit total. So I'll likely order the brackets this week.

 

So the "pol" lowering blocks came in. I figured they were a reboxed product but at least figured they'd pull the western chassis stickers off them first lol. In any event they look decent quality. And made in such a way that I can use a regular spring perch with them instead of a higher cost conversion perch. Which means I need to hurry up on my disc brake swap so I can focus on my rear end swap lol

 

Few things came in in over the last week. The actually western chassis lowering blocks ended up being better than expected. With them installed I can use a rear end with standard perch pin centers.....which will simplify my 58 Impala rear end swap. Also since speedway was backordered on front disc conversions I decided to give a guy selling a kit with just the hoses, caliper brackets, and bearing adapters. Turns out it came with more than that and actually decent quality parts. And shipped fast. Now to buy the few parts not in his kit lol

 

Started installing the 3" blocks today. Gonna need a saw to finish the driver side due to an old u bolt being stuck. Figure it'll sit somewhere between the last two pics

 

Better pic of the after now that it's on all four

 

Not exactly a progress pic but it involves the 53. Saturday my brother in law and sister drove all five of my nieces and nephews the five hours to my house to hang out and run around. And all five wanted to see and hear my old Chevy lol. I'm the scruffy guy leaning on the headlight lol

 

Another H.A.M.B. member is looking for the powerglide shifter if it’s for sale. I have his info.

 

I let the shifter go withe the factory power steering three years ago. Had intended to get it running with an sbc hooked to a Saginaw three speed to later swap to a four speed. At the time I was unaware that the Three speed I had was basically junk. So at the time I didn't see a point in keeping any of the original auto trans parts (aside from lower hose mounted trans cooler)

 

Not exactly a traditional modification but the car will be an actual daily driver doing time on the highway and stop and go traffic daily so these were a must. Still gotta get calipers and pads. Going to use the hardware from the original front drums on the rear drums on the 58 Impala rear end I'll be using

 

And today's project. See if I can get a parts store available 12v blower motor to replace the dead 6v 53/54 blower motors I have. Looking up pics online it looks like a trip five blower motor can be made to work. And O'Reilly here has a listing for a 57 Chevy blower motor. So time for the old school take the old parts to the parts store to compare to new parts lol

 

And looks like O'Reilly can get the 57 Chevy blower motor I wanted to try. Ill bring the pictured 54 blower motor and fan when they get it in Wednesday. Then on to heater core comparing lol

 

And we have a winner. Did have to trim down mounting plate studs to clear the cage. Shaft was a lil longer too but in a spot that didn't matter. So yes a 57 Chevy blower motor will not only work as a fairly direct replacement for a 53/54 Chevy in 12 volt but is available overnight at O'Reilly. Still gotta figure out a modern heater core to adapt....with no aftermarket reproductions of the original available I'm not interested in an original style. Wanting to find a more available heater core

 

The Filling station in Oregon will rebuild your rectangular core but the interesting thing is they show measurements.

 

Scope this this link out Heater cores by size. https://www.meicorporation.com/pdfs/HeaterCores09.pdf With application.

 

That IS handy. Thank you. Yeah mine is the rectangle style. Only cores I'd found or any other new parts for that matter were for the round style typical to the south. Having the actual measurements will simplify things a lot. Be just down to outlets now. As i have three complete heater assemblies I'm no afraid to cut one to fit a non stock core.

 

Also your pic also finally answers my long question of why so many parts available for only the round style considering in 53 and 54 most cars got the rectangle style. Was unaware the round style was made so many years lol

 

Disc brake swap keeps hitting hangups lol. First O'Reilly said they couldn't get the inner wheel bearings. So I went to AutoZone. They only had one so they ordered me another. Go to pick up the ordered one up and turns out was packed wrong at the warehouse.....box for the right bearing but wrong bearing in box.....so they ordered yet another lol. Waited till after holidays to order calipers. Ordered driver side last night. Go to pick it and even though the box said driver side it contained a passenger side caliper lol. Was still correct application so I went ahead and bought it. Tried to order another driver side and turns out now they're a week out. Hopefully the one AutoZone ordered for me tonight is correct. Never had so much trouble ordering common parts for common Chevy's before lol

 

So took a heater assembly to O'Reilly to size a core for it. Found one for a sixties Mopar I think I can make work. So I started spray bombing the case so I can go ahead and install the new blower motor. Ill probably order the core next week. Also found tubing to hook up the defrost vents. Bad pic but didn't have much light lol

 

Got the 57 Chevy blower motor in the 53 Chevy heater box. Perfect fit

 

And got one front brake completely converted. Going to wait till less cold to do the other side. In the meantime I'll take the original front drum brake assembly I now have loose to work to begin harvesting to rebuild the rear 58 Impala backing plates I'll be using in the rear. I know the parts aren't quite right but they be close enough for my purposes. And I definitely want to utilize the mint vintage asbestos shoes

 

Had the chance to buy most of the 32 ford pickup the deal fell through on cheap delivered so I put money on a card to try and get it. Unfortunately PayPal was being goofy so I had to pass with a couple hundred bucks on a card. But instead ordered some small accessories for the 53 and a spaghetti strap shirt for the wife from mooneyes, the perches I needed for the 58 Impala rear end swap into the 53 off eBay, and finally ordered a Stewart Warner greenline fuel gauge to go with the fairly new tank in the 53 so I'll actually have a working fuel gauge. Next week I'll eBay a center link/idler arm for the 53 so I can rebuild it and throw it on to finish up the front suspension aside from sway bar stuff(original sway bar). So all effort wasn't wasted. And I still found a semi local seller that "gets it" on marketplace lol. Patient dude. Told him if the remains of the 32 don't sell I'll come by in person and buy it so no Internet to screw up lol

 

Got the first 58 rear backing plate assembled. Going off service parts id found I figured out the stuff from my original 53 brakes would fit. Which was cool because not only were my original brakes in great shape the shoes were near perfect installed in 1969 asbestos shoes. So I really wanted to reuse those. Everything went together as easily as id hoped

 

Small bit of progress I snuck in at lunch. Pressed the old studs out of the 58 Impala axles and pressed in new ones and made sure I had enough lug nuts. Only things I need for the rear end swap now are the conversion u joint, third member gasket/shim, and oil. After I get my shifter and carpet and install them I'll drag the car back to the shop so I can weld the perches on and assemble the rear end. May plump and bleed rear brakes at the same time

 

So after my record with eBay and Amazon parts I'm going to give an Amazon chinesium gennie shifter knock off a try. Was just looking for possibly a gennie shifter mount kit closeout and came across an off brand complete shifter assembly for like $150. It'll for sure be better than my current cobbled together shifter. And looks like the mount brackets from it will fit a gennie shifter. So if it's overly cheap I can easily swap to a gennie later on. And getting this shifter in will allow me to be able to buy and install my carpet finally

 

First up is the cobbled mess I had as a shifter to just get it drivable lol. 70s Maverick shifter with a Mr gasket floor conversion handle bolted to it that I connected with all thread with tabs to the transmission. Was sloppy to put it mildly lol

 

And my shipment from Amazon. Bought the shift knob because it's basically a cartoon version of my wife....in fact after seeing it she had me buy her a very similar lil red dress lol. Shifter itself is a cheap Chinese knockoff of a gennie. Gennie wasn't in the budget.....this one was $142 shipped with parts for three different mounting positions. And..... actually seems to be a decent shifter. Actually has a full gate....one thing I was worried about with the cobbled shifter was hitting a bump and bouncing out of gear or into another gear. So at least I don't have to worry about that anymore. I cut more of the tunnel than needed because it was kinda butchered and I wanted to put new metal down anyway

 

Getting the hole around the shifter tightened up. I'll seal the metal with panel bond. Before the carpet goes in I'm going to cut up a tractor inner tube to put over the hole(with a slot for movement) to provide an additional thermal and liquid barrier so I'm not solely dependent on the boot. Going to try to order carpet next week or the week after

 

Had to break down a tire so I could get the junk tire and hokey inner tube off one of the wheels for my car. Got a wild hair and cut up said inner tube to use as an additional thermal/fluid barrier under the shift boot. Some self tappers and bam. Later I'll add silicone around the edges of the rubber too. Figure it'll help keep moisture out of my carpet