Projects ACO Original - 1949 Chevy coupe

Looking nice...thats how it's done....

 

Was that "dustless" blasting using the water and crushed gl***? What did that cost if you dint mind me asking? Thanks

 

Thanks, I guess I can call it a frame off? Lol.

Yeah it was. The if this was how messy the dustless is, I can't imagine how messy regular sandblasting is!

He was a local guy, hooked me up for $150. It came out sweet however, the cleaning up of the mess afterward almost makes me never want to do it again ha! The sand gets everywhere. Would not recommend doing it in your driveway.

 

$150 sounds pretty damn reasonable. Good score!

 

So picked up some new toys recently!

Picked up a 60 gal compressor. I love this thing already.

Also picked up an '81 el Camino as a donor car.
Off topic I know, I'll delete if need be.

But check out the 60s corvette custom dash set up! People do some weird stuff haha!


Also picked up a plasma cutter and man is this thing great. My cutting skills need some perfecting but hey I'll be a pro eventually.

Also on the pic are my lower arms with the plates welded in. I had to wire wheel all that surface rust off. Forgot to take a photo of them in primer.



Tomorrow I'll be painting the front suspension pieces and rebuilding it!

 

Front suspension set up. Just about ready for ***embly.



Notched the frame. Ran out of gas towards the end so didn't get to completely finish. Oh well.

 

Go man go!!

 

So been lagging on the updates as most of the stuff I've been doing has been parts ordering and running around.

I Picked up a new welder. Love it.



Also pulled the engine out of the el Camino yesterday. Power wash and degrease tomorrow.

 

Been completely side tracked with my sons pedal car project ha!

Here's some pics. I'll be taking it apart for paint after this weekend. He loves it.

You can also see the 49 being neglected in the background, as well as my custom frame rotisserie(NOT!).

 

Cool project.
Before I took the George Barris signature off the dash I'd do a little research. His signature changed through the years and to say it's not his because it doesn't match one example is nuts. Google his signature and you'll see many differences.
Here's one from 2011, looks a hell of a lot like yours.

 

I've considered cutting it out or replacing the dash but I'm not sure yet.

No updates today. I'm taking a metal fab 2 day workshop this weekend. Chopping a shoebox!

 

Been a bit since I've updated. I'd like to say I've made some steady progress but life gets in the way I suppose.

Got my sons car finished, here's a little before and after.




Got the front end bolted up onto the frame and the disc brake conversion wrapped up.

 

Well I put the frame on the ground and was super disappointed...



Not even close to laying out. Turns out my cups were too tall (I figured they looked tall when I put them in) so since I needed to cut them down, I decided to step my lower control arms.

Pardon my welds, I'm not a professional so I do what I can.



All painted up.



Here you can see the difference from stock to stepped.



Then I got some goodies delivered. I'm so excited.

 

I got to know George about 10 years ago through a good friend and have alot of his signatures as well as watching him sign things at shows, that is his autograph!! He signed alot of dashes at shows also. You might think about cuttin that one out and hanging it on the wall and replacing with another.

 

I'm still a ways from making that decision but it'll be a tough one! Finding a dash might be pretty tough.


I started mocking up the engine to see where I needed to put the mounts.


Mocked up the headers to see if they'd clear my steering. They clear but clearance is incredibly tight. I'm afraid with the engine running and shaking, the headers will touch stuff.

Going to see if I can figure out a way to put a dimple or a dent where I need a few mm of clearance but other than it fits! First chrome headers I've seen on an SBC swap in a 49-54 online lol.

 

You can see in the picture how much further back my trans mount is from the original crossmember. Pardon the surface rust, we had a rain shower the night before.



So I cut everything out and made my own crossmember. Again pardon my welds.



Here I had to clearance a brace for the exhaust to come down into. I had to leave this brace as the stock master mounts here and I'll be using the same under floor set up.



And there she is. More or less. A rolling ch***is.



I got my driveshaft shortened.




So I'm waiting on my brake lines to show up so I can plumb it up and also for my exhaust tubing. I'm going to fab my own exhaust, this way I can run it wherever I need to.

Plans are gl***packs and have the exhaust exit just before the front bumper with a turn down. All tucked up of course.

 

Nice work. Glad to see you making progress.

 

Thanks.

Little by little.

Plumbed my brake lines(still need to permanently mount them) and just about finished my exhaust.

 

Feel like I haven't progressed much. But it's starting to come together.

I placed the floor on the frame to get an idea of what I'd need to trim. Just a little off.



Figured out what I needed to trim and boom. Floor now sits on the frame. Metal place was closed today so couldn't grab some sheet metal to build a tunnel. Should be able to tomorrow then it's a waiting game for the paint for my engine to arrive.

 

You can see here how bad the floor braces were. The rest of the floor was similar. The metal was so soft I could push on it with my fingers.



Here's the before picture.



And cut out! You can see all the **** stashed on the side. Hoping tomorrow to start putting the body down.

 

Big step. Finally it's a car again.

I rolled the frame underneath. Sketchy times. Will never use these plastic pieces of **** ever again.



Of course I had to lay it out and see how it sat.



You can see I'm pretty stoked haha.

 

Where did you order the floor pan from? Quality? Was deciding between a dull pan or piecing it together for mine.

Sent from my SM-G920V using H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Ordered it through chevs of the 40s. Quality is good, I was pretty impressed with it. Lined up with the factory bolt holes.

 

I threw the front clip on to see how it looked. I feel like I'm so close yet so far.



I started stripping the paint off the engine and trans. Paint stripper is great but really messy.



I started shaving the firewall. I did a test of some paint idea I had and did not like it. Probably going to go with a white rather than this "cream".

 

Looking good, keep after it.

 

Thanks. Trying to keep plugging away at it.

Still have a ton to go.

 

Feel like I haven't updated in forever.

I bought some skirts off a guy in Nebraska. They arrived and are excellent!

I started cutting **** out in order to start doing some repairs. You can see the toe pans I replaced as well.




I got tired of working on the car and wanted to make something pretty so I painted the engine.

Made a makeshift booth in the garage and got the thing in primer.


Then layed the paint down.


Here's a video.


I tacked in the front lower quarter and the rocker

 

Nice!!! Did I miss the one piece floor pan install? Any pics of that? Keep up the great work!

 

Good progress

 

It was actually pretty straight forward. I put it on the frame and bolted it down. Then I pushed it under the car and lowered the body over it.

It was tough to stop and take pics in between but it took a bit of m***aging and cutting **** out to get the body on. Mostly because I have a notch for the axle in the rear.

If it was a stock suspension car it would've been a breeze. The toughest part is making sure you cut enough of the old floor out to keep it from hanging up.

I used 2 engine hoists. One in front and one at the rear.