Customs Father Son Build: 1950 Chevy Fleetline Deluxe

Nice build, great to see some young blood with a interest in old cars.

 

Great build and you're doing it together.

Rear sway bars, they're surprisingly similar from one car to the next, if you're able to modify mounts etc. Time vs money tradeoff though.

For the rustoleum - a little enamel hardener goes a long way with the durability, adding a little acetone or naphtha helps it flow out as you brush. Valspar enamel hardener is very inexpensive. But any will work. Will have to mix each batch you're working with, pouring the hardener in the quart will cure it out in the can

Let's see some more.

 

Looks Good Matt! Eli is a lucky kid.

 

Just found this build and I really like it. Love these cars and one day I will have one.

--louis

 

Thanks. He is super excited and appreciates old stuff. Nice Jeepster! I am building one for my wife right now. Pulled from a storage in Austin where it sat for 20 plus years. Eli is sitting in it in the second picture.

 

Good idea on adding the sway bars. We were going to grab one for a 55 Chevy since that is the rear end we have and they make so many parts for decent prices. I will look into the hardner. Did not even think of that.

 

Thanks Chris. I'm a lucky guy. Eli is a good kid and we both enjoy time together. I am grateful for our time in the garage.

 

Nice. These cars have amazing body lines.

 

Lifetime memories being made......you’re both fortunate ..
Enjoying your build.

 

Been working slowly on Eli's 1950. Life has been getting in the way a bit...in-laws in town visiting and a bunch of other stuff. Still plugging away though. Got the off topic front suspension set up. We purchased the power brake and pedal assembly from Walton Fab. Super nice parts and happy so far with everything we purchased from them. These parts are huge time savers for us on this build.

Here's Eli painting the parts

 

We set a font fender on to make sure the wheel placement looked right. All of the measurements worked out and aligned from the original location.

 

@Thor1
Eli and I used the tool you sent us. We pulled the hood and started cleaning the fire wall up. Thank you again for sending this. we will find someone to pass it onto when we wrap up with it.



Eli had some buddies over last night that helped clean up the fire wall.

 

car looks great man, love seeing yall chip away at it!!

im sure youve figured this out by now but just incase you havent its been my experience that the firewall body mounts may need to be shaved a little.

also my experience was that posies springs with a 3" block ( 2 1.5" aluminum blocks welded together) would bang the axle on the frame pretty regularly. that was also running 6.70's which is a 29" tall tire if I remember correctly?

before you have a driveshaft made for it see if a stock tri 5 will fit. I had a saginaw 3speed in mine and a stock 57 chevy drive shaft bolted right in.

also I seem to recall having to notch my tunnel a little bit too.

 

Matt, I am glad they worked for you! You guys are doing a great job on the car. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Steve

 

Thanks for the encouragement and sharing lessons learned. We have Posie's springs with 2" blocks now. Need to check the clearances to the frame. Hopefully we don't need to notch the frame but sounds like we need to.

I heard if you run a mid 90's LT1 set of exhaust manifolds, you can avoid trimming the body mounts. We should have the motor mocked up in the next few weeks and will know for sure then.

 

@Thor1 Thanks for the encouragement. We are having fun and now have friends joining us for the past two weeks.

 

Just found your thread, and am loving it. I hope to do something like this with my son someday. It looks like it's been a while...any updates? That driver's license is just around the corner!

 

Yes, we have made lots of progress since last posting that is all off topic updates so no photos. We installed a mid 70's Jag front end, late model LT1 350 with OD auto trans. Its a roller which is cool. The stance is just right too!

We put the project on hold and bought a mid 90's Tahoe for his first car and plan to keep this one going at a slower pace. We are at the beginning phase of building a new home and shop so all but one old car projects ( my wife's 50 Jeepster) are on hold for one year. Once we dive back in, its brake line plumbing, electrical and then body/paint and upholstery. Honestly, I am kind of relieved he is not going to be driving a 73 year old car as a daily driver because people drive crazy out here. It will be a nice fun car to cruise around.